Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AURORA RI (Aurora Alliance - Research and Innovation for Societal Impact)
Reporting period: 2021-10-01 to 2023-03-31
What is the problem/issue being addressed?
The goal of AURORA RI is to facilitate research collaboration between the member universities. The project develops closer research and innovation support structures within the partner universities. The issues being addressed are underlying systemic differences between the institutions, countries, and cultures. There are barriers to research collaboration, and we seek to identify those and eliminate them wherever possible. The project is focused on research support systems, rather than research itself.
Why is it important for society?
We believe that the societal importance of our work can be divided into two categories:
1. Levelling the playing field.
It is our goal to establish an assessment technique that is more inclusive than those commonly used. This is in line with the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (COARA). The Aurora Universities are all signatories of the latest COARA Agreement, published on 20 July 2022.
We are developing training plans on transversal skills in recruitment. Through this, we intend to develop and implement a culture and practice of recruitment, development and reward for academic staff conducive to the matching of academic excellence and societal impact in education, research and innovation.
Additionally, we are building an extensive knowledge base of Open Science resources, policies and practices. The Aurora Open Science Monitor allows anyone to explore the practices, publications, datasets, and software published by Aurora partners.
Our goal is to combine resources and experiences within the consortium and open them to other European alliances and beyond, allowing others to use, replicate and improve.
2. Engaging with societies
Through deliverables 4.1 and 4.2 in this project, the members have shared best practices on entrepreneurial activities and planned training programmes for university staff. By sharing best practices and R&I networks, thereby linking the local and regional R&I ecosystems, we enlarge our innovation ecosystem and contribute to the European R&I ecosystem. Through increased cooperation between academia, for-profit (businesses, entrepreneurs), not-for profit organisations as well as public sectors and authorities, each member and in turn Aurora as a whole can further streamline knowledge and technology transfer and increase the impact of their research activities and strengthen local and regional R&I ecosystems.
Our ultimate goal is to increase the meaningful involvement and engagement of all groups of citizens, civil society and public/cities authorities in research, innovation and education by building a knowledge base on citizen engagement methodologies and build the engagement capacities of our staff and students. To this end, a report on Inventory of Inspiring Engagement Practices (Deliverable 7.1) was submitted in M14, wherein the universities each share 1-3 examples of robust practices for citizen and/or societal engagement.
What are the overall objectives?
The overall objective of this project is to strengthen and streamline research and innovation support to enhance academic excellence and the innovation environment in our universities. This complements the Aurora Learning for Societal Impact strategy with a long-term Aurora strategy towards research and innovation (R&I) for Societal Impact, supporting achievement of the SDGs. By matching he educational and institutional focus on support with a research and innovation aspect, the Aurora RI project further complements the goals of the Erasmus+ project, intensifying and deepening the links between the universities on several levels. This, in turn, will help building a common identity as part of the European knowledge system, which combines education with research and innovation. The project has seven specific objectives supporting the overall objective, which are described in chapter 1.1 of the DOA in the Grant Agreement, and in the technical report on Work Packages.
The goal of AURORA RI is to facilitate research collaboration between the member universities. The project develops closer research and innovation support structures within the partner universities. The issues being addressed are underlying systemic differences between the institutions, countries, and cultures. There are barriers to research collaboration, and we seek to identify those and eliminate them wherever possible. The project is focused on research support systems, rather than research itself.
Why is it important for society?
We believe that the societal importance of our work can be divided into two categories:
1. Levelling the playing field.
It is our goal to establish an assessment technique that is more inclusive than those commonly used. This is in line with the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (COARA). The Aurora Universities are all signatories of the latest COARA Agreement, published on 20 July 2022.
We are developing training plans on transversal skills in recruitment. Through this, we intend to develop and implement a culture and practice of recruitment, development and reward for academic staff conducive to the matching of academic excellence and societal impact in education, research and innovation.
Additionally, we are building an extensive knowledge base of Open Science resources, policies and practices. The Aurora Open Science Monitor allows anyone to explore the practices, publications, datasets, and software published by Aurora partners.
Our goal is to combine resources and experiences within the consortium and open them to other European alliances and beyond, allowing others to use, replicate and improve.
2. Engaging with societies
Through deliverables 4.1 and 4.2 in this project, the members have shared best practices on entrepreneurial activities and planned training programmes for university staff. By sharing best practices and R&I networks, thereby linking the local and regional R&I ecosystems, we enlarge our innovation ecosystem and contribute to the European R&I ecosystem. Through increased cooperation between academia, for-profit (businesses, entrepreneurs), not-for profit organisations as well as public sectors and authorities, each member and in turn Aurora as a whole can further streamline knowledge and technology transfer and increase the impact of their research activities and strengthen local and regional R&I ecosystems.
Our ultimate goal is to increase the meaningful involvement and engagement of all groups of citizens, civil society and public/cities authorities in research, innovation and education by building a knowledge base on citizen engagement methodologies and build the engagement capacities of our staff and students. To this end, a report on Inventory of Inspiring Engagement Practices (Deliverable 7.1) was submitted in M14, wherein the universities each share 1-3 examples of robust practices for citizen and/or societal engagement.
What are the overall objectives?
The overall objective of this project is to strengthen and streamline research and innovation support to enhance academic excellence and the innovation environment in our universities. This complements the Aurora Learning for Societal Impact strategy with a long-term Aurora strategy towards research and innovation (R&I) for Societal Impact, supporting achievement of the SDGs. By matching he educational and institutional focus on support with a research and innovation aspect, the Aurora RI project further complements the goals of the Erasmus+ project, intensifying and deepening the links between the universities on several levels. This, in turn, will help building a common identity as part of the European knowledge system, which combines education with research and innovation. The project has seven specific objectives supporting the overall objective, which are described in chapter 1.1 of the DOA in the Grant Agreement, and in the technical report on Work Packages.
The project has met every milestone and objective scheduled in this reporting period. All deliverables have been submitted.
The first phase consisted of numerous mapping exercises.
WP2 conducted a feasibility study on opportunities for joint research support, and a subsequently produced a report on barriers to collaboration. WP3 defined a shared understanding of resources and infrastructure and compiled a shared list of key resources. WP4 surveyed business collaboration and entrepreneurial activities across Aurora. WP5 composed a detailed toolkit on best practices in human resources with input from all members. WP7 gathered an inventory of inspiring practices on citizen engagement within the universities and is subsequently designing an engagement capacity matrix. WP8 composed a comprehensive report on the European Universities Alliances and their complementarity to Aurora.
The second and current phase has commenced implementation of activities.
WP2 is designing an online platform for research support. WP3 has drafted and MoU on resource sharing and designed a graphical map of resource locations. WP4 produced a programme for exchange visits and planned capacity building activities, some of which have already taken place. WP5 is finalising an action plan on equality, diversity, and inclusiveness. WP6 has launched the Open Science Monitor, an interactive platform on publications in the consortium. WP7 has scheduled train-the-trainer sessions on societal engagement for the fall of 2023. WP8 participates actively in FOREU2 forums and subgroups. We have contributed to joint statements and are working on joint reports.
The first phase consisted of numerous mapping exercises.
WP2 conducted a feasibility study on opportunities for joint research support, and a subsequently produced a report on barriers to collaboration. WP3 defined a shared understanding of resources and infrastructure and compiled a shared list of key resources. WP4 surveyed business collaboration and entrepreneurial activities across Aurora. WP5 composed a detailed toolkit on best practices in human resources with input from all members. WP7 gathered an inventory of inspiring practices on citizen engagement within the universities and is subsequently designing an engagement capacity matrix. WP8 composed a comprehensive report on the European Universities Alliances and their complementarity to Aurora.
The second and current phase has commenced implementation of activities.
WP2 is designing an online platform for research support. WP3 has drafted and MoU on resource sharing and designed a graphical map of resource locations. WP4 produced a programme for exchange visits and planned capacity building activities, some of which have already taken place. WP5 is finalising an action plan on equality, diversity, and inclusiveness. WP6 has launched the Open Science Monitor, an interactive platform on publications in the consortium. WP7 has scheduled train-the-trainer sessions on societal engagement for the fall of 2023. WP8 participates actively in FOREU2 forums and subgroups. We have contributed to joint statements and are working on joint reports.
The expected impact of the project is to 1) achieve tangible progress towards a common institutional transformation of universities, 2) identify variety of successful models for transformation at research and innovation level in line with the strategy for “European Universities”, 3) create synergy with the “European Universities” education dimension, towards the future of universities in Europe and 4) develop models to facilitate future synergies between Horizon Europe and the Erasmus+ Programme. The project will also 5) increase internationalisation of university activities in the field of research and innovation within and beyond Europe and raise the international profile, 6) secure successful cooperation and governance alignment models in the knowledge society used for future Commission policy initiatives and by the wider higher education sector community for replication/adaptation as well as 7) find ways to spread the solutions, successful practices and cooperation models, in order to ensure that lessons learnt, and benefits will not be limited to the alliances alone. The collaboration of the AURORA universities has been deepened through the project and through the Aurora alliance. The collaboration has gone beyond the Aurora through the active participation of European Universities in FOREU2 platform, spreading best practices and successful solutions to deeper cooperation to solve societal challenges.