Abstract

Early 2020, Ghent University (UGent) restructured its internal RMA services regarding European projects and funding. In accordance with UGent’s new incentive policy, specialized pre- and post-award teams were created. Instead of granting UGent EU project coordinators a financial top-up for the administration of their EU project, this top-up was now replaced by a central post-award team of RMA EU project managers who offer advice, support, or fully takeover the administrative coordination of Horizon Europe projects.
Since, the central post-award team of six “EU-projectmanagers” centralizes accumulated expertise on Horizon Europe projects, thereby preventing the loss of experience at the conclusion of a project .

Currently, the portfolio of the RMA post-award team encompasses 27 European projects: two H2020 projects, 17 Horizon Europe projects with full support, and eight Horizon Europe projects in which we offer advice and support to decentralized project managers and/or their management consultants. .

During the initial startup phase, the post-award team primarily focused on developing a general project management roadmap and creating template documents and specified guidelines. Over time, we have gained individual project experience, regularly sharing insights into innovations and challenges. Additionally, our project managers team closely collaborates with colleagues involved in pre-award advice and financial follow-up.

This presentation reflects on the past three years, specifically highlighting our experiences in collaborative teamwork, communicating as central RMA officers with decentral scientific project leaders, navigating new regulatory challenges, managing diverse projects, and addressing occasional difficult situations and decisions.

We aim to share with our RMA colleagues across Europe our insights, good practices, traps and struggles, and engage in a discussion about best practices for our future endeavors.