PERIOD 1:
The NCP Academy Concept has been developed to set the framework for the project and the training within the project. The concept is available on the NCP Academy webpage.
A Common train-the-NCP approach has been developed for on-site-training and webinars.
An Annual Training Calendar has been developed and is in use among partners.
A google group was established for all Legal and Financial NCPs. This has proved to be a huge success with a lot of daily activity and questions being answered rapidly by Legal and Financial NCP colleagues.
The following on-site training courses have been developed and implemented: legal and financial issues in Horizon 2020 (Copenhagen, November 2015); Synergies between Horizon 2020, European Structural and Investment Funds and other measures: (Brussels, October 2015); Cross-cutting issues such as gender, IPR, ethics, open access, standards (Lisbon, November 2015); Innovation concepts and EU Innovation Policy (webinar, May 2015). Information on other webinars, on-site-training covering more specialist topics and training modules provided to other NCP Networks and the European Commission can be obtained on our website.
A mapping survey of Key Performance Indicators has been completed initially among consortium members.
Five Meet & Exchange Workshops have been organised: Spotlight on Innovation Procurement in HORIZON 2020” (Vienna, May 2015); Personnel Costs in Horizon 2020 (Brussels, October 2015); Open Access (Brussels, March 2016); NCP Systems: Impact of NCP networks (Copenhagen, June 2016); Access to Risk Finance (Brussels, June 2016).
An NCP-specific input to the interim evaluation of Horizon 2020 is currently being prepared in consultation with the NCP community.
PERIOD 2:
The NCP Academy training concept was revised based on the experience of the first period of the NCP Academy. The new version was shorter, more hands-on and more practically orientated.
The project has seen a total of 9 train-the-trainers in this reporting period.
An event manual was created to ensure high quality of trainings and to ease the burden of planning the training.
Seven Legal and Financial mentoring activities took place. A total of 120 Legal and Financial questions were answered through the Google group for Legal and Financial NCPs. The Legal and Financial database contains 505 individual Q&A entries.
Sixty three trainings were held from 9 June 2016 to 8 June 2018: 20 on-site trainings; 9 train-the-trainers (on-site, webinars, moderation); 8 requests from NCP networks and the European Commission; 26 webinars.
To examine Key Performance Indicators for NCP systems in Europe detailed information was compiled on NCP organisations and services (budget, number of employees, participation in NCP projects etc). The set of possible indicators that could be used on a voluntary basis by NCP systems was prepared and released as a public report.
Twelve Meet & Exchange Workshops were organised. The reports of the workshops are publicly available on the website of the NCP Academy and were pro-actively distributed among the wider NCP community, European Commission and further stakeholders to enable them to benefit from the findings. Several workshops developed recommendations for an improved implementation of Horizon 2020 valuable for the European Commission.
Three Task Forces completed their reviews on:
- Preparation of an NCP input paper for interim evaluation of Horizon 2020;
- Preparation of a report on the impact of NCP projects from the NCP perspective;
- Performance monitoring of Horizon 2020.
Their reports are publicly available on the NCP Academy website.
The coordinator, with the Work Package leaders, presented updates from the NCP Academy consortium to the European Commission meetings of NCP Coordinators, Legal & Financial NCPs and Coordinators of NCP Network at regular intervals.
The NCP Academy team liaised with the coordinators and teams of the thematic NCP Networks, contributing to the shared scheduling of events and activities.
