Abstract

The University of Coimbra (UC) is a comprehensive university with ten faculties and 38 research centres (R&D units) distributed by the fields of Arts and Humanities; Social, Exact and Natural Sciences; and Engineering and Technologies. The UC and its research facilities are a well-known name in science production in Portugal and around the world, spanning a wide range of research areas. UC was one of the Portuguese organisations with the most funding raised in H2020, mainly in projects on health sciences, followed by the areas of development technologies and industrial leadership.

In 2020, a pre-award research management (RM) team was established before the start of EU’s ninth Framework Programme for Research and Innovation – Horizon Europe, to further boost the success rate in competitive research funding, strengthen the scientific excellence and impact across society, as well as enhance UC international visibility. This RM team has five members with research-based experience aiming to gather critical mass and installed skills for the development of research of excellence, based on the ability of the R&D Units of the UC.

Each team member was dedicated to supporting and enhancing one interdisciplinary thematic research area, out of five Strategic Areas appointed by rectoral decision, with the following objectives:(i) Identify, disseminate and promote opportunities for competitive funding, namely Horizon Europe Pillar 1 and Pillar 2; (ii) promote interdisciplinary approaches to respond to societal challenges in alignment with Horizon Europe; (iii) research, prepare and organize reference/European applications; iv) map, update, and warrant the national and international visibility of the scientific, technological and critical thinking capacity of the UC research centres.

The initial steps of the early career team set on the extreme need for close collaboration with the other UC entities such as administration, LEAR, and RM of UC research centres, to successfully achieve the above-mentioned lofty goals. The consecutive enhancement of UC in success rate and science excellence validated the internal establishment of the Strategic Areas and the team was included in the Administration’s Research support service. The unit now depends directly on the rectorship with the following complementary objectives:

a) Stimulating scientific activity, strengthening the presence in scientific networks and international consortia, and reinforcing external funding under the leadership of the UC;

b) Stimulate training in Open Access, Data Management, and impact and public engagement policies and strategies, particularly among project teams.

With four years of experience, we take this chance to reflect on the successes and challenges associated with the implementation of the Strategic Areas team at UC. We aim to generate insights to the discussion of the organizations of RM teams, stressing the need for constant hands-on training for the professional development of RMA and researchers.

In this session, we will share the results and impacts of the support and initiatives developed by the Strategic Areas team to improve the participation of the university in R&I European projects and in promoting talent attraction in emerging areas, particularly for increased participation in the MSCA Actions, ERC, Widening Programme and Horizon Europe Clusters.