BESTPRAC, the “voice of research administrators” is having its half-yearly meeting in Belgrade on 24-25 September. The main purpose of the event beyond knowledge exchange is to pave the way towards the sustainment of the network and its operation beyond the funding received from COST.
BESTPRAC is a special European network funded by COST gathering research administrators and funding advisors mostly from universities but also from research organizations established in EU28 and associated countries from the European Economic Area and Western Balkans. Following its 4 years of functioning, due to its highly recognized activities and outputs BESTPRAC received a prolongation of funding for 2 more years by COST.
Currently the challenge is to find the ways to keep all features benefiting members, including the practical approach, inclusiveness, bottom-up functioning, as well as training schools, staff exchange, etc., without major limitations for participants (e.g. membership fee).
To do so, strategies for sustainability, impact and stakeholders involvement as well as communication are being developed with the contribution of members. HETFA is actively involved in these processes and also in other activities of the action. The meeting in Belgrade hosted by the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the University of Belgrade provides opportunity for the exchange of knowledge and experiences for the participants as well as peer learning on Research Support Staff framework.
Further topics of high interest of participants are also presented and discussed in details, such as the effects of GDPR regulations on research, funding opportunities beyond European Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation (FP), and the expected framing and requirements of Horizon Europe, the upcoming FP. Our colleagues from the international office are strongly involved in the event: Fanni Bobák presents funding opportunities of the Visegrad Fund, whereas Virág Zsár, Vice Leader of Working Group 1 of BESTPRAC delivers a presentation on Mission Oriented Research and Innovation being one of the main aspects of the Horizon Europe.
Further information on BESTPRAC is avaible on the website: www.bestprac.eu as well as on social media sites: