ERA Action 17 is sponsored by two Member States – Germany and Hungary – and the Aurora network of universities. Their primary role is to stimulate discussions on the implementation of the Action, propose topics for workshops, and develop recommendations that can be incorporated into relevant policies.

The first ad hoc workshop of ERA Action 17 took place in Brussels on 16th March 2023. Representatives from Member States, leading stakeholder organizations, and exemplary projects were invited to attend. The primary focus of the discussion was on the recognition of RMAs, which involved showcasing existing regional and national initiatives and identifying gaps that should be addressed either by the European Commission or Member State governments.

The main results and impacts of foRMAtion were summarized by Virág Zsár, Senior Grant Advisory of HETFA. Among the initiatives presented, foRMAtion was the only one that specifically targeted university students, raising awareness about the profession and offering a potential career pathway. Additionally, partners elaborated high-quality, open-source materials which can be used by a wide audience across Europe, including students, teachers, professors, early career RMAs, and trainer providing trainings for researchers or RMAs.

The next workshop of ERA Action 17 is taking place in Budapest on 10 May 2023. The event is organized during the Ambassador Meeting of the RM ROADMAP project, hosted by HETFA Research Institute.

You can learn more on the foRMAtion results here.

You can learn more on the RM ROADMAP project and the involvement of HETFA here.

Following the success of the first event in Portugal, the second public event has been held in Ljubljana, Slovenia under the title “Learning RMA by doing RMA – Empowering Tomorrow’s Research Managers and Administrators through foRMAtion’s Mentorship Programme”. The Slovenian Forestry Institute hosted the event on their premises. More than 50 participants joined in person and online from more than 12 countries – including experts in the field of research management, policy makers and the National Contact Points’ Coordinator for Horizon Europe in Slovenia. The goal was to deliberate about various RMA mentorship programs around the world, including foRMAtion’s newly tested programme, as well as to discuss their possible implementation in the local institutional context. The event offered a great networking opportunity for those interested in incorporating mentorship into their institutional practice.

During the event, two colleagues from HETFA have delivered presentations. Virág Zsár, Senior Grant Advisor at HÉTFA, gave an overview of the foRMAtion project, including its goals and achievements so far. Judit Fekete, Senior Project Manager at HÉTFA, explained the novelty of the foRMAtion Mentorship Programme piloted this summer in 6 European research support offices with the participation of university students who have successfully completed the foRMAtion modules.

The public event in Slovenia has been a great success! The partnership is looking forward to the next events. The final and largest stakeholder event of foRMAtion on “The Future of Research Management Training in Higher Education – Insights from foRMAtion’s Teaching and Mentoring Experience to Professionalize Research Management” will take place in Brussels on 30 November 2022, 9:00 – 15:00. Agenda is available here and the registration form here.

The event consisted of the introduction of dedicated lessons from each module (altogether 4), the testing of the methodologies as well as daily reflections. The activity resulted in skill and knowledge development of teachers empowering them to get familiar with non-formal educational methods and supporting that they will not only use this knowledge during the teaching of the curriculum but also in other courses.

In addition to the teachers from partner universities, Research Performing Organizations and the Members of the Advisory Board participated the event. The partnership received valuable comments, suggestions and ideas for the further improvement of IO2 and IO3.

The training gave opportunity to test the modules before the 2020/2021 Spring Semester begins. Therefore, the partnership will build in the results of the training and feedback from participants for the finalization of the international curriculum and the teaching material in order to make these outputs tailored to the needs of each university.

For more details, stay tuned!

Please visit the foRMAtion website where you can find all updates on the project.

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The overall aim of the project is the promotion of active civic engagement through adult education. To achieve this aim, the partners will work on the competence development of adult educators and community educators.

Besides leading the communication and dissemination actions of the project, HETFA will be responsible for conducting the Research Study on ‘The political dimension of the work of adult educators in Cyprus, Belgium, Hungary, and Italy’. During the 2-year project, the partners will also develop a handbook on ‘Managing active citizenship initiatives with adult and senior coordinators and volunteers’ and two digital toolkits helping adult educators and learners.

The first newsletter of the project is already available here.

Follow the project on Facebook and check out the project website here: www.adulation.eu.

COST is the longest-running European framework supporting trans-national cooperation among researchers, engineers and scholars across Europe. The COST Targeted Network EUGAIN was kicked offin October 2020 and will run for four years.

In order to tackle the problem that women are underrepresented in Informatics (Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Computing, ICT) at all levels, from undergraduate and graduate studies to participation and leadership in academia and industry, working groups of the Action were formed along these levels. Moreover, EUGAIN takes special attention to the cooperation with industry and society, but also to dissemination activities.

The first Management Committee Meeting – as the kick-off of the Action – was very interactive and inspirational, since around 70 people attended from 37 different COST countries as Management Committee members. Beside presenting the strategy plan for the upcoming four years, the main aim of the meeting was to approve the proposed members of the Core Group, who are responsible for the coordination of the Action. Through the formation of the group, Fanni Bobák, Senior International Expert of HETFA was elected Co-Chair of Working Group 4.

The horizontal Working Group 4 focuses on the cooperation of Industry and Society. Fanni Bobák with the well-experienced Co-Chair, Lynda Hardman, will work on the creation of a sustainable network for academic, commercial and societal partners working on the field. Lynda – Manager of Research & Strategy and a member of the Human-Centered Data Analytics research group at the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands – was former president of Informatics Europe and founder of Women in Informatics Research and Education working group, from which EUGAIN was actually born.

HETFA is especially committed to contribute to the success of this network by bringing project and research related experiences, mainly from ifempower.

The next meeting of the core group jointly with the establishment of four cross-cutting groups (science communication, STSM (short-term scientific mission) coordinator, ITC Conference Grant and Training Schools Coordinator) will be held in February 2021. The meeting will provide opportunity to agree on the topics and priorities of the upcoming STSMs and training schools.

• their enterprise and/or experiences;
• share their journey how they built their business from scratch;
• speak about the hindrances and challenges they had to face;
• and give tips & hints for those who are just about to start this adventure or are already on their way of becoming an entrepreneur.

The aim of the series (5 videos/country) is to highlight the importance of role models and shared knowledge. The interviewed female entrepreneurs are from various industries and sectors and give advices also for work-life balance.

You can reach the Inspirational Stories on the ifempower website and Youtube channel. Stay tuned for the next episodes!

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For more information about the project, its events and for regular updates of the activities, stay tuned at ifempower.eu or subscribe to our newsletter! You can follow us also on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. In case you have any question or idea on potential synergies, do not hesitate to contact us via the project website.

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. The first aim will be fulfilled by a series of webinars offered by partners and invited experts, while the second will be realized based on a new platform, providing networking functions and learning materials for interested staff members working on the interface of science. The main topics covered will include discussing legal and financial issues connected to HE projects, science communication, intellectual property protection and management – and many more. With a view to support safe and smart knowledge exchange in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the project outputs will be available online, free of charge.

The project will kick off in November 2020 and be concluded in an international conference in Bratislava in early 2022, where institution leaders of HEIs and RPOs, as well as policy-makers will be invited to raise awareness of the importance of the RMA profession, the provision of training and networking opportunities – which can be regarded as a key to boost the economies and competitiveness of V4 and Wester Balkan countries.

The partnership consists of:

• HETFA Research Institute (Hungary) – as coordinator
• Centre for Knowledge and Technology Transfer, Charles University (Czechia)
• Silesian University of Technology (Poland)
• Slovak University of Technology (Slovakia)
• Center for the Promotion of Science (Serbia)
• University of Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
• INTER-EDU – Association for Internationalization of Education and Science (North Macedonia)

Check out the website of the project for more information and follow our LinkedIn and Twitter account for updates!

The project is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad+ Grants from International Visegrad Fund.