Boosting research cooperation for new Member States
Researchers endeavoured to enhance overall performance of the centres with EU funding of the 'Romanian mobility centre initiative to strengthen ERA-MORE' (DISCOVER EUROPE) project. Team members supported networking with other European mobility centres, so as to stimulate cooperation. Particular emphasis was placed on operational and strategic issues for the overall benefit of the ERA initiative ERA-MORE, which is now known as EURAXESS-Researchers in Motion. DISCOVER EUROPE’s efforts also aimed at increasing the level of EURAXESS services across Europe, especially in the context of Innovation Union challenges. By and large, these involve international collaboration and staff exchanges between particular research organisations. Two exploratory visits by the new Member States' partner groups to their partners in France and Poland focused on good practice sharing and identifying customers' needs. To disseminate findings and conclusions from these visits, two-day training courses were organised for the remaining Bulgarian and Romanian regional centres. Each country's mobility centre comprised four regional centres, all in need of training at the same level. Various activities involving more experienced EURAXESS colleagues served to boost cooperation between Bulgarian and Romanian mobility centres. Mutual visits encouraged interaction among colleagues and promoted opportunities for researchers in each country. Tools created during the DISCOVER EUROPE project focused on the quality of clusters and the 'connection' between them. Against this backdrop, project members also devoted efforts to the better integration of the two new clusters into the EURAXESS network. Beyond important lessons learned and detailed by all four participant centres, the project succeeded in raising the bar for foreign researchers visiting Bulgarian and Romanian research organisations. It also contributed to the smooth operation of the network as a whole, and responded to the needs and expectations of mobile researchers. Better network visibility and improved services offered to EURAXESS Mobility Centres' customers will also help in general efforts to build the European Research Area (ERA).