Unite! (https://www.unite-university.eu/) is a European University Alliance created in 2019 under the European University initiative of the European Commission. It involves 9 universities - from Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden- sharing a common vision towards regional embeddedness, technology transfer and education in engineering and science, with complementary multidisciplinary approaches. Within the EU funded Unite!H2020 project the Alliance has been developing since January 2020 a shared, integrated, long-term R&I strategy through the implementation of several pilots that will help the institutional transformation of the universities. One of the pilots consists of a network of Research Support Officers providing Integrated Research and Innovation Support Services (IRIS network). The IRIS network was created in July 2022. Its core group is composed of people working mainly at central research support offices of each partner university, but connections are being developed with technology transfer officers, human resources managers, research infrastructure managers, research communication and engagement officers. IRIS is meant to enhance the international and multidisciplinary collaborative research within the Alliance members and with other Alliances. IRIS network pilot has two main objectives: 1) to Support the R&I Alliance’ sustainability 2) to Strengthen the competencies of professionals in research support. To reach these objectives the IRIS network developed a set of targeted support services to be provided to three target groups: • the Unite!alliance as a whole, to support to the R&I strategies for its sustainability (i.e. support for strategic calls for proposals) • the Unite! researchers: to ensure matchmaking between researchers with the help of IT tools (i.e. matchmaking and call for partners) • the Unite! research managers and administrators (RMAS): to strengthen the competencies of the research support staff (i.e. promoting specialized training for RMAs).
Outputs of the IRIS network expected in December 2023 pilot are: • A list of R&I services for Unite • An IRIS Professional Training Plan IRIS is envisioned to become a single point of contact for R&I issues related to the Unite! Alliance, promoting collaborative research across the Unite! members. By connecting and training research support staff, IRIS will not only raise the quality of research support services at each partner university, but also strengthen the sustainability of the Alliance. The IRIS network will continue its activities within the new project of the Unite! Alliance (Unite.Widening), just funded under the Horizon Europe Widera call, that will run from 2024 to 2028. IRIS will implement the activities started during the pilot phase and will develop new initiatives to the benefit of the widening countries involved in the Unite.Widening project (Portugal and Poland). The presentation will give an overview of the IRIS network creation: the pilot objectives, the phases and the methodology adopted, the lesson learned and the planned future activities to the benefit of the widening countries.
