Horizon Europe’s Widening programme presents an opportunity for the countries which are catching up in the area of research and innovation to be mentored by internationally leading partners of their choice, receive a transfer of knowledge and best practices, and engage in joint research cooperation with their advanced counterparts. In Horizon Europe, this programme includes several Widening instruments, giving particularly interesting funding opportunities for institutional improvement in a country like Portugal. The broad scope of topics for funding in the programme presents an interesting ‘twist’ among the thematic priorities of EU framework programmes, which requires knowledge of the work programme, cross-cutting themes, smart specialization strategies, cohesion policies, and research and innovation performance of the EU countries. Furthermore, it is a programme that can provide science managers with hands-on experience, supporting researchers and research units. In this presentation, we will focus on the approach developed by the University of Coimbra to engage in the "ERA chairs" calls. ERA Chairs action aim is to attract in a sustainable manner outstanding scientists and innovators to universities or research organizations in Widening countries. The UC is a comprehensive university with ten Faculties and 38 research units (R&D) distributed in the fields of Biomedicine, Arts and Humanities; Social, Exact and Natural Sciences; and Engineering and Technologies. One of the Faculties is the Institute of Interdisciplinary Research (III-UC) which fosters fertile crossroads between areas of knowledge to ensure the capacity for international affirmation of the UC's scientific pathway. The III-UC gives direct support to the R&D units enhancing UC's participation in the international scientific landscape and promoting excellence in research and interdisciplinarity. The development of human resources and building knowledge capital were the main UC goals, enhancing brain circulation, excellence, innovative practices and mechanisms to facilitate networking, cross-border learning, and sharing of knowledge amongst individuals and the institution. The particular investment in the ERA chair call of 2022 resulted directly from the strategic vision of the UC rectorship, strongly committed to stimulating science and the international visibility of UC research. In the case of the ERA chair call, this vision is based on a threefold approach: direct intervention of the rectorship in all critical phases of negotiation and implementation of strategic decisions; articulation and collaboration within the internal services of the UC, and the National Contact Points; and direct support to the researchers involved in the project design. This support is based on permanent and direct contact with the project Principal investigator, the internal organization of specific meetings dedicated to highlighting the specificities of the call, the dissemination of all the European and national support documents and info sessions, the internal design of support instruments and guidelines, and the technical review of the proposals. In this presentation, we will discuss the obtained results, and the strengths of such an approach, and reflect on strategy for the following years taking into consideration the research needs in a widening country.
