Research and Innovation Strategy for the CIVIS Alliance

Project Information

RIS4CIVIS

Grant agreement ID: 101016691

DOI

10.3030/101016691

Project closed

EC signature date 24 November 2020

Start date 1 January 2021

End date 31 December 2023

Funded under

• SCIENCE WITH AND FOR SOCIETY

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 1 999 795,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITE D'AIX MARSEILLE
France

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - RIS4CIVIS (Research and Innovation Strategy for the CIVIS Alliance)

Reporting period: 2022-07-01 to 2023-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The project “RIS4CIVIS” has for main objective to support the Research and Innovation dimension of the CIVIS European University in synergy with its education component.
RIS4CIVIS will enable the CIVIS Alliance to pave the way and pool out its expertise to address the 21st-century challenges through world-class R&I and share recommendations and best practices with the other European Universities Alliances.

For CIVIS to achieve this objective, we aim to develop an integrated, long-term R&I Strategy, based on our complementary strengths, but also addressing obstacles that stand in the way of deeper R&I cooperation. In this regard, our strategy takes into consideration the important roles that academia, industry, government, civil society and the environment play in R&I.
By assessing our strengths, finding shared priorities for development and improvement, and testing innovative measures, we are developing a roadmap for the future of research and innovation in CIVIS.

The RIS4CIVIS project integrates the following dimensions as key conditions for successful cooperation between modern, forward-looking Universities (‘Transformational Modules’):
1. Developing a Common Research and Innovation Strategy
2. Sharing Infrastructures
3. Reinforcing Academia-Business R&I Cooperation
4. Strengthening Human Capital
5. Mainstreaming of Open Science
6. Embedding Citizens and Society.

For each of these six ‘Transformation Modules’, we will:
1. Establish, through intensive benchmarks, the current situation across our Alliance and
define the ideal endpoint;
2. Identify, through consensus-building, Roadmaps to reach these endpoints and to remove
legal, regulatory, financial or other barriers in the short-, medium- and long-terms: where
the removal of barriers is not in our hands, recommendations will be developed for national and
European policy-makers;
3. Implement our case studies-based Roadmaps, thereby testing and validating them.

The knowledge gained in each of these activities, across all six Transformation Modules, will nurture the ongoing development of the CIVIS Research & Innovation Strategy. We will synthesise the outcomes of the benchmarking, consensus-building and case studies phases into a CIVIS Institutional Transformation Model to serve as a source of inspiration for other European Universities wishing to engage in R&I cooperation as well as for the European Commission in designing its future programmes and policies.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the first six months of the project, each Module has worked on establishing an inventory of the current practices and resources available within each CIVIS Alliance member -related to the six thematic areas dealt with in the different Modules- as well as on identifying the legal, political or financial barriers in relation to their respective topics, taking into consideration factors that are both internal and external to each university. The first results have been compiled in a global report, available on the CIVIS website, that has enabled us to create a shared basis for the implementation of the next phase of the project. It contributes to strengthening our mutual understanding and will allow us to launch ambitious projects to reinforce our integration and define our common R&I strategy.

Based on the results of the Benchmark, the following phase of consensus-building has enabled each Module to identify their short/medium/long-term desired end-points as well as the barriers that could compromise these objectives and to elaborate roadmaps that would allow them to be carried out while avoiding these pitfalls. When necessary, we have also drafted recommendations for removing legal or regulatory barriers addressed to National and/or European policy-makers.

To reach their own end-points, each Module has identified one or several case studies to be implemented in the next and final stage of the project, which will last eighteen months. These pilot actions will allow us to test the relevance and feasibility of our strategy and to assess the transferability of the model we will create within CIVIS to other European Universities Alliances.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

By developing the CIVIS R&I Strategy, the RIS4CIVIS project intends to have parallel impacts at institutional and political levels, even beyond the CIVIS Alliance itself.

1. Impacts on the CIVIS Alliance
We expect RIS4CIVIS to have both institutional and political impacts on our Alliance. Indeed, the Strategy will not only contribute to strengthening the R&I capacities of our Alliance and of its constituent universities, but will also play an important role in consolidating CIVIS as a European University that is able to significantly contribute to addressing major societal challenges, integrating both the research and education components.
The CIVIS R&I Strategy will also enable CIVIS to contribute to the development of the European Research Area and of future European Research and Innovation agendas.

2. Impacts on other Universities/Alliances
The Institutional Transformation Model that will emerge from the results obtained at the end of the three phases of the project will also be enriched in light of interactions with other Alliances, so as to identify common challenges, practices and solutions.
This Model will also contain Recommendations addressed to policy-makers, on the removal of legal, regulatory or other obstacles to R&I cooperation between Universities. As part of our communication & dissemination plan, we will engage with national and European policy-makers with the aim of removing these obstacles: this work will also benefit cooperation between other Universities and University Alliances.
Through regular exchanges with other Alliances and through the organisation of joint dissemination events, we will be able to spread the solutions we have found, our successful practices and overall cooperation model, at the same time as we will be able to enrich our findings with good practices and solutions developed by other Alliances that are working to address the same challenges as us while facing similar constraints. This will allow us to mutually increase our respective capacities for collaborative Research and Innovation in a European environment.

3. Impacts on European and national policy-makers, including the European Commission
Based on our research and practical experience and on our interactions with other University Alliances, our Recommendations will therefore provide a solid basis for defining legal agendas to enable us to complete our institutional transformation.
Additionally, as part of the development of our R&I Strategy and of our interactions with stakeholders, we will review and include in our analysis the policies and funding, at regional, national and European level, related to all the policy sectors relevant to the activities of CIVIS. Our aim will be to identify how the ambitions and funding of all these policy areas can best be combined to achieve maximum synergies within our Alliance and its R&I Strategy. The results of our analysis will also be included in our Institutional Transformation Model, and will usefully inform the design of future synergies between Horizon Europe, Erasmus+, the regional funds and other relevant programmes.

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