The event was aimed at preparing the employees of project support offices and academic staff of CESAER Members to participating in the new generation of the EU programmes: Horizon Europe and Erasmus as well as the exchange of experience and good practices. The conference was attended by over 250 participants.

Participants of the “CESAER Professional Week” were welcomed by the Rector of Warsaw University of Technology Professor Krzysztof Zaremba. "It is worth noting that the conference takes place at a very important moment of launching the new EU funding programmes for research, education and innovation for the next seven years", emphasized the Rector. In December 2020, the European Council agreed the long-term budget for 2021–2027, the largest EU budget in the history which covers two programmes crucial to science and higher education: Horizon Europe and Erasmus. The Rector stressed the importance of the “European Universities” programme and the participation of Warsaw University of Technology in the ENHANCE consortium for education, research and internationalization of the University. In addition, he presented the activities undertaken under the Excellence Initiative – Research University programme. “Internationalization of studies and research has always been one of the most significant elements of our University’s strategy", he emphasized.

Over three days, more than 250 representatives of universities belonging to CESAER took part in six workshops:

• Master Class 1: Model grant agreement for Horizon Europe

 The presentation covered grant agreement in the Horizon Europe programme. The speakers from the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation presented the model agreement which is being prepared and which will be binding for all EU funded projects. According to the representatives of the Project Service Center of Warsaw University of Technology, information on the most important changes to the model agreement in comparison to the previous Horizon 2020 programme was very useful. These changes concerned, among other things, open access, data management, payment of salaries, reporting of receipts, internal invoices and use of project results.

• Master Class 2: Novelties in Erasmus

During the session, the representative of the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture discussed the main points of the Erasmus+ programme. The representatives of the Centre for International Cooperation taking part in the meeting welcomed the plan of continuing the digital implementation of the programme, important to the development of the Green Europe.

• Master Class 3: Boost institutional success rate in the European Research Council

During the session on projects financed by the European Research Council, the speaker from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (University of Technology in Haifa) presented the strategy for recruitment and creating the best possible conditions for researchers in Israel. In total, researchers from the Technion obtained 65 ERC grants. The main objective of the university’s strategy is conducting research at the highest international standards. According to the survey carried out among the participants of the meeting, 58% of institutions implement strategies of attracting talented researchers. The speaker from the Yellow Research company presented the important role of research support offices and cooperation with external experts in obtaining ERC grants ensure that researchers have a comprehensive support in preparing applications to the European Research Council.

• Master Class 4: Boost institutional success rate in Erasmus

Workshops focused on issues related to increasing the success rate by universities applying for co-financing in different actions of the Erasmus programme. During the session, the representatives of Ghent University and Dresden University of Technology shared their good practices in the implementation of partner and mobility programmes as well as observations on the positive impact of the pandemic situation on the development of electronic systems of project management. The representative of Dresden University of Technology stressed the necessity of networking, which plays a key role in implementing partner projects.

• Master Class 5: Boost institutional success rate in Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions

The representatives of KU Leuven and ETH in Zurich presented the successes of their universities in obtaining projects under the Horizon 2020 programme, especially Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions grants and ERC grants. Furthermore, they discussed the organizational structure of units being in charge of obtaining and implementing grants. Both universities consider MSCA grants a key way to recruit talented international researchers. In order to achieve this goal, they use numerous instruments and information channels as well as motivation systems for applicants at various stages of project preparation and implementation. From the perspective of the Project Service Center, good practices relating to applicant support instruments are particularly important. Both universities organize workshops on preparing MSCA IF applications. The KU Leuven office employs experts ensuring the so-called horizontal support with regard to open access, ethics and data management, and ETH in Zurich publishes success stories in order to encourage new researchers to apply. Ensuring access to training and career guidance offer also contributes to the achievement of expected results.

• Master Class 6: Partner search and consortia building for collaborative projects

The speakers from two universities, RWTH Aachen (Germany) and Delft University of Technology (the Netherlands), presented their approach to issues related to partner search, criteria for their selection and consortia building in partner projects in the framework of European educational and research projects. The presentation of RWTH Aachen – the partner of our University in the ENHANCE Alliance –  was particularly interesting. According to the representative of Delft University of Technology, CESAER is one of the important sources of attracting partners to alliances.

The speech of Professor Mariusz Malinowski, the Vice-Rector for Research of Warsaw University of Technology, was the final point of the meeting. He emphasized that high investment in the Horizon Europe and Erasmus programmes in the new EU budget gives universities belonging to CESAER great potential for applying for funding. He expressed his hope that research cooperation and experience sharing among universities being part of CESAER will lead to an increase in the number and quality of applications submitted in the Horizon Europe and Erasmus programmes. CESAER wishes to support its Members in boosting the success rate in the Horizon Europe and Erasmus programmes as well as in consortia building. The “CESAER Professional Week” is an important step in reaching this goal.

CESAER is a European association uniting 53 leading research-intensive specialized and comprehensive universities of science and technology. It was established in 1990. More information on CESAER may be found HERE>>

Warsaw University of Technology has been a member of the association since 2005 and is one of three Polish universities which currently belong to the association. Other universities being part of CESAER are Poznań University of Technology and Gdańsk University of Technology. CESAER acts through task forces which identify common problems, involve representatives of partner universities in the activities undertaken by the association, facilitate the exchange of good practices and make recommendations. Currently, nine representatives of Warsaw University of Technology participate in activities of six Task Forces: Benchmark, Competitive Funding, Human Resources, Innovation, Learning & Teaching and Open Science, and one expert takes part in a special Workgroup Legal & Financial.