The Forward Project

FORWARD is funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme : Grant agreement ID 824550

Boosting Research Excellence & Innovation Capacity in Outermost Regions

Overall objectives :

1. Improve ORs’ excellence in research and their innovation potential
2. Improve their participation in EU research and innovation funded projects
3. Link research activities with territorial development

Specific objectives:

• To map outermost regions’ ecosystems in research and innovation to underline strengths, weaknesses and potentials for growth for each OR;
• To identify actual and future fields of excellence and competitive advantages of the different regions and define emerging specialization areas for each OR and define ORs’ friendly topics in the future Framework Programmes;
• To characterize and objective barriers to ORs participation in H2020;
• To accompany the transformation and capacity building of each OR research and innovation ecosystem to better exploit these potentials, by improving their excellence and the mobilization of multiple kind of stakeholders (research organization, companies, public authorities and civil society organizations) through a quadruple helix approach;
• To support the formulation of participatory and research-based action plans with long-term perspective;
• To increase the regional, national, European and worldwide visibility and recognition of outermost regions research capacities and activities in their fields of specialization;
• To encourage the constitution of critical research mass in ORs through networking, exchanges and consortia with regional, national, European and global research centers;
• To design and experiment effective tools to overcome existing barriers and support the implication of ORs in Horizon 2020 and future framework;
• To foster socio-economic development of the European ORs through the quadruple helix approach;

To foster ORs geographical integration within the European Union and towards Third Countries.

FORWARD is organized in three logical phases:

• Regional diagnosis, comparative analysis and definition of local and joint strategies
• Building of capacities through thematic working groups, training, networking, consortium building
• Strengthening of the connection between research and policy making and ensuring sustainability and impacts of project results on a long term

FORWARD  is composed of eight workpackages:

Final deliverables

• D5.1 Report of networking and brokerage events
• D5.2  Report of the exchange of personnel
• D5.3 Report of the R&I outcomes

Final deliverables

• D6.1  Recommendations for future RIS3 strategies
• D6.2 Guidelines and recommendations for future EU policies on ORs
• D6.3 Sustainability Plan
• D6.4 Report on events for policy-making

Final deliverables

• D7.1 Common monitoring and evaluation system and database of monitoring indicators
• D7.2 Implementation monitoring, evaluation and performance reports

Final deliverables

• D8.1 Visual identity and promotional material
• D8.2 Project website and online platform
• D8.3 Videos
• D8.4 Brand for OR research
• D8.5 Three conferences Reports

Here’s our 24 partners of the consortium :