First meeting with the members of the Forward Advisory board (AB)

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