Upgraded Research and International Cooperation Centre, incl. report on the skills strengthened /acquired and on the new services offered

The aim of this deliverable is to strengthen the capacity of UMCS , in both attracting and managing EU grants in a successful way. This will be realized through a comprehensive training programme on this topics and a series of short term visits to the grant offices of both KUL and UNIMC. EUC, as task responsible, will be also in charge of elaborating the Report on the strengthened/acquired skills and on the new services offered. The training programme will comprise 3 workshops, webinars and a Summer camp on EU project and will focus both on EU project management and on EU project design. Target groups of the training on EU project design will be UMCS researchers, including ESRs and staff from the International Cooperation Centre and the Centre for Knowledge and Technology Transfer. Target groups of the training on EU project management will be only the UMCS staff in charge of supporting researchers in the management of funded proposals and writing proposals.More specifically, 3 workshops, lasting half day each, will be held in occasion of the project meetings. Then, starting from M4 to M36, a series of webinars for a total amount of 40 hours will be organized. Workshops and webinars will cover the following themes (in chronological order):•project management, incl. themes related to the sound management of EU funded projects with regard to financial, administrative, legal, reporting and ethical requirements of the European Commission;•EU funding opportunities, with special focus on the ICT and health sector; how to successfully participate at international networking events such as brokerage events;•project design: how to build the project partnership, the logical framework, tip and tricks, how to elaborate the budget, analysis of an application form.Lastly, an EU Project Summer Camp will be held, lasting 1 week, at UMCS in M30. This intensive training will provide a “hands on approach”. Indeed, participants will work on the preparation of an application form for a specific call for proposal, previously identified by the project partners, as a first instrument through which the Joint Research Roadmap (D1.5) will be actually implemented. 2 staff from the UMCS International Cooperation Centre will participate in 1 short term visit at KUL and UNIMC, lasting 1 week each, in order to learn how their grant offices are structured, how they cooperate with departments and which kind of service they offer. These visits will be implemented in the 2nd year of the project.