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Improving the services of the NMP NCP Network through Transnational Activities

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - NMP TeAm 3 (Improving the services of the NMP NCP Network through Transnational Activities)

Reporting period: 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31

"The network of National Contact Points (NCPs) is the main structure to provide guidance, practical information and assistance on all aspects of participation in Horizon 2020. NCPs are also established in many non-EU and non-associated countries (""third countries""). Among their main activities, NCPs provide guidance, advice, trainings and assistance in Horizon applicants.

NMP TEAM 3 is the project of the NCPs of the ""Leadership in Enabling and Industrial Technologies - NMP"" part of Horizon 2020. Its aim is to identify and share good practices and raise the general standard of support by the NCPs to all applicants of EU Member States, Associated and Third Countries. It also aims at simplifying access to H2020 calls having achieved a consistent, improved and professionalised NCP service across Europe. To achieve this objective, NMP TeAm 3 has activities that build the capacity of all NMP NCPs in order to provide high quality services and necessary tools so that they may assist their clients to succeed in participating in Horizon 2020, to increase the impact of activities, services and results to a wide audience of clients and stakeholders.

This project builds on the results and the achievements of the previous NMP NCP projects, NMP TEAM 1 and 2, from the 7th EU Framework Programme for Research and Development, including the improved interactive website and the further improvement of the Partner Search Tool, the training activities, the partnership building and other networking events and the cooperation with the NMP related Networks. Webinars and other virtual events for NMP NCPs and H2020 participants were introduced in order to enlarge the audience and provide timely information. Importance is given on strengthening the ties within the Network, an essential ingredient for stronger and more effective collaboration through team building activities.

NMP TeAm 3 includes the entire NMP NCP Network (including all NMP third country contacts). It has two types of partners. The beneficiaries are those who accessed the grant agreement with the European Commission and who carried out the work described in the technical part of the project. The other non beneficiaries partners, are official NMP NCPs, who enjoy all the deliverables of this project, including the developed tools and methodologies and who were able to take part in all project activities with their travel and accommodation paid by the project partner responsible for the specific activity.

The specific objectives of the project, measured and assessed through deliverables, are:
Objective 1: To create the mechanisms and tools for capacity building of all NMP NCPs' skills that will ensure the NCP Network's high and consistent level of services to clients.

Objective 2: To provide the necessary tools to all NMP NCPs so that they can assist their clients to increase their success rate in H2020. The tools will assist NCPs to provide valuable information and brokering services to the widest possible audience and thus lower the barriers for participation of potential applicants.

Objective 3: To improve the outreach of the NMP NCP Network and maximise the impact of its activities, services and results to a wide audience of clients and stakeholders.

Objective 4: To establish tools and support mechanisms in order to ensure the proper implementation of the project and the timely conclusion of all its activities.
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During both two years of NMP TeAm 3, several activities beneficial for NMP NCPs and their clients were undertaken. The most significant results of these activities were:
- Four training seminars organised in Brussels with 118 NCPs participating.
- Four webinars organised for all NMP NCPs with 164 NCPs participating.
- An online benchmarking tool open to all NMP NCPs to self-assess their performance
- The Partner Search Facility for 2015 & 2016 records 275 published partner offers 38 partners requests.
- Organisation of two brokerage events in KETs; one in France with 242 participants having 1072 meetings and one in Germany with 280 participants having 923 meetings respectively.
- Co-organisation of three Brokerage events during Euronanoforum 2015, Industrial Technologies 2016 and Re-Industrialisation of the EU 2016 attracting in total 529 participants having 1517 bilateral meetings.
- Organisation of 6 virtual events for clients with 1976 registrations from more than 32 countries
- Creation of a new website to substitute and improve the website of projects NMP TeAm 1 & 2.
- One MoU was signed between the Enterprise Europe Network Sector Groups “Materials” and “Micro and Nano Technologies” and NMP TeAm 3.
- 22 NMP NCPs assisted clients through the NMP TeAm 3 stand in 9 NMP related events.
- Active dissemination through social media.
Up to 31.12.2016 the twitter account was followed by 258 followers and 496 tweets were submitted. The twitter messages had 110.665 impressions and resulted in 2.510 profile visits.
6 recordings of NMP TeAm webinars uploaded at the NMP TeAm YouTube channel available for public, with were more than 550 displays.
The expected impacts of NMP TeAm 3 as listed in the work programme are an improved and professionalised NCP service across Europe, thereby helping simplify access to Horizon 2020 calls, lowering the entry barriers for newcomers, and raising the average quality of proposals submitted and a more consistent level of NCP support services across Europe.The activities of NMP TeAm 3 are designed to have an impact on the NMP NCPs, their co-operation and their clients. During the implementation of NMP TeAm 3, all NMP NCPs will have the opportunity to acquire necessary skills and knowledge that will assist them to provide a high level of services and assistance to their clients. The variety of the tasks undertaken in this project are designed in order to help the NMP NCPs offer improved services, more structured and in a consistent and standardised way. The continuous training activities and the use of well established tools like the Partner Search System and the website (which are already making an impact) are important steps made towards the “professionalisation” of the NMP NCP Network.

The variety of events (information & brokering) for the clients, together with other available Networks related to programme NMP, the Enterprise Europe Network and the European Technology Platforms, utilising International conferences are designed to reach a widest possible target audience, to lower the entry barriers for newcomers and hopefully to contribute to raising the average quality of submitted proposals.

The actions under project NMP TeAm 3 have short term and long term impacts, stemming from the Improvement of the NMP NCP Network provided services to their clients. The short term impact is the better awareness of the H2020 NMBP programme and calls to the research community and more and better quality proposals being submitted from also newcomers. The long term impact is raising the awareness of proposers in schemes or modus operandi linked with new EU initiatives likely to be decided in the last 3 years of H2020, and in connection with the preparation of future research programmes. A further long term impact is assisting the Commission in the achievement of the flagship initiative Europe 2020 in which great emphasis is based on research and innovation.
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