The partnership of 7 organisations from the Visegrad 4 and Western Balkan countries aims to reinforce further the network of Research Support Professionals, or in short, Research Managers and Administrators (RMAs). Through intensified knowledge exchange and capacity-building activities the project will contribute to the increased competitiveness of the Visegrad Four and Western Balkan countries in Research and Innovation. With the new project, we will continue cooperating with more ambitious activities (training schools, conferences etc.). The Launching event is scheduled for 17-18 October 2023 in Bratislava, Slovakia. The call for participation will be launched at the end of August/beginning of September.

Under the lead of HETFA Research Institute, the consortium consists of 6 more partners: Silesian University of Technology (Poland), Serbian Association of Research Managers and Administrators (Serbia), Czech Technical University in Prague (Czechia), University of Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Slovak University of Technology (Slovakia), GO2 Sustainable Urban Planning Organization (Albania).

The Public4mSME+ project, funded by the International Visegrad Fund, is ending, so we would like to share the result of our work and instruct interested stakeholders about the Sharing Box tool.

The Sharing Box tool was developed to connect public institutions, such as municipalities and local SMEs in order to share their available resources for improving economic opportunities using the concept of Sharing Economy.

We would like to share the idea of Sharing Economy in local societies, as there is huge potential to save resources, and we were aware of it at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, facing the deeper crisis accelerated by the war in Ukraine, there is a need to be more effective and efficient in using public resources.

To know more, we suggest participating in the seminar. The detailed information you can find in the file below.

Final Seminar Infosheet

Check out the agenda and register today!

The article examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mortality rates in Europe and explored the spatial and temporal disparities that emerged in the first two years. The analysis highlights that while the initial wave of the pandemic had a more severe impact on major urban centres in Western Europe, subsequent waves have disproportionately affected the less developed regions of Central and Eastern Europe, including Hungary.

The article is available here. Articles and analyses on COVID-19 by our colleagues are available on our website (in Hungarian).

We kindly request the participation of women entrepreneurs running their own businesses in any of the following countries to fill in our survey:

• Bulgaria,
• Finland,
• Hungary,
• Serbia,
• Slovakia,
• Spain (Andalusia), and
• Romania (Transylvania).

Please feel free to distribute the survey in any of the above-mentioned countries.

The survey results not only will provide us with data for compiling a research report but help us to tailor educational programmes useful for educators supporting women entrepreneurs.

The research result is planned to be published on the RE-FEM project’s website in November 2023. Deadline for filling in the survey is 20 June.

To access the survey, please click on the following link:

Hungary (Hungarian): https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7342559/V-llalkoz-n-k-Magyarorsz-gon-jraindul-s-a-COVID-v-ls-g-ut-n

Romania, Transylvania (Hungarian): https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7355494/N-i-v-llalkoz-k-v-laszok-s-strat-gi-k-kr-zishelyzetben-Erd-ly

Serbia (Serbian): https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7352982/V-llalkoz-n-k-Magyarorsz-gon-jraindul-s-a-COVID-v-ls-g-ut-n-szerb

Slovakia (Slovakian): https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7355007/V-llalkoz-n-k-Magyarorsz-gon-jraindul-s-a-COVID-v-ls-g-ut-n-szlov-k

Bulgaria (Bulgarian): https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7352910/V-llalkoz-n-k-Magyarorsz-gon-jraindul-s-a-COVID-v-ls-g-ut-n-bolg-r

Spain (Spanish): https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7353339/V-llalkoz-n-k-Magyarorsz-gon-jraindul-s-a-COVID-v-ls-g-ut-n-spanyol

Finland (Finnish): https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7355079/V-llalkoz-n-k-Magyarorsz-gon-jraindul-s-a-COVID-v-ls-g-ut-n-finn

Finland (Swedish): https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7355172/V-llalkoz-n-k-Magyarorsz-gon-jraindul-s-a-COVID-v-ls-g-ut-n-sv-d

The RM ROADMAP consortium welcomed more than 60 Ambassadors from 40 countries, who are the national and regional community builders of research management communities. The first part of the meeting was live-streamed via Zoom. The meeting provided an opportunity for networking and knowledge exchange for the selected Ambassadors.

The event was opened with the welcoming words of Renáta Anna Jaksa, Head of Division for International Cooperation of HETFA Research Institute and László Lengyel, Vice President of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (HU), both highlighting the significance of research management in the research and innovation ecosystem.

After their opening words, Stijn Delauré, Policy Officer at the European Commission, introduced the European-level initiative dedicated to research management, Action 17 of the European Research Area (ERA), highlighting the importance of Member States supporting the Action. Hungary recognising the importance of the initiative is one of the co-sponsors of Action 17. A workshop focusing on the Action was organised back-to-back with the Ambassador meeting, on 10 May with the participation of Ambassadors and other stakeholders. You can learn more about our project foRMAtion which is a flagship initiative of the ERA Action 17.

By participating in the Ambassador meeting, Ambassadors learned about the vision and objectives of the RM ROADMAP project and gained insight into the Knowledge and Community Platform (to be opened in the autumn of 2023) and the Research Management Helix (Crowdhelix). An interactive session was dedicated to the possible ways of engaging with national research management communities. Adele Del Bello from the RESTART Foundation in Italy, Andreja Zulim de Swarte from the University Medical Centre Utrecht in The Netherlands, and Ladislav Cocek from Masaryk University in Czechia shared their best practices on how to reach local communities.

The event continued with parallel sessions, with discussion groups focusing the future engagement with the Ambassador’s national communities. The event was concluded by the reflections of Jan Andersen (RM ROADMAP Advisory Board Member) and Nik Claesen, and Borana Taraj (EARMA) who outlined the next steps of the project.

The recording of the Ambassador meeting is available on the YouTube channel of EARMA.

HETFA is delighted to be part of the RM ROADMAP project and host of the 1st RM ROADMAP Ambassador meeting. It is a unique opportunity to participate in the co-creation of the future of research management in Europe. We would like to welcome and thank the support of the coordinator of the RM ROADMAP project, EARMA, especially Nik Claesen and Borana Taraj, furthermore Stijn Delaure, the representative of the European Commission, all of the other partners participating in the project, and the sponsors of the ERA Action 17 as well. We are also extremely grateful for the engagement of Ambassadors; who are the driving force of the new European Research Area.

21 September 2022, Ljubljana, Slovenia:

“Learning RMA by doing RMA – Empowering Tomorrow’s Research Managers and Administrators through foRMAtion’s Mentorship Programme” will be in the focus of the next public stakeholder event, to be held in the capital of Slovenia, hosted by the Slovenian Forestry Institute. The foRMAtion Mentorship Programme has been elaborated by HÉTFA Research Institute and has been piloted recently in 6 European cities from June to August 2022. This is a unique programme that combines research management training, mentoring and internship. It has been primarily designed to universities and research performing organizations that are interested in hosting and mentoring students.

Following a keynote speech by Silke Blohm (4Sciences Group Ltd, UK) on the importance of mentorship in career development of RMAs, we will take an outlook to various mentorship programmes all around the world, such as the ERA Fellowships – Science Management Programme in Germany, mentorship activities within ARMA and of EARMA, the Odyssey Mentoring Programme of SRAI as well as the Mentorship Programme of the Canadian Association of Research Administrators. As being mentor and mentee both advances research managers in their career, all these programmes are highly relevant if you want to develop your skills and knowledge in your profession.

The event will be organized in person, while online access will also be provided. Participants are invited to the networking dinner after the event which is a great opportunity to connect with the European RMA community.

More info & registration: Event flyer with the Preliminary Agenda, Online Registration Form, Access to the meeting venue and accommodation

27 September 2022, Rome, Italy:

ISINNOVA, our Italian RMA partner, will hold a local public stakeholder event in Rome on 27 September under the title “Research Managers and Administrators (RMAs) – Challenges & opportunities for education and training”. The event will take place at the premises of the Tor Vergata University of Rome, with the collaboration of Politecnico di Torino and APRE – Agenzia per la Promozione della Ricerca Europea.

The focus will be on creating awareness about the RMA profession, its role and place in Europe and training opportunities in higher education. Within the framework of the foRMAtion project, generator of innovative paths to shape tomorrow’s RMA training, experts will consider challenges to face and training opportunities to develop in order to give RMA the space it deserves as a potential key profession of the future.

A keynote speech by Stijn Delauré, PhD (European Commission, DG Research & Innovation, Unit R&I Actors and Research Careers) will shed light on the EU initiatives for Research Managers and Administrators.  The formation project outputs will be presented with a special highlight on the award-winning foRMAtion course taught at NOVA University of Lisbon. Representatives of EARMA and several Italian universities will take part in the discussions about the enhancement of the role of RMAs in the Italian research and innovation ecosystem. Opportunities to use the foRMAtion modules and mentorship methodology in higher education will also we explored.

More info & registration: Agenda, Online Registration Form

Please note that only Session 1 will be held in English, Session 2 and Session 3 will be in Italian.

Either you join our events online or in person, we are very glad to involve you in our activities!

Featured image: www.unsplash.com 

The main goal of the RESTART project is to develop innovative training solutions and tools to enhance and advance entrepreneurship education and training across the VET ecosystem by addressing the needs shaped by digitalization and climate change.

HETFA will be responsible for the preparation of the RESTART Position Paper & Mainstreaming Guidelines (policy recommendations). This project result aims to amplify and maximise impact of the project at systemic level while deepening and widening its range.

The press release of the project is available here, you can find more information.

For more information, please visit the website of the project or follow it on Facebook.

The conference was the final event of the project ‘Individual Placement and Support for NEETs through Education Youth Technology Platform (EYTP)’ (IPS4NEETs) targeting young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEETs). InterRegio was a partner in this project, while HETFA coordinates the Lost Millennials project (Transnational research network for the evaluation of initiatives targeting 25+ NEETs) funded by EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Youth Employment, also targeting the same group of young people and the professionals tackling their problems.

Trine Skymoen, Ambassador of Norway to Hungary opened the conference. She emphasized that youth unemployment is a common challenge for Europe and that common solutions are needed. Today, 14 million young people in Europe are not in education or training and are not present in the labour market. The reasons are complex, including crises experienced by the young generation, such as the economic crisis of 2008, and the COVID-19 pandemic, which has had a significant impact on young people’s life. Closing the gap between labour market opportunities of men and women is of utmost importance, as one in five young women in Europe is not present on the labour market. The EEA and Norway Funds for Youth Employment therefore focus on improving opportunities for young people.

Jan Evensen (Fønix, Norway) and Lene Odberg Thorstensen (Fønix, Norway) presented the IPS (Individual Placement and Support) method, which is at the heart of the IPS4NEETS project. IPS is a flexible and individualised methodology that is easily adaptable, so that practitioners in the project countries could adapt the practices to their own cultural context. Luca Koltai (HÉTFA Research Institute) presented the situation of NEET youth, national trends and the impact of the IPS. Levente Székely (Youth Research Institute) presented the results of the Youth Survey conducted in the autumn of 2020. Eszter Szőnyi (HÉTFA Research Institute) presented the ‘Lost Millennials’ project, which has been launched with the support of the EEA and Norway Funds for Youth Employment. Márton Csillag (Budapest Institute) presented the results of the ‘Youth Employment PartnerSHIP‘ project, also funded by the EEA and Norway Funds for Youth Employment. Katalin Bördős (HÉTFA Research Institute) presented the results of a research published in 2019, which examined young jobseekers from the perspective of the National Employment Services’ staff. The conference ended with a round table discussion. Lilla Vad (Hungarian Reformed Church Aid), Bulcsú Mihály (Bagázs Nonprofit Association), Sándor Inátsy Papp (Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta) and Miklós Varga (ZMVA) shared their experiences of working with young people.

The Lost Millennials and IPS4NEETs projects are funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Youth Employment.

The conference recording is available online.(mostly in Hungarian)

HÉTFA Research Institute’s findings regarding the situation of NEETs

Due to Hungary’s rapid recovery from the crisis imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, employment rates are increasingly improving. They show no considerable discrepancy to the pre-pandemic rates, in fact, a shortage in labour force is becoming noticeable. Meanwhile, youth (aged between 15-24) unemployment rate grew by 3,3% (Hungarian Central Statistical Office, 2021), revealing that a quarter of all those unemployed in the country are from the youth age group. This data points out that young people are still facing difficulties entering the labour market. Being unemployed at the beginning of an individual’s working years may leave a negative impact on their entire career.

Recent years were marked by a steep incline in the labour market in Hungary. The number of jobseekers dropped, while the number of employed individuals was at a high. While the recession experienced due to COVID-19 diminished in most labour sectors by now, Hungary is battling double difficulties: on the one hand, that of the labour force shortage, and on the other hand, that of prolonged unemployment in certain groups of society. Considering the population’s ageing, it is becoming increasingly vital that as many young people as possible find their way early to labour market, and transition to employment smoothly. According to Eurostat (2020), nearly 14,7% of young Hungarians are not in employment, nor in education or training (NEETs). They are those who did not join the labour market upon finishing their training, or they dropped out from it later.

In terms of NEET rates, Hungary is close to the median of other EU member states, still, their number has increased as an effect of the pandemic. Those having it most difficult seem to be those young people with low qualifications living in small rural municipalities, and the number of NEETs is twice as high in the economically disadvantaged regions than in cities. These young people often do not have any job experience, they have unrealistic expectations regarding work options available for them, and they are lacking key skills that would help them find employment. Following a series of unsuccessful job seeking attempts, they may lose their motivation and sink into hopelessness, or turn to unregulated and precarious means of breadwinning. Starting out a career as unemployed may have a long-term impact on young people’s motivation, career progress, perspectives and prosperity – thus, the age group in question is sometimes referred to as a ’lost generation’. According to Hungarian and Europe-wide records, women are even more vulnerable to dropping out of the labour market than men, as balancing their childcare activities with work hours and a private life is still made difficult for them.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts, as a normative crisis of the young generation

Following the first year of the pandemic, the Hungarian economy and labour market started to re-emerge in 2021. Unemployment rates returned to their pre-pandemic levels and signs of labour force shortage reappeared. Meanwhile, the unemployment rates of those aged between 15 and 24 increased by 3,3% (Hungarian Central Statistical Office, 2021). A quarter of all unemployed Hungarians is constituted by youth, prompting us to conclude that increasing young people’s access and opportunities is of key importance.

COVID-19 posed novel challenges to the young generation, threatening with an increase in dropout rates from schools, as well as isolation and loss of motivation due to the transition to digital learning, thus, the pandemic severely impacted the mental wellbeing of youth, too.

The majority of youth is in employment or training

According to the Youth Research Institute’s 2020 results, the rate of NEETs is at 10% in Hungary. Of those young people outside employment or training, the majority are on parental leave (61%), 10% of them received government support for jobseeking, while 17% were seeking jobs without government support, and 15% claimed they were inactive homemakers in 2020. The rate of employed young people did not decrease due to the pandemic (it increased from 54% in 2016 to 55% in 2020), and flexible employment arrangements became more widespread (with 12% being part-time employees, 18% working flexible work hours, and 2% working from home). The majority of employed youth (56%) felt secure in their workplace, and only 8% planned on changing jobs. Young people’s salary expectations also increased, from 242 thousand forints in 2016 to 348 thousand forints in 2020. Those still in education claimed to be optimistic regarding their job search, and over half of them believed to be able to find employment within a few months after finishing their training or studies.

At HETFA, we were happy to celebrate this day with our RMA professionals at the Division for International Cooperation. Our institution realized the growing importance of professionals working at the intersection of science and management. HETFA defined as one of its missions to support Research Managers and Administrators in gaining new skills, exchanging knowledge and achieving more recognition for their work. HETFA is involved – as a partner or a coordinator – in a number of networks and projects to fulfil its objective to improve excellence and quality of research management. More information is available here. Currently, we are working on two projects supporting RMAs.

foRMAtion (Innovative and smart module for potential Research Managers and Administrators in higher education, funded by the Erasmus+ programme) aims to support students in higher education as potential research managers and administrators (RMAs) by reinforcing their high-level and transversal skills needed for developing and managing excellent European research, innovation and educational projects. While the application of the foRMAtion curriculum (part II) has started in September at partner universities, we are tirelessly preparing for the Multiplier event to promote the foRMAtion mentorship programme and the blended learning platform.

The V4+WB Network of Research Administrators project (funded by the International Visegrad Fund aims to strengthen the network of Researchers Managers and Administrators from Visegrad Four (V4) and Western Balkan (WB) countries to contribute to their more successful participation in the next EU funded Research and Innovation Framework Programme, Horizon Europe. The project seeks to decrease the excellence and networking gap within the region by improving the skills of RMAs and researchers and by reinforcing the network of RMAs at regional level. Within this project, three main outputs will be realised, the first one being the webinar series. 12 webinars are organised on a monthly basis starting from February 2021. The following, 8^th webinar will be held on 20 October, and will cover the topic of Technology and Market Assessment for projects aiming at technology transfer. Registration is free of charge, please find more information here. The Online Expert Pool is a database to share profiles of RMAs, funding advisors, National Contact Points of EU Research and Innovation Framework Programmes and any relevant expert working on the interface of science to reinforce a sustainable network and knowledge sharing of RMAs in V4+WB countries. You are encouraged to register here. The third output is the Learning Material Platform, which a repository of materials that can support the participation and performance of V4 and WB countries in Horizon Europe. Tools, presentations and other outputs of the project events are uploaded. You can reach the Learning Material Platform by registering to the Online Expert Pool first.

Source of picture: @myleon on www.unsplash.com

The webinar focused on ‘Strategies and tools for science communication’ and received increasing attention.

Our distinguished speakers shared their expertise about different areas of science communication:

• Jens Degett (EUSJA, ScienceStories.dk) presented the topic of ‘What do you need to know about science communication?’
• Thomas Deane (Trinity College Dublin) presented tips and tricks of successful science communication;
• Lorenzo Barabani (Horizon Results Booster services, META Group) talked about ‘Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation in Horizon Europe’, and presented the Horizon Results Booster Platform.

The recorded webinar, among others, will be available on the Learning Material Platform of the project. The Platform is open to anyone who have registered to the Online Expert Pool.

The forthcoming, 8th webinar will take place on 20 October 2021, at 10.00-12.00 CET. The webinar will focus on ‘Technology and Market Assessment for projects aiming at technology transfer’ where our distinguished speaker, Antonín Králík, Market-Potential Analyst and Patent Specialist at Charles University Centre for Knowledge and Technology Transfer, will give an overview of the topic based on his experiences at Charles University (CZ).

You can reach the agenda and registration details here. The webinar is free of charge; however, registration is required. Please reserve your place and save the date!

If you would like to receive more information and news about our project, please follow us on social media (Facebook and Twitter), and visit our website.