The University of French Guiana is organising multiple training sessions for their researchers within the framework of the FORWARD project.

1st, 4th and 8th June 2021: A webinar about managing H2020 projects with two main objectives:

  • Managing administrative and financial aspects of H2020 contracts;
  • Preventing financial recoveries in case of audit.

17th – 22nd June 2021: A webinar about administrative and financial aspects in Horizon Europe, whose key objective are:

  • Providing advice on how to draft Horizon Europe proposals;
  • Giving keys elements on how to set up a Horizon Europe project budget.

This training will also provide participants with enhanced skills for:

  • Improved use of the «Funding & Tender Opportunities» portal;
  • Collaborative projects, single beneficiaries and financing tools;
  • Project preparation including submission, eligibility conditions, and evaluation approach.

Initiated under Horizon 2020, the “Widening participation and spreading Excellence” programme aims at boosting the R&I systems in widening countries, fostering their participation in the FP and facilitating collaborative links all across EU. This programme is now open to outermost regions which are eligible for coordinators, offering new opportunities for La Reunion.

To raise awareness of the regional stakeholders about the Widening tools, Nexa, the regional Agency for Development, Innovation and Investment of La Reunion, organised an online workshop on the 19th May 2021.

Opened by Paula Duarte-Gaspar, Head of Outermost regions’s Unit in the DG for Regional policies at the European Commission, the seminar provided key elements to the local researchers and policy advisors with presentations from a panel of experts:

  • Kalina Esmein, from the “institut français d’Autriche”, NCP Widening;
  • Jean Sciare, Director of the Climate & Atmosphere Research Center at the Cyprus Institute, coordinating a TEAMING project;
  • Ewa Domke, Deputy Director for International cooperation and project administration at The Institute of Fluid Machinery Polish Academy, coordinating a Twinning project;
  • Bernie O’Rourke, Professor of Sociolinguistics at the University of Glasgow, Chair of a Cost Action.

The R&I local community is now working on a strategic plan to exploit the Widening opportunities with the help of Nexa’s Europe Office Team.

Within the FORWARD project the regional Agency for Development, Innovation and Investment of La Reunion (NEXA) organised a live e-course on how to exploit Horizon Europe as a beginner.

The course shared good practices and a new vision on European programmes.

Nikolaos Floratos, a trainer active in European training industry for more than 20 years, shared his knowledge with the participants in 2 steps:

  1. Start thinking and acting like a champion in Horizon Europe;
  2. Master public information related to Horizon Europe to your advantage.

The webinar welcomed more than 35 participants from all the Outermost regions and partners of the FORWARD project. Participants are now being contacted by Nexa’s Europe Office Team* to turn the acquired knowledge into actions!

 

*Nexa’s Europe Office is a regional mutualized support programme which connects regional stakeholders with the most dynamics Research & Innovation networks at EU level. To do so, the team of 3 people specialized in European projects:

  • Coach and train researchers and entrepreneurs to get the habits of the best;
  • Help the Research&Innovation organizations to design their institutional strategy for Europe;
  • Develop marketing and lobbying activities to increase the reputation of the regional Research and Innovation Ecosystem in the RIS3 domains;
  • Develop strategic partnerships at political level to include Outermost region Research issues in the work programmes or in EU partnerships;
  • Support the building of competitive projects from the identification of calls and the partner search step till the submission and negotiation.

The Instituto Tecnológico de Canarias organizes this training program, within the FORWARD project and supported by the Enterprise Europe Network in the Canary Islands.

Objective:

To advise companies and provide them with the tools to so that they can go with the greatest advantages to this funding and inform them about the most relevant “Open Calls” for each project.

Description and methodology:

We have designed a training program adapted to the reality and characteristics of Canary Islands companies and organizations so that, depending on their possibilities and availability of resources, they can access the different “Open Calls”.

The training program will be delivered by experts in European R&D+i programs and will be implemented in four sessions:

  1. Session 1. What is cascade funding? Introduction to cascade funding and “Open Calls” including practical examples. May 13, 2021 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. (GMT)
  2. Session 2. “Open Calls” training course. Search and selection mechanisms for “Open Calls”. Common formats, approach and contents. Preparation of winning proposals and justification of projects. May 18 and 19, 2021 9:30-11:30 a.m. (GMT)
  3. Session 3. Networking for the presentation of proposals to “Open Calls”. Creation of working groups to prepare specific proposals for specific calls. Work will be done in small groups by topic of interest. May 25, 2021 9:30-11:30 a.m. (GMT)
  4. Session 4. Workshop and advice for the presentation of proposals to “Open Calls”. Participants will follow a workshop and will work in a guided way for two weeks to prepare their own proposals. May 26 and June 2, 2021. 9:30-11:30 a.m. (GMT)

Access to the program: https://bit.ly/33dfasL

Registration: https://bit.ly/3nJlEJb

The training will be delivered in Spanish.

The Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN), in collaboration with the Canarian Agency for Research, Innovation and Information Society (ACIISI) organize a workshop within the scope of two EU-funded projects: “MUSICA – Multiple-use-of Space for Island Clean Autonomy” and “Forward-Fostering Research Excellence in EU Outermost Regions“. On the one hand, the MUSICA project will provide a full suite of Blue Growth solutions for a small island including three forms of renewable energy (RE): wind, Photovoltaic (PV) and wave, innovative energy storage systems on the MUP, smart energy system for the island, desalinated water and green support services for island’s aquaculture. On the other hand, the Forward project intends to improve ORs’ excellence in research and innovation potential, supporting their participation in such EU-funded projects and helping to connect research activities with development in these areas.

The project will analyse research and innovation ecosystems and, relying on the results, will implement tailored actions.

This workshop will be held on March 24th, from 09.30 a.m. to 14.00 p.m. UTC (Canary Time) and will count on key agents of the value chain (industry, academia, regulation and community), with the aim of analyzing synergies and opportunities to combine offshore aquaculture with different forms of marine renewable energies.

When: 24th March 2021. From 09.30 a.m. to 14.00 p.m. UTC (Canary islands local time).

Register here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_s3SSsfLuSsi1SWhwAfhKgg

Limited capacity. Registration will be on a first-come basis.

Once registered, you will receive a confirmation mail to join the workshop.

The Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN) coordinates the delivery of 3 training courses of 2 hours each within the framework of the “FORWARD (Fostering Research excellence in the Outermost Regions)” project. FORWARD aims to increase the participation in European projects of the entities established in the ORs.

The three training courses will take place online on February 17, 18 and 19, 2021 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (WET – estimated time) by “La Palma Research Centre” and will be held in Spanish.

Registration, which includes the three training courses, is free and it should be done through the form available here. It will be opened until 12 February 2021 and be aware that the number of participants is limited.

Training program:

1.Funding Opportunities for Advanced TRLs (TRL6-9) – 17 February (3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m)

  • Types of projects (FP, FEDER, Interreg, etc)
  • “EITs – European Innovation Institutes” and their opportunities by sectors
  • Common mistakes and lessons learned
  • Success story – invited coordinator

2. Preparing Proposals for European Projects – 18 February (3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m)

  • Horizon 2020 vs. Horizon Europe
  • Parts of a proposal and partnerships
  • Common mistakes and lessons learned
  • Success story – invited coordinator

3. European project management – 19 February (3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m)

  • What does it mean to win a European project?
  • Types of partner (partner, coordinator, linked-third-parties)
  • Reports and time management template
  • Common mistakes and lessons learned
  • Success story – invited coordinator

During the last WP4* Technical meeting of 15th october 2020, each Outermost Region presented their needs regarding trainings to increase their capacities to answer to European Framework Programs  / H2020 calls

Led by Azores, the WP4 leader will support each OR in the implementation of their action plan.

After identifying their needs in trainings, the next step is to connect OR through synergies, in order to reinforce their capacities and strenghten collaboratives actions.

Therefore, a regional coordinator was designated per OR.

The WP4 leader defined the target areas for capacity building with the presentation of :

  • Forward skills (management in innovation, identification of calls) ;
  • EU funding (Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe, Life +, Best, Regional European funds);
  • Human ressources capacities (financial management, training in specfic areas, network building)

*WP4 : Workpackage 4 of the Forward project “capacity building and training activities”

The first online meeting with the AB took place on october 22. The overall objective was to present the progress of Forward project.

What is the role of the AB ?

The AB has to :

  • Give critical reviews on the outcomes and impacts of the project
  • Provide advices and recommendations on the activities carried out
  • Disseminate information to the scientific community

Morever, the main outcomes of the Forward Packages were presented.

With a high participation of the AB members, it was a very successful session. They were satisfied with the presentations and reiterated their will to contribute to the good proceedings of the project.

The main recommendations, among others, were :

  • To include the AB more in the project ;
  • For WP3 : ensuring the sustainability of the thematic working groups is highly advised ;
  • For WP4 : organize summer courses on how to manage a project, for instance ;
  • To use more lobbying activities.

Forward is a concrete opportunity for collaboration and networking among Ors institutions, representing the quadruple helix (university, business, government and civil society).

To summarize Forward in numbers :

  • 9 Ors and 24 partners
  • 3 years project (jan 2019 – dec 2021)
  • 4.2 million euros budget
  • 9 work packages
  • 28 deliverables and 9 milestones

Some of the objectives of the project :

  • To map outermost regions’ ecosystems in research and innovation to underline strenghs, weaknesses and potentials for growth for each OR ; Linked to WP2
  • To identify actual and future fields of excellence and competitive advantages of the different regions and define emerging specializations areas for each OR and define Ors’ friendly topics in the future Framework Programmes ; Linked to WP2
  • To characterize and objective barriers to Ors participation in H2020 ; Linked to WP2

Some of the main outcomes/ delivrables of the project :

  • An exhaustive mapping of OR regional innovation systems, valorized through the Forward platform
  • An objectived evaluation of the performance of each egion in terms of Framework Programmes participation
  • A detailed analyzis of the determinants influencing such participation
  • A joint strategy and 9 regional action plans to reinforce OR position in the future Horizon Europe

 

The GSTC 2019 Global Sustainable Tourism Conference “Navigating the Way Forward” that took place on December 4th-7th in Terceira Island, the Azores, brought together 250 delegates from 42 countries, along with hundreds of viewers that watched the live broadcasting of the conference.

The opening ceremony celebrated the Azores as the first archipelago to be certified as a sustainable destination by EarthCheck. “It is with great proud that today we can say that the Azores are certified as a sustainable tourist destination,” said Ms. Marta Guerreiro , Regional Secretary of Energy, Environment and Tourism (in the photo below). “We are the first and only archipelago in the world to have this certification. We are the only region in Portugal with this certification. It was 2 years of hard work, not always visible, and dedication to fulfill a commitment to certify the Azores as a sustainable tourist destination.”

The GSTC Annual Congress is one of the largest international events on sustainable development and brings together many countries at a time of sharing, debate and reflection, not only on this issue at international level, but especially at regional and national level and in this case, taking into account the certification process of the Azores as a Sustainable Tourist Destination, a distinction granted by the certification entity EarthCheck.

The Conference themes were: (A) Sustainable Destination Management; (B) Market Opportunities and Challenges for Sustainable Products; and (C) Tourism Response to Climate Change.

The Global Sustainable Tourism Council is an independent and neutral non-governmental organization that brings together United Nations agencies, NGOs, national and regional governments, DMCs, hotels, tour operators, people and communities striving to achieve sustainable tourism best practices.