The EUGLOHRIA project has developed a solid working methodology since its inception. The three dimensions announced in its initial text, namely the initiation of work on pandemic crisis research, the sharing of practices and information on access to research platforms and infrastructures between partners, as well as the bringing together of the innovation ecosystems of the five sites of the EUGLOHRIA consortium have been thoroughly explored and have led to several solid achievements.
The WP2 of the project, dedicated to the first of the three components, was based on a census of the partners' projects related to Covid-19 research, giving rise to an analysis of more than 306 projects relying on a methodology for classifying projects into 4 categories 'Understand', 'Detect', 'Act against', and 'Consequences'. An analysis of the themes of these projects, based on an extraction and advanced classification by keywords, allowed the definition of themes that could give rise to collaborations between research teams within the alliance. A thematic conference was organised on 16 and 17 May 2022, feeding into a seed funding mechanism to finance researchers' missions to partners in order to increase research collaborations. Based on a series of additional scientific workshops organised jointly with the WP3 of the project, the WP2 actively led a community of researchers from the five universities. Using an original methodological approach based on surveys of the researchers behind projects relating to COVID issues, WP2 produced a set of scientific policy recommendations aiming at providing a structured response to future pandemic crises. The WP3 of the project carried out an inventory of almost 800 pages of the platforms and research infrastructures of the five partners involved. A work of identification of the conditions of access to the platforms of the partners was conducted. Creating the seed of a legal basis of facility sharing was achieved and a Memorandum of Understanding was signed accordingly. The WP3 engaged a work on creating the operational framework of facility sharing between the universities and produced accordingly a handbook of operational regulations. Providing visibility and access to facilities were provided to the research communities through a webpage and a standard proposal scheme. Then, sharing and use of research facilities was concretely explored through the implementation of more than ten pilot research projects relying on experimental infrastructures.
The third dimension of the project (WP4) initiated the development of structured relations between the actors of the innovation ecosystems of the five sites of the EUGLOHRIA consortium, and carried out a rich survey among the private stakeholders, shared with the Erasmus+ component of the EUGLOH alliance, in order to identify the needs of the private actors and thus the levers of action within the framework of the EUGLOHRIA project, and beyond. Mapping the existing best practices to promote innovation was carried out by taking into account different types of practices and different target groups, respectively. An action plan to promote innovation and business cooperation was carried out. In this purpose, academia-business network practices were probed from the supply side, and from the demand side through a survey to external stakeholders. An impact assessment and action plan for a EUGLOH Alliance observatory for Global Health was made accordingly on the basis of a survey on the potential impact of the observatory, and an impact assessment and action plan were prepared accordingly. These thematic dimensions have been supplemented and supported by a whole section devoted to dissemination and communication (WP5).
