Support Offices
To transform the inter-institutional dynamics and strengthen R&I collaborations, EUTOPIA members consider it essential to have a better knowledge and alignment of the support services offered in each university’s R&I offices. With this in mind, EUTOPIA TRAIN designed a benchmarking survey consisting of four sections:
- General Information
- Strategies and Performance in R&I
- Support offices and Services
- Recommendations and priorities for future EUTOPIA support
The survey data analysed in this report appeared under 242 items of interest and indicators grouped in 73 separate questions with concrete instructions to ensure the sameness of the data and served to gather the most relevant information and ideas of closer cooperation to advance towards the creation of a shared EUTOPIA Grants, Legal and Innovation Office – GLENN.
The results show that EUTOPIA universities have a complex and heterogeneous structure of R&I services providing support to a broad research community from centralised and decentralised offices in various areas of expertise and that these services, combined with specific incentives actively support the achievement of high levels of participation and excellent performance reported by partners in R&I European funding schemes.
The best-established areas appeared in the three support services mentioned below (a, b, c), with dedicated experts employed by partners in the central/ central-delocalised offices and additional support services provided from decentralised units located in concrete faculties, departments or research groups:
- A. Preparation of research grant proposals (pre-award)
- B.Innovation and legal advice
- C. Grant and financial management (post-award)
Regarding best practices, training (e.g., grant writing courses, entrepreneurship training), review procedures, written guidelines, and information events (in the form of project start meetings, seminars or workshops) were among the activities and resources that partners valued most.
Regarding innovation and legal services, the individual and personalised mentoring provided by central support offices appeared as a success factor that facilitates business development, contract negotiation, tech commercialisation, drafting contracts and licenses, IPR and connecting with external partners.
In contrast, efforts and resources dedicated to providing support in the services that appear below (d, e) have unequal presence among universities or are still under development in most R&I central offices:
- D. Support in ethics and security issues
- E. Advice to integrate gender in R1I projects
EUTOPIA partners reported robust deployment in personal data protection, assistance in preparing documents for the ethics screening procedure, support for connecting with external ethics advisors (central offices liaise with internal and external ethics committees), and support in preparing ethics selfassessments.
However, support in security and gender issues is generally under-deployed at the central level, with the advice offered for designing the security issues table and integrating the gender dimension in research grant proposals highlighted as best practices. In contrast, improved review services, training activities and better resources are spotted as necessary to advance those services.
In terms of common challenges and future recommendations, priorities for the EUTOPIA support services offered by the six original members of the Alliance are related to the research and innovation funding (pre-award services), interconnection of local structures (staff exchange), training and development of personnel (researchers and support staff), sustainability of the Alliance (joint response), resources and digital tools (end-users), and new R&I support services in underdeveloped areas (i.e., gender).
To respond to those priorities, partners suggest three main lines of future collaboration articulated through GLENN:
- A.A shared strategy for engaging with the research community (end-users) that can be easily accommodated to the local structures and needs of each EUTOPIA university.
- B.Closer cooperation among R&I support office personnel, including better interconnection of local structures and staff training.
- C.Contribution to building a stronger and sustainable EUTOPIA Alliance, thus improving the communication flow and joint response.
Glenn Rapid Response Protocol
The GLENN Office purpose is to interconnect our universities’ research and innovation support offices to allow offering better services to the researchers (end-users), contributing to the development of EUTOPIA common agenda and, ultimately, strengthening the alliance. To respond to these objectives, a clear communication flow and joint response protocol should be established to consider joint application to R&I funding calls both under ordinary and extraordinary circumstances.
An action plan defined the concept, objectives and communication strategy to be activated, based on the GLENN officers’ suggestions.
Concept and objectives
EUTOPIA universities need smooth coordination among several institutions to respond together to common challenges and R&I funding opportunities. There are two types of joint response:
The Ordinary Response (OR) will be activated when there is a common interest in applying to a R&I funding call that is considered foreseen. A foreseen call is published by the funding entity following an ordinary procedure. It is expected to be announced and opened by the funding authority beforehand, and the potential applicants know about it long in advance. A clear example of a foreseen call would be those included in the biennial work programmes of the EU Framework Programme (e.g., MSCA-DN, ERC StG, Missions, etc.).
The Rapid Response (RR) will be activated under certain extraordinary circumstances, when EUTOPIA universities want to apply to a R&I funding call that is considered unforeseen.
An unforeseen call is published by the funding entity in short notice responding to an extraordinary situation. It is not expected to be opened by the funding authority beforehand, as it responds to a sudden change, and the potential applicants have very limited time to prepare until the call deadline. It does not include late reaction from researchers to foreseen calls. A clear example of an unforeseen call would be the extraordinary EU calls directed to face the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
In both cases, the idea of joint cooperation could come from different actors involved in the process, such as researchers that search additional partners within the alliance (bottomup approach), or EUTOPIA Boards that decide to apply for strategic reasons (top-down approach).