Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EUt EXTRAS (European university of technology - Experimentation to Transform Research Activities and Steering)
Reporting period: 2023-03-01 to 2024-08-31
EUT EXTRAS – EXperimentation to Transform Research Activities and Steering – is the complementary project to EUt+. It is a key transformative action for EUt+, focusing on remodelling the steering of research and aiming at reaching critical mass, through a pioneering institutional experimentation. The knowledge gained will be disseminated widely to inform European public policies.
In today’s context, even more than when the EXTRAS’s bid was submitted Fall 2020, there is a crucial need for a novel roadmap for Europe. This need results from the evolving demands of our economies and societies to build a greener, more sustainable, integrated, and inclusive Europe. EUt EXTRAS’ aim is to support the institutional transformation necessary for Europe’s industrial renewal, through four overarching objectives:
Objective 1 – Achieve institutional and infrastructural integration to align our respective Research and Innovation strategies and deliver a common R&D Roadmap
Objective 2 – Develop Human Capital for Europe to achieve collective excellence, agile career paths and truly participatory processes
Objective 3 – Foster exchanges with the broader society to be locally anchored and reach global impact
Objective 4 – Experiment methods and disseminate to provide a generalizable model of institutional transformation
In other words, based on in-depth analyses of research collaborations, one of the major goals of EUT EXTRAS is to establish a common research and innovation agenda (WPX5), and to do so in a more collaborative and participatory manner (WPX6). In order to achieve innovation in a relevant and socially and managerially embedded way, EUt EXTRAS aims at experimenting 4 real-world laboratories functioning as test beds.
In today’s context, even more than when the EXTRAS’s bid was submitted Fall 2020, there is a crucial need for a novel roadmap for Europe. This need results from the evolving demands of our economies and societies to build a greener, more sustainable, integrated, and inclusive Europe. EUt EXTRAS’ aim is to support the institutional transformation necessary for Europe’s industrial renewal, through four overarching objectives:
Objective 1 – Achieve institutional and infrastructural integration to align our respective Research and Innovation strategies and deliver a common R&D Roadmap
Objective 2 – Develop Human Capital for Europe to achieve collective excellence, agile career paths and truly participatory processes
Objective 3 – Foster exchanges with the broader society to be locally anchored and reach global impact
Objective 4 – Experiment methods and disseminate to provide a generalizable model of institutional transformation
In other words, based on in-depth analyses of research collaborations, one of the major goals of EUT EXTRAS is to establish a common research and innovation agenda (WPX5), and to do so in a more collaborative and participatory manner (WPX6). In order to achieve innovation in a relevant and socially and managerially embedded way, EUt EXTRAS aims at experimenting 4 real-world laboratories functioning as test beds.
The work performed is described in terms of main achievements from a global and overarching perspective, starting with tangible results like developed tools. The main results achieved so far are the following:
i) Tools to map joint research potential and identify research trends have been developed.
ii) Orientation map and action plan initiating the creation of commons have been developed.
iii) A methodology of a communicational approach for the promotion of European science and technology has been established.
iv) Ethics is now recognized across EUt+ as a fundamental part of technology and technological innovation.
v) An ethical framework to EUt+ human-centred research has been established.
vi) A HR framework to support academic careers towards societal impact has been established.
vii) A methodology kit to reinforce research collaboration aligned with IP legislation is being developed.
viii) A first analysis of the necessity and possible leverages of a deepened level of awareness and maturity, to allow full appropriation and buy-in, has been led.
i) Tools to map joint research potential and identify research trends have been developed.
ii) Orientation map and action plan initiating the creation of commons have been developed.
iii) A methodology of a communicational approach for the promotion of European science and technology has been established.
iv) Ethics is now recognized across EUt+ as a fundamental part of technology and technological innovation.
v) An ethical framework to EUt+ human-centred research has been established.
vi) A HR framework to support academic careers towards societal impact has been established.
vii) A methodology kit to reinforce research collaboration aligned with IP legislation is being developed.
viii) A first analysis of the necessity and possible leverages of a deepened level of awareness and maturity, to allow full appropriation and buy-in, has been led.
At the core of EUt EXTRAS is the proposal of societal impact as an alternative to scientific impact, coherent with the principle of “Science with and for Society” and EUt+ values of “Think human first” and “collective excellence”. As such, in light of the achievements realised and insights gained so far in our experimentation, that this periodic report is presenting, the expected results and impacts of EUt EXTRAS are ever more relevant.
Tools developed
The tools developed within WP4 are free to use. These tools can be useful to industrial partners and society, in order to find the right people in EUt+ working in specific areas / scientific fields. This open use is expected to enhance the ‘science with society’ (along with the Citizens Labs - TX4.4) notion in a practical way, thus having societal impact.
Overall, the achievements in TX4.3 are far ahead of schedule. The four listed tools of the dashboard are well-advanced. The delivery plan is by the end of the project while we are already in the beta version and the tools have already been circulated within the EUt+ community (ERO, EITTO, and researchers). The new methods developed for topic modelling and topic models visualisation via Graphs, is a scientific innovation per se and has given two conference proceedings papers, one indexed by IEEE Xplore, and the other (not yet published but accepted for publication) by Springer Link. Beyond the scientific impact, this bundle of tools/methodologies allows higher research performance with the same limited budget, enhancing economic/competitive impact.
The aim from now on is to develop a common dashboard by the end of the project, that will include the toolkit developed in TX4.1 after iterative improvement of the beta versions of tools developed so far. The tools will be presented at the midterm Review on the 10th of May on the basis of specific and EUt+ user-centered scenarios.
Contribution to assessing societal impact
Beyond the important scientific contribution that the methodology for evaluating societal impact will bring (bridging the theoretical gap in assessing the quality of Mode 2 research, focused on societal impact, as opposed to Mode 1 science, focused on scientific impact, presented in D6.2 to be submitted at M36), at this stage, the results are analysable in terms of concrete achievements of EXTRAS contributing to societal, scientific or economic impact.
If we consider social innovation as being defined as the implementation of new solutions for working, learning and social protection for the benefit of workers, WPX1 would have a double social impact: i) better conditions for researchers would be reached (TX1.1 TX1.2) these researchers would travel across the campuses, making the EU-wide research system in general, more attractive to researchers, and more competitive from a regional perspective (TX1.3) to ii) develop our research in EUt+ for the benefit of society.
The social impact would be the same for TX2.3. By applying ECT Lab+ results and analyses to concretely change the collective and individual practices of researchers in all laboratories, the goal is to have a transforming action on the way we conduct research (as well as technology transfer and training) by embedding the European values of technology at all levels of research.
From these improved research careers and research practices, economic and competitive impacts would be the indirect impacts that follow social impact.
The EUt EXTRAS experimentation, in particular its most ambitious inter-institutional objective of creating commons (WPX5), has an important positive impact for the researchers, for the member universities and for EUt+ as a whole. The dashboard of WPX4, which centralises all information allowing concrete in-depth collaboration and sharing infrastructure, appears to be playing a crucial role. The developed tools positively impact research, giving us the necessary means to support transfer in projects, transfer in research, and finally research for society, now made possible at an international level. This creating commons makes the most of what each member university was doing at one’s national agency level, with an intersectional and multiplying effect, making EUt+ more than the sum of its parts. With this considerable enlarging of the number of beneficiaries - researchers of EUt+, enlarged community of researchers, stakeholders whether from industry or society – combined with better communication about EUt+ research, the potential for societal impact is tremendous.
Tools developed
The tools developed within WP4 are free to use. These tools can be useful to industrial partners and society, in order to find the right people in EUt+ working in specific areas / scientific fields. This open use is expected to enhance the ‘science with society’ (along with the Citizens Labs - TX4.4) notion in a practical way, thus having societal impact.
Overall, the achievements in TX4.3 are far ahead of schedule. The four listed tools of the dashboard are well-advanced. The delivery plan is by the end of the project while we are already in the beta version and the tools have already been circulated within the EUt+ community (ERO, EITTO, and researchers). The new methods developed for topic modelling and topic models visualisation via Graphs, is a scientific innovation per se and has given two conference proceedings papers, one indexed by IEEE Xplore, and the other (not yet published but accepted for publication) by Springer Link. Beyond the scientific impact, this bundle of tools/methodologies allows higher research performance with the same limited budget, enhancing economic/competitive impact.
The aim from now on is to develop a common dashboard by the end of the project, that will include the toolkit developed in TX4.1 after iterative improvement of the beta versions of tools developed so far. The tools will be presented at the midterm Review on the 10th of May on the basis of specific and EUt+ user-centered scenarios.
Contribution to assessing societal impact
Beyond the important scientific contribution that the methodology for evaluating societal impact will bring (bridging the theoretical gap in assessing the quality of Mode 2 research, focused on societal impact, as opposed to Mode 1 science, focused on scientific impact, presented in D6.2 to be submitted at M36), at this stage, the results are analysable in terms of concrete achievements of EXTRAS contributing to societal, scientific or economic impact.
If we consider social innovation as being defined as the implementation of new solutions for working, learning and social protection for the benefit of workers, WPX1 would have a double social impact: i) better conditions for researchers would be reached (TX1.1 TX1.2) these researchers would travel across the campuses, making the EU-wide research system in general, more attractive to researchers, and more competitive from a regional perspective (TX1.3) to ii) develop our research in EUt+ for the benefit of society.
The social impact would be the same for TX2.3. By applying ECT Lab+ results and analyses to concretely change the collective and individual practices of researchers in all laboratories, the goal is to have a transforming action on the way we conduct research (as well as technology transfer and training) by embedding the European values of technology at all levels of research.
From these improved research careers and research practices, economic and competitive impacts would be the indirect impacts that follow social impact.
The EUt EXTRAS experimentation, in particular its most ambitious inter-institutional objective of creating commons (WPX5), has an important positive impact for the researchers, for the member universities and for EUt+ as a whole. The dashboard of WPX4, which centralises all information allowing concrete in-depth collaboration and sharing infrastructure, appears to be playing a crucial role. The developed tools positively impact research, giving us the necessary means to support transfer in projects, transfer in research, and finally research for society, now made possible at an international level. This creating commons makes the most of what each member university was doing at one’s national agency level, with an intersectional and multiplying effect, making EUt+ more than the sum of its parts. With this considerable enlarging of the number of beneficiaries - researchers of EUt+, enlarged community of researchers, stakeholders whether from industry or society – combined with better communication about EUt+ research, the potential for societal impact is tremendous.