BILAT USA 2.0 Practical Workshop - The European Framework Programme: Possibilities for U.S. Researchers
Washington D.C. 7 August, 1-4 pm
Immediately following the end of the NCURA 55th Annual Meeting (4-6 August 2013), BILAT 2.0 USA partners organized a “Practical Workshop” on recent developments concerning the European Framework Program, including tentative changes that will appear when Horizon2020 calls begin in 2014. The session – with over 60 participants – took place on Wednesday August 7, 2013 from 1 - 4 pm in the afternoon and was organized by Florida International University/Miami-Florida European Union Center of Excellence, NCURA and DLR. The participants in the workshop hailed from institutions across the country, including the Office of the President at the University of California, the University of Tennessee, Rutgers University and the Developmental Disabilities Institute at Wayne State University in Detroit, and work in positions as scholars and research administrators in scientific fields that ran the gambit, health to nanotechnology to disability advocacy. This diverse group participated in a lively and active discussion over the course of the three hours.
The first segment of the workshop began with an informative talk by Errol Levy, Research and Innovation Counselor and Deputy Head of the Science, Technology and Education Section at the European Union Delegation to the United States of America, who provided an overview of European Framework Programs with an eye to Horizon 2020. Olaf Heilmayer shared a brief introduction to the BILAT 2.0 USA objectives and goals. The middle sequence of the workshop was spent in three “break-out” workshops on:
- Outlooks on Legal and Financial Aspects of the Horizon2020 (Errol Levy);
- Fellowship Programs: ERC (Annika Glauner, member of the Community of European Research Project Managers of the League of European Research Universities (LERU) and since 2011 Secretary of NCURA’s International Region) and Marie Curie (Patricia Hawk, President of NCURA);
- From the Idea to Project: How to Find European Research Partner: European NCP-system (Olaf Heilmayer, DLR) and EURAXESS and EURAXESS (Viktoria Bodnarova, EURAXESS Links North America Regional Representative).
Each break out group had lively discussions going on. Very practical questions and concerns could be raised with regard to the European Framework Programme and its different funding schemes and project types in order to achieve the overall goal to increase the number of EU-US research partnerships and cooperation.
After the entire group came back together for a brief wrap-up session of the different groups, a lively discussion in the plenum ensued summarizing the main issues and questions raised ranging from administrative issues, such as how to understand new rules on direct and indirect costs or how to translate American research vocabulary to EU understandings as well as technical and strategic questions such as how to best find a European research partner. The successful event allowed the building of bridges not only across the Atlantic, but also among scientists/scholars and research administrators. All involved are committed to continuing the dialogue and further spread information to increase cooperation.
For more information please visit the NCURA 55th Annual Meeting web-space
