The kick-off meeting of the Arqus Research & Innovation Project takes place online on 19 January 2021. It is focused on the support given by the European Commission to European University Alliances in the area of Research and Innovation and the subsequent empowerment of universities by the future Horizon Europe programme and is presented by Alina-Maria Bercea, from the Research Executive Agency and Stijn Delaure, from the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission. The second part of the meeting is dedicated to internal aspects of the project and focuses on the different work packages and their activities.
This programme, awarded with €2 million in the H2020 call for support for the Research and Innovation Dimension of European Universities, will focus on 3 main challenges, all intended to foster a context to nurture sustainable strengthened collaboration. The first of these challenges will address Joint Science and Innovation, through building an Arqus research community and designing a roadmap for transformation(al) excellence. The second one will centre on New Perspectives on Research, seeking to strengthen human capital through alternative approaches to assessment and recognition, and to re-thinking transfer, with special reference to the Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts. The third challenge, Open to Society, aims to contribute to the culture change brought by Open and Citizen Science.
These new activities will be carried out in the fields of Artificial Intelligence/Digital Transformation and Green Deal/Climate Change as transversal priority areas for enhanced research collaboration, characterised by their interdisciplinarity. The project will run for 3 years, from January 2021 to December 2023. This funding complements the €5 million that the Arqus Alliance obtained as one of the first 17 Alliances of the European Universities Initiative funded by the Erasmus+ programme, and will contribute to the R&I transformation of the European Universities in synergy with their education dimension.
The Arqus Research & Innovation project aims to complement and build on efforts already underway to foster scientific cooperation within the Alliance, and to seek synergies between the education, research and innovation dimensions of Arqus. Very soon, the Arqus team will present the project and all its opportunities to the university community members. The project opens a new way of collaboration to researchers in particular between all seven universities members of Arqus. In this line, this funding will also work as seed funding for the creation of new joint project proposals for the new EU research programme “Horizon Europe”. This will be of great help for Arqus universities in their race for attracting funds from this prestigious programme of the European Union.
