Abstract

This session aims to shine light on how the “general” strategic MoUs between universities could be used to accelerate joint grant capture and how RMA’s can facilitate research collaboration between partnership institutions.

Radboud University and the University of Glasgow have entered a strategic partnership in 2018. The goal of this partnership is to invest jointly in world-class research and enhance learning and teaching practices. These partnerships are made at a high level, with an expectation they will increase research collaboration, with RMAs expected to deliver on much of that increased activity. It is important to investigate how these strategic alliances between universities can be used to foster collaboration between researchers in European calls and projects.

During this session, the speakers will share experiences about the joint collaboration funds and how these can be used to enable researchers to expand their network and collaborate at international level. They will also look into the added value that these strategic partnerships can offer to for grant support and internationalization officers and how RMA’s can use the instruments available by these partnerships to stimulate structural collaboration and potential success in Horizon Europe. The session will also consider the steps an RMA need to take in order to be in a position to support and exploit the collaboration.

In the second part of the session, the public is asked to join in discussions around several questions:
- Should RMA’s be more involved in setting up strategic, institutionalized partnerships?
- How can RMA’s embed institutional partnerships structurally into the grant support process/ research support process?
- How can RMA’s bring existing strategic partnerships to a next level of research collaboration?
- How can RMA's facilitate the successful use of these partnerships within their organization, bottom-up?
- In what way can funding and support be used to establish lasting cooperation , if the collaboration relies so much on researchers?
- How important should the research aspect be for any institution setting up a partnership?

Learning outcomes:
Participants will have gained knowledge about the best practices concerning the strategic partnerships of Radboud University/ University of Glasgow and have had the opportunity to share their views and join the discussion on how to improve the current practices.
The session will give the listeners ideas on how to take their university’s strategic partners and embed cooperation with these partners in the RMA and grant support processes and how to position research needs internally to help guide colleagues working on new partnership agreements.