The University of Coimbra (UC), Portugal, is a comprehensive university with ten faculties and 38 research centers (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 centers are a Portuguese and international reference in the production of science, covering a wide range of areas of knowledge. Strategically, to stimulate an interdisciplinary research approach within the University, and boost the development of new knowledge by responding to complex scientific issues and societal challenges, a pre-award team of five research managers (RM) was brought to implementation in 2020. Each team member is dedicated to supporting and enhancing one interdisciplinary thematic research area by addressing the following objectives: (i) Identify, disseminate and promote opportunities for competitive funding, namely Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 from the Horizon Europe programme, which are particularly relevant for the research developed at the UC; (ii) promote interdisciplinary approaches able to respond to societal challenges in alignment with Horizon Europe priorities at the UC; (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 installed in the research centers ("R&D Units") of the University of Coimbra. During the early career team's initial steps, it became clear that these ambitious objectives would only be fully attained if this recently created pre-award team worked together and closely with the different UC structures. In the implementation of their work, the team collaborates with the Rectory, administration, LEAR, applications and project management offices, science communication team and last but not least, the research managers of the different research centers of the University. In this session, we will share the support designed (training sessions, materials, meetings) for RM in the improvement in the participation in R&I European projects and in promoting talent attraction in emerging areas, particularly for increased participation in the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) work-programme. In addition, we will discuss the challenges and added value of the involvement and training of a diverse group of RM in terms of role and work plan, background and dimension of research centers, and commitment to this profession. With this presentation, we aim to generate insights that may contribute to the discussion on the needed hands-on training for the professional development of Research Managers and Administrators.
