From October 8 to 10th, the first mutual learning event of the FORWARD project took place in Brussels at the Canary Island Brussels Office, gathering 22 representative of the members of the project consortium from 8 European outermost regions (OR). This meeting aimed at sharing knowledge and experiences among OR on the major obstacles and levers that influence their participation in the European Framework Programme (FP) for R&I, and at drafting a common vision and roadmap for a joint strategy to increase the participation of ORs in Framework programmes.
To turn the vision into a roadmap and capitalize on peer-learning, the participants discussed in small groups the main obstacles for an increased FP participation and collectively defined realistic & impactful levers that will be integrated in a common action plan for FORWARD and beyond.
The results of the mutual learning event will feed the final diagnosis of OR performance and the FORWARD joint strategy.
From the 8th to the 12th of February 2019 was organised the Island Biology international conference gathering 450 participants from all over the world in La Reunion. In parallel of this scientific conference supported by the Forward project, the partners met for a Steering Committee meeting and several preparation sessions for the coming up activities.
On the 8th of July an open-conference showcasing the Research capacities of the outermost regions was organised in the Regional Council. Around a hundred of international participants attended the conference and discovered key European projects carried out in outermost regions.
Several visits were also organised for the Forward partners who were able to connect with their homologues in La Réunion and discussed futures collaborations.
From the 12th to the 13th of February 2019 the consortium met in the Canary Islands for the kick off meeting of the Forward Project. The First Day was mainly dedicated to the presentation of the project partner institutions, with a reminder of the key objectives of the project.
The Second Day was marked by the telematic greetings from the European Commission represented by Stefan Weirs, Deputy Head of the Unit ‘Spreading Excellence and Widening Participation’ from the Directorate General for Research and Innovation. Then, the Internal project management and reporting principles were presented followed by a discussion between participants on the next steps and deadlines. The second day was closed with a workshop facilitated by NEXA to prepare the work that will be undertaken in WP2.
