Abstract

Eurac Research is a research center with 11 Institutes and 5 interdisciplinary Centers where applied research is performed in the fields of health, environment, sustainable energy, and political and social systems. The 400 researchers are only partially supported by basic funds; therefore, they are asked to apply for grants, being they experienced in 3rd party funding or not. In this context, the Research Support Office plays a major role.
In the Eurac Research ecosystem, the strategy implemented by RSO is to overcome the barrier of mere administrative tasks thus providing a range of information and services based on a different penetration in the project preparation, depending on (i) the role the researcher has in the project (coordinator/partner); (ii) the experience of the researcher and his/her personality; (iii) the time planning.
Such an approach conveys a matrix crossing the above-mentioned variables with a wide range of issues such as: (i) contextualization and insight (information on EU policies, Work Programme, previous calls, etc.), (ii) interdisciplinarity (having RSO an overview also on other projects/topics/approaches), (iii) “out of the box” ideas (given that RSO members are often graduated not in the same specific area of the supported researcher) and, last but not least, (iv) long-lasting experience on project drafting by RSO members, not only supporting the project strategy and content, but also assisting in using a proper writing style and structure.
What makes a Research Support Office efficient or innovative in our research environment is, on the one hand, to solve all the administrative and procedural issues of the proposal, not forgetting the management of the partners, allowing the researcher to fully devote to the project writing; on the other hand, providing a wide range of information, including both technicalities and soft skills, to enable the submission of an effective and satisfying project proposal.
Our goal as Research Support Office is not only to increase the success rate of our projects, especially those coordinated where RSO plays a major role, but also, and most importantly, to contribute to the growth of our researchers, in both terms of ability when approaching a grant call, and self-confidence in being also a valuable project manager.