Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Re-UNITA (Research for UNITA)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2023-03-01 al 2024-10-31
The European University Initiative, launched in 2019, has triggered increasingly deep and wide-ranging cooperation between higher education institutions.
Among these activities, research and innovation is a priority for our institutions in order to contribute to our knowledge-based societies and the economic and social development of the European Union.
The UNITA Alliance, launched in October 2020 between the six “historical” universities, has already achieved important activities in the field of research. Indeed, Research and Innovation hubs have been created, in the above-mentioned thematic, with the aim to build communities and develop common activities. Thus, a mapping of research projects has been carried out (UNITA research cartography, holding more than 650 projects) , PhD Cotuelles have been funded (more than 40), and numerous seminars and events dedicated to research have been organised. These activities have also led to the preparation of proposals to answer Horizon Europe calls (MSCA Cofund Docotral Network and EU-T(r)RACKS)
Re-UNITA project aims to develop even deeper research relationships and collaborations, through the harmonisation of our research strategies and the pooling of our assets. Our main final objectives are to enhance more ambitious research projects, to create an environment conducive to the development of researchers' careers, and to disseminate our research results and practices to our local territories and partners:
- To elaborate joint, collaborative European research programmes based on interdisciplinarity: Re-UNITA intends to collect data and to identify the barriers in order to facilitate collaborative research with high scientific impact and to promote interdisciplinary approaches on its three core topics; renewable energy, cultural heritage and circular economy;
- To provide one of the most attractive and innovative environment in Europe for researchers and students: Re-UNITA is developing a common strategy of attractiveness for Europe researchers at all career stages and to valorise the high potential of the Alliance’s human capital.
- To create an innovative European Network of shared infrastructures: Re-UNITA capitalizes on the Alliance research-based infrastructures to give an access to more facilities (experimental equipment, documentary resources) in order to develop collaborative and disruptive research and to reinforce cooperation with academic and private institution. Easy access to high level equipment is crucial for attracting talents and opening up to collaborations.
- To be an actor of socio-economic vitality and diversification for mountains regions and cross-border communities: Re-UNITA also aims to simulate synergies between academic research and non-academic sectors in order to ensure the economic strength of the mountain, cross-border communities. Such cooperation will maximize the know-how of each UNITA partners, and act as a multiplier for the economic benefit of each territory of the alliance.
Among these activities, research and innovation is a priority for our institutions in order to contribute to our knowledge-based societies and the economic and social development of the European Union.
The UNITA Alliance, launched in October 2020 between the six “historical” universities, has already achieved important activities in the field of research. Indeed, Research and Innovation hubs have been created, in the above-mentioned thematic, with the aim to build communities and develop common activities. Thus, a mapping of research projects has been carried out (UNITA research cartography, holding more than 650 projects) , PhD Cotuelles have been funded (more than 40), and numerous seminars and events dedicated to research have been organised. These activities have also led to the preparation of proposals to answer Horizon Europe calls (MSCA Cofund Docotral Network and EU-T(r)RACKS)
Re-UNITA project aims to develop even deeper research relationships and collaborations, through the harmonisation of our research strategies and the pooling of our assets. Our main final objectives are to enhance more ambitious research projects, to create an environment conducive to the development of researchers' careers, and to disseminate our research results and practices to our local territories and partners:
- To elaborate joint, collaborative European research programmes based on interdisciplinarity: Re-UNITA intends to collect data and to identify the barriers in order to facilitate collaborative research with high scientific impact and to promote interdisciplinary approaches on its three core topics; renewable energy, cultural heritage and circular economy;
- To provide one of the most attractive and innovative environment in Europe for researchers and students: Re-UNITA is developing a common strategy of attractiveness for Europe researchers at all career stages and to valorise the high potential of the Alliance’s human capital.
- To create an innovative European Network of shared infrastructures: Re-UNITA capitalizes on the Alliance research-based infrastructures to give an access to more facilities (experimental equipment, documentary resources) in order to develop collaborative and disruptive research and to reinforce cooperation with academic and private institution. Easy access to high level equipment is crucial for attracting talents and opening up to collaborations.
- To be an actor of socio-economic vitality and diversification for mountains regions and cross-border communities: Re-UNITA also aims to simulate synergies between academic research and non-academic sectors in order to ensure the economic strength of the mountain, cross-border communities. Such cooperation will maximize the know-how of each UNITA partners, and act as a multiplier for the economic benefit of each territory of the alliance.
In order to be able to build harmonised and coherent research strategies within UNITA, a survey was conducted, under the coordination of USMB, to gather key information on the following data:
- research funding in the institutions of the alliance
- organisation of research and research units
- human resources involved in research
Thanks to this survey and associated resulting report, we have now a more concrete and complete picture of the organisation of research in the alliance. This result enables us to work in a more comprehensive way, based on a better mutual knowledge.
One of the UNITA objectives regarding research policies is to highlight and promote interdisciplinarity and open-innovation. A think-tank, composed, among others, by UNITA R&I hubs directors, vice-rectors for research and coordinating team of Re-UNITA, has drawn a Roadmap to interdisciplinarity and open-innovation in UNITA. This roadmap is a reference document targeting specific activities to be organized and designed in order to promote interdisciplinarity in all research-connected UNITA activities.
An important task has been dedicated to the European label HRS4R, and a state of the art among UNITA partners. Since two partners had already obtained the label before Re-UNITA kick-off, they have been able to share their practices and experiences regarding this label. A questionnaire has been shared among all partners to map their status regarding the HRS4R label. Thanks to the answer, a roadmap has been designed on October 2022 and finalized in February 2023, describing the steps the partners will follow to get the HRS4R label.
Another priority addressed regarding the human resources and the environment offered to UNITA researchers is the gender issues and imbalances within research careers.
Re-UNITA is also experimenting new practices, dedicated to the integration of local partners in research. Indeed, the Phd Talent Development programme (task 3.3) has been launched with the objective to raise challenges proposed by local stakeholders to be solved by UNITA PhD Students. More precisely, each university has invited local partners (NGOs, local authorities, companies, etc.) to identify relevant challenges in the three core thematic. These challenges will be presented to teams of PhD students in a competition to be organised in the second half of the project.
The development of a network of shared infrastructures has been carried out in the framework of the project with the objective to provide easy access to some of the infrastructures of each university to the researcher community of the whole alliance. Such a development was made difficult because each University has specific legal rules (that might come from national level), infrastructure property circumstances and different maturity levels.
The first phase (M1-M12), consisted in designing, building and agreeing the way that the infrastructures provided by six different Universities from 5 different countries might be shared.
Held on September 22nd 2022, the first SpinOff Forum, was an online meeting created in order to show the SpinOff ecosystem of the UNITA Universities, presenting successful spinoffs, showing what they do and promoting their work.
Autumn Entrepreneurship School
The first Autumn Entrepreneurship School happened in October 19th 2022. It was organized as an online training day in entrepreneurship for all researchers of the alliance (specially PhD students) who wish to receive specific and professional training in entrepreneurship.
The Innovation Prize intended to boost Open Innovation in the UNITA community and to contribute to the knowledge of Open Innovation between partners inside the UNITA community, and outside
Involvement of citizens, civil society and public actors in research and innovation and development of Open Science practices
- research funding in the institutions of the alliance
- organisation of research and research units
- human resources involved in research
Thanks to this survey and associated resulting report, we have now a more concrete and complete picture of the organisation of research in the alliance. This result enables us to work in a more comprehensive way, based on a better mutual knowledge.
One of the UNITA objectives regarding research policies is to highlight and promote interdisciplinarity and open-innovation. A think-tank, composed, among others, by UNITA R&I hubs directors, vice-rectors for research and coordinating team of Re-UNITA, has drawn a Roadmap to interdisciplinarity and open-innovation in UNITA. This roadmap is a reference document targeting specific activities to be organized and designed in order to promote interdisciplinarity in all research-connected UNITA activities.
An important task has been dedicated to the European label HRS4R, and a state of the art among UNITA partners. Since two partners had already obtained the label before Re-UNITA kick-off, they have been able to share their practices and experiences regarding this label. A questionnaire has been shared among all partners to map their status regarding the HRS4R label. Thanks to the answer, a roadmap has been designed on October 2022 and finalized in February 2023, describing the steps the partners will follow to get the HRS4R label.
Another priority addressed regarding the human resources and the environment offered to UNITA researchers is the gender issues and imbalances within research careers.
Re-UNITA is also experimenting new practices, dedicated to the integration of local partners in research. Indeed, the Phd Talent Development programme (task 3.3) has been launched with the objective to raise challenges proposed by local stakeholders to be solved by UNITA PhD Students. More precisely, each university has invited local partners (NGOs, local authorities, companies, etc.) to identify relevant challenges in the three core thematic. These challenges will be presented to teams of PhD students in a competition to be organised in the second half of the project.
The development of a network of shared infrastructures has been carried out in the framework of the project with the objective to provide easy access to some of the infrastructures of each university to the researcher community of the whole alliance. Such a development was made difficult because each University has specific legal rules (that might come from national level), infrastructure property circumstances and different maturity levels.
The first phase (M1-M12), consisted in designing, building and agreeing the way that the infrastructures provided by six different Universities from 5 different countries might be shared.
Held on September 22nd 2022, the first SpinOff Forum, was an online meeting created in order to show the SpinOff ecosystem of the UNITA Universities, presenting successful spinoffs, showing what they do and promoting their work.
Autumn Entrepreneurship School
The first Autumn Entrepreneurship School happened in October 19th 2022. It was organized as an online training day in entrepreneurship for all researchers of the alliance (specially PhD students) who wish to receive specific and professional training in entrepreneurship.
The Innovation Prize intended to boost Open Innovation in the UNITA community and to contribute to the knowledge of Open Innovation between partners inside the UNITA community, and outside
Involvement of citizens, civil society and public actors in research and innovation and development of Open Science practices
The first part of the project has already brought us many transformations and progress, both within the universities and at the level of the UNITA Alliance, often beyond our initial expectations:
- Good practices exchanges
- Development of UNITA research community
- Work with local partners & citizen science
- Political and strategical dialogue on R&I subjects
- Inclusion of new universities partners
- Participation in FOREU2 working groups
- Good practices exchanges
- Development of UNITA research community
- Work with local partners & citizen science
- Political and strategical dialogue on R&I subjects
- Inclusion of new universities partners
- Participation in FOREU2 working groups