Course "Designing a winning proposal in Horizon Europe: from theory to practice, with a focus on impacts, Open Science and Open data"

On 31 January and 1 February 2024 the professional development path entitled "Designing a winning proposal in Horizon Europe: from theory to practice, with a focus on impacts, Open Science and Open Data" will take place in Sassari. This is a new training initiative organized by the European Research Desk of Sardegna Ricerche in collaboration with the Research and Quality Office of the University of Sassari and the Directorate for Research and Territory of the University of Cagliari.

Course objectives and contents

The initiative aims to analyze the main design techniques and transmit information and tools useful for designing a successful proposal in Horizon Europe through a series of exhaustive frontal lessons, accompanied by practical examples. Particular attention will be paid to the analysis of the application forms relating to the Horizon Europe projects, allowing participants to acquire the basic knowledge necessary for drafting the technical and financial parts of the proposals. Practical examples are provided on the identification of the impacts of the proposals and on the preparation of the budget and the drafting of the project's transversal work packages (Management; Dissemination, Exploitation and Communication). There will also be an in-depth session on the new Lump sum financing instruments.

The main contents are:

- Structure of Horizon Europe and its priority axes

- Financing instruments, with a particular focus on Lump sum projects

. The Funding and Tenders Portal

- Identification of calls and structure of competition notices

- The proposal submission procedure

- Partner search: practical suggestions and utilities made available by the Commission

- Compilation of the administrative and financial forms of the proposal:
       – preparatory notions for preparing the budget
       – guided exercise for drafting the project budget

- Introduction to design: constituent elements of a project and design techniques

- Compilation of the technical-scientific part: guided analysis of the forms, paying particular attention to:
       – planning of design work
       – identification of objectives, approach and expected results
       – definition of the impacts, methodologies for the dissemination and exploitation of the results of the projects
       – definition of Work-packages, tasks and timing
       – definition of adequate risks and contingency measures
       – identification of indicators, milestones and related sources of verification
       – construction of the consortium, as well as an appropriate description of the characteristics of each body, the peculiarities and complementarities of the partnership of a project

- “Transversal” work-packages (Management and Dissemination, Communication and exploitation of results)

- Project evaluation criteria

- Practical advice for developing a successful proposal

More information on the course content is available in the programme.

Recipients

The course is aimed at staff of companies, universities, research centers and public bodies located in the regional territory who intend to present projects within the next Horizon Europe Programme.

Time and location

The course will take place in Sassari, in the Cicu Room of the Teaching Center in Viale Mancini n. 3 with the following schedule:
     - January 31st: from 9:00 to 18:00;
     – February 1st: from 9:00 to 18:00.

The European Research Desk reserves the right not to activate the event, notifying the registered participants, if the minimum number of participants is not reached or causes arise which could compromise the correct running of the course.

Registration method

Participation in the training course is free and limited to a maximum of 40 participants, previously selected and divided into the following three profiles:
  Profile A: staff from companies, research centres, public bodies located in the regional territory (20 places)
  Profile B: staff or researchers of the University of Cagliari (10 places)
  Profile C: staff or researchers of the University of Sassari (10 places).

The following are excluded from participation in the training course:
- companies, bodies and freelancers who provide consultancy/training to third parties necessary for planning, assistance, reporting and monitoring for participation in national, European and international funding;
- natural persons not meeting the criteria set out in profiles A/B/C;
- training institutions or companies that provide training activities.

The registration application must be received by Monday 22 January. Considering that one of the criteria for selecting the places reserved for our University is given by the chronological order of submission of applications and in order to guarantee equal opportunities (between those who may have already received the news directly from Sardegna Ricerche and those only via notice (email to all) of the University of Sassari), only registrations submitted after the sending of the Notice dated January 10th will be taken into consideration. Therefore, those who have already submitted the application are invited to resubmit it by filling out the form again.

Selection criteria for candidates of the University of Sassari (Profile C)

With regards to UNISS staff, given the limited number of places available, candidates will be selected on the basis of three criteria in the following order of priority:

1) classification at the University of Sassari: priority is given in the following order: professors, researchers, permanent and fixed-term technical-administrative staff, research fellows, doctoral students, contract teachers, collaborators, scholarship holders, post-graduate students;
2) involvement in the field of European planning in terms of planning/management/reporting which must be attested for all candidates (with the exception of professors and researchers) by a declaration from the head of the structure they belong to which must be sent to the asai address @uniss.it within the closing deadlines for applications; in the absence of this certification, the priority envisaged by this criterion cannot be assigned;
3) chronological order of submission of the request to participate in the course (starting from the sending of the notice from the University of Sassari on 10 January).

Once the deadlines for submitting applications for participation have passed, those admitted to the training course will be sent a confirmation email to which they must respond within the deadlines indicated in the communication under penalty of forfeiture of the place and scrolling of the waiting list.

Please remember that for the purposes of participation it is necessary to verify the conditions set out in the "Regulations for the organization of training activities for the technical, administrative and library staff of the University of Sassari" approved by the Board of Directors on 13 January 2022.

Attendance and certificate of participation

Any inability to participate in the course by those admitted must be promptly communicated in order to allow the ranking to move forward and full coverage of the assigned places.

Participation in part of the training activities is not permitted and a certificate of participation will not be issued to those who have not attended the total hours of attendance required and have not completed the course satisfaction questionnaire.