Initial situation

In the first funding phase, the newly created, respectively expanded, research support service for scientists was very well accepted in-house and the position of the EU officer was turned into a permanent position.
The rise of EU third-party funding revenues demonstrates also the high priority of EU research at the HSWT. However, the EU-research activities reach their limit because of (infra-) structural conditions: The high teaching load of the professors leads to high burdens especially in the time of consortium formation and application. At the same time, the administrative supervision of EU projects brings administrative staff to their (linguistic) limits. There is also a need for a more intensive and sustainable inter- and transdisciplinary exchange between researchers within the university and with external colleagues and stakeholders.

Objective

The university would like to become more visible in the European Research Area in the medium and long term sense, expand international networks and increase EU third party funding.
Research-active professors should be actively supported and fostered, especially in the time-consuming and resource-intensive application phase.
The competences of the administration in regard of international administrative processes are continuously expanded, consolidated and professionalized through internal training measures.
The existing innovative potential of the students, the experience of the professors and industrial research requirement should be interlinked at eye level and generate new research approaches, networks and competences.

Activities

In a participative process, using workshops and structured interviews, we gathered strengths, needs, visions, opportunities and obstacles in a comprehensive breakdown. The target groups were included early in the process and the development, in order to meet the actual requirements.
A newly developed internal system of incentives now allows for uncomplicated monetary and non-monetary support during the proposal phase of EU projects, where the workload for the researchers is particularly high.
In order to professionalize the administration of EU funded projects we develop an internal training scheme for administrative members of staff, with a focus on intercultural and foreign language competences and communication.
An innovation lab will interlink students, researchers and external stakeholders in order to make use of synergies and to establish sustainable networks – a fruitful ground for inter- and transdisciplinary projects to evolve!

Duration

2018-1-1 to 2020-06-30