Abstract

Participation of Widening countries in EU programmes is still low, as shown by the latest statistics (just over 5% participation in H2020, 8% in Horizon Europe[1]). ]. Improving their participation level is crucial to Europe since it is proven that research teams’ diversity of origins (including through collaborations) improves the quality of research outputs[2]; and that societal and economic impacts of research can faster percolate in widening countries[3]. Programmes fostering researchers and research-performing institutions’ participation exist –mainly through the Widening initiatives— however, little is provided to support networks of RMAs. International networks of RMAs are needed to upskill Widening countries staff and allow them to foster their researchers’ participation in EU research programmes.
But how to achieve it? One possibility is through the CSA-Twinning schemes. This scheme allows close cooperation between a limited number of institutions towards a single goal: empowering a research institution in the consolidation of a scientific area in one of the Widening countries and also in research management capacity building. This allows the creation of local centres of excellence as well as setting-up RMA skill-up roadmaps and institutional strategy development. In this session, we will provide experience feedback relative to the ongoing cooperation, in the frame of the twinning project OLISSIPO, between the EU project departments of INESC-ID (Lisbon, Portugal, the coordinator) and Inria (Lyon, France, one of the partners). In particular, we will focus on reporting best practices for RMA’s capacity building by training and mentoring activities and strategic planning. Additionally, we will monitor an attempt to prepare the submission of a joint project by INESC-ID, Inria and Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) the School of Science, Engineering, Architecture and Technology of Lisbon University.
To multiply the impact of the session, presentations will be kept to half the session duration at most. Following this, interactive ‘speed-twinning’ meetings will be organised between the participants (coupling participants from Widening and non-Widening countries) where each side will describe in one minute their needs (for widening) and their possible expertise input (non-widening). To this effect, we invite attendees from all countries to participate in this session.
As a take-away message, we will stress that well-organized research support systems available at all institutions across Europe, including Widening countries, can contribute to improve research performance of organisations and of the European Research Area as a whole, thus maximising impact in response to our global societal challenges.

[1] Science | Business, What’s the deal with Horizon Europe Widening?, 7 sept 2022, https://sciencebusiness.net/widening/news/whats-deal-horizon-europe-widening
[2] Liao, C. H. (2011). How to improve research quality? Examining the impacts of collaboration intensity and member diversity in collaboration networks, Scientometrics, 86(3), 747-761.
[3] EU Innovation Scoreboard 2021, doi:10.2873/725879

Participants:
Matthieu Py, EU funding specialist, INRIA centres of Lyon and Grenoble. Former EURAXESS Japan & Korea representative. PhD in material physics in 2008 from the French research institute CEA.
Marta Candeias, EU funding advisor, IST, Univ. Lisbon, coordinator of Pre-Award officers network, IST-ID. Former FP7, H2020 and HEU PT NCP, PhD student in Technology Assessment in FCTUNL.
Claudia Vieira, Innovation Management Office Head – European projects, INESC-ID. Former policy officer at European Commission. PhD in Developmental Biology from the Lisbon Faculty of Science.
Sara Tanqueiro, Project Manager, INESC-ID. Former researcher at iMM – João Lobo Antunes. PhD in Biomedical Sciences, speciality in Neurosciences, from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon.