On March 26 and 27, 2024, Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Germanic Philology and Translation of the National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”, External Communications Coordinator at Eurodoc, member of the Expert Council of Young Scientists at the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine Anna Pavelieva successfully completed a two-day training course on writing “Horizon Europe” projects called “Training Course for Newcomers to Horizon Europe”, organised and lectured by Dr Seán McCarthy and Sylvia McCarthy.
Dr Seán McCarthy has been involved in all aspects of European research since 1980. He has worked as a researcher, supervisor, research team leader and company director. Today, he specialises in helping organisations develop and implement European research strategies.
In 2017, the European Commission published a list of the top 100 universities and research organisations participating in the “Horizon 2020” programme. Dr McCarthy has delivered training courses at 74 of these 100 universities and research organisations.
Since 1995, more than 80,000 participants have attended his courses in 29 countries. He has delivered training courses on the Framework in more than 290 research centres across Europe.
Sylvia McCarthy – Policy Analyst (“Horizon Europe” and “Horizon 2020”), Hyperion Ltd, specialises in developing training courses to help researchers and research organisations develop their European research strategies. She monitors EU policies related to the “Horizon Europe” programme, delivers training modules (over 5400 researchers and support staff in 120 different universities and research centres have completed the course modules), advises on how to write about EU social policy impact (Pillar II topics), on Pillar II topics (proposal analysis), and gives presentations at European conferences.
Seán and Sylvia gave a brief overview of various EU grant programmes (“Horizon Europe”, “InvestEU”, “Erasmus Plus”, “Digital Europe”, “Creative Europe”, “Marie Curie Actions”, etc.) and explained the specifics of project writing, application, as well as the aims and objectives of these programmes.
After that, the lecturers described how to register on the “Funding and Tender Opportunities” portal, how to find the necessary project topics, partners, information on project preparation and submission, etc.
The “Horizon Europe” programme supports research and innovation areas such as advanced science, global challenges and industrial competitiveness, innovative Europe, as well as broadening participation and strengthening the European Research Area. An agreement was signed on Ukraine’s participation in the “Horizon Europe” Framework Programme for Research and Innovation as well as the European Atomic Energy Community Research and Training Programme (2021-2025), complementary to the European Union’s Framework Programme for Research and Innovation “Horizon Europe” for the period 2021-2027.
The total budget of “Horizon Europe” is €95.5 billion, which is about 20% more than the previous “Horizon 2020” research programme. The European Commission has developed its proposals for “Horizon Europe” based on the interim results of “Horizon 2020”. The general approach to the Horizon Europe programme, its purpose, objectives and structure are outlined in a presentation on the European Commission’s website in 23 languages.
The training covered four areas and 15 components of the European Union’s “Horizon Europe” Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (“Horizon Europe” Programme). In particular, Pillar I “Advanced Science” (European Research Council, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, Research Infrastructures), Pillar II “Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness” (Clusters “Health”, “Culture”, “Creativity and Inclusive Society”, “Civil Security for Society”, “Digitalisation, Industry and Space”, “Climate, Energy and Mobility”, “Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment”, Joint Research Centre); Pillar III “Innovative Europe” (European Innovation Council, European Institute of Innovation and Technology, European Innovation Ecosystems).
Much attention was paid to finding partners and forming a consortium, the role of consortium members in different work packages, where to get ideas for projects, the specifics of preparing projects under the Marie Curie Actions and COST Actions programmes, the EURAXESS programme, EU laws and regulations that should be taken into account when writing projects, sustainable development goals in such projects, preparation of mission reports, project evaluation and assessment, as well as selection criteria.
When writing a project, the lecturers gave advice on the correct selection of relevant project participants and implementers as well as advised, first of all, to clearly define what specific problem the project aims to solve, how it relates to EU policy, whether this problem has been addressed before, and, if so, what your project will bring to the table and why it should be funded.
Recently, Poltava Polytechnic scientist Anna Pavelieva completed the training “Effective Presentation Skills” by the US Peace Corps in Ukraine, took part in open science workshops in the Netherlands and Belgium, visited Washington, DC as part of the “Open World” programme and got acquainted with American higher education by visiting one of the local communities, visited one of the leading universities in Florida, visited Embry-Riddle University, a private aviation university also known as the “The Harvard of the Skies”, and visited Everglades University, a private university; shared with foreign colleagues successful cases of student academic mobility in times of war; attended three scientific events in Prague on research evaluation and research grants; presented Eurodoc’s Women in Science campaign at an international conference on the implementation of the Istanbul Convention; participated in a workshop on European education policies in Brussels; and presented opportunities for science and learning in times of war at the Eurodoc conference in Sweden.
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