Periodic Reporting for period 1 - COSMOS2020plus (Continuation of the Cooperation of Space NCPs as a Means to Optimise Services under Horizon 2020)
Reporting period: 2019-06-01 to 2021-12-31
COSMOS2020plus was the forth edition of the EU funded network of Space National Contact Points (NCPs). The objective of the network was to join forces in order to increase the overall quality of NCP services aiming at better and more successful proposals submitted by scientists, researchers and innovators under the Space part of Horizon 2020 and later Horizon Europe. For this, the activities comprised several means for exchange and better knowledge, like training sessions and workshops. On the service side the project complemented the national services with a European layer, starting from a joint website with relevant news and a newsletter to partner search support and information days and brokerage events during open Space calls. Again, all activities were successfully accomplished although delayed through the impact of the pandemic. A next project proposal, COSMOS4HE (COSMOS for Horizone Europe) has been submitted and is expected to start in May/June 2022.
Under COSMOS2020plus the Space NCP network continued its successful work from the forerunner projects. It organised several information days and brokerage events even after the pandemic had hit the European society. Several trainings helped increasing the knowledge of the National Contact Points and thus improving their work. Within workshops the Space NCPs shared good practices and discussed how to approach the widening challenges. The newsletter service had been sustained to provide a Europe wide information service. The website content was regularly updated. After the change of the Framework Programmes from Horizon 2020 to Horizon Europe also the backend of the website www.space-ncp.net which had been created under the forerunner project, was worked over to provide the floor for the future network project COSMOS4HE which will probably start in the second quarter of 2022.
National Contact Points are supposed to provide support to proposers and to inform multipliers and other interested parties about dedicated parts of EU Framework Research Programmes. While they would normally just work on national level, the EU funding allows them to join forces. This helps introducing additional services like European events, a website with up to date information or a newsletter service. It furthermore enables them to exchange good practices and profit from jointly organised trainings on work related topics. This aims at better balancing the quality of their services and finally at improving the quality of submitted proposals. The networking also helps integrating newer and less successful countries to increase their chances.