Initial situation

Besides national funding, the EU is our most important provider of third-party funding. The university is most successful in European Structural Funds, as applied sciences are an important stimulus for companies and their employees in the region. There are also experiences in Horizon 2020 and FP7, but less successful.

The university established a well-functioning structure to support research applications: information on current calls and advice on conditions, budget planning and support in the application procedure are offered by the Cooperation Centre for Applied Sciences (KONTAKT). The EU-office is well networked with the Berlin State Representation in Brussels, the National and Berlin Working Group of EU Advisors, the enterprise europe network Berlin-Brandenburg and the university EU-officers in Berlin-Brandenburg. In addition, the state of Berlin decided to finance mid-level scientific staff at Universities for Applied Sciences during the next years. This will be a great relief for professors in funding-applications.

Objective

Application advice and networking are sufficiently covered at HTW Berlin. However, reviews of previous proposals have shown that development is needed in policy areas defined by the EU, such as open data, open access, ethics, etc. This is all the more important as the policy areas are increasingly weighted in the review procedure and it can be assumed this development will continue. In order to support scientists in the application process, the aim is to develop strategic concepts and application aids in the policy fields, adapted to the existing conditions at the university. The increase in personnel through mid-level academic staff will also be used specifically for applications in order to become more successful in Horizon 2020. Finally, the university’s own potential in the European Research Area should be better known and utilised.

Activities

In the area of policy fields, methodical approaches such as interviews, workshops and strategy discussions are used to develop strategic concepts and application aids in a participatory process within the university. According to the principles of peer-learning, this process is supplemented by experiences of external partners in interviews and best practice workshops. At the same time, there is intensive support for ongoing EU project proposals, in which the findings for sharpening the policy aspects are mutually applied and the empirical values from practical application are reflected in the methodological further development. Special training courses are designed in accordance with the personnel development concepts of the departments in order to sustainably qualify mid-level scientific staff for applications. To improve visibility in the European Research Area, the project concentrates on strategic cooperation and opportunities for participation in European boards and committees. The task is to systematically evaluate and associate internal and external potentials.

Duration

2018-6-1 to 2023-8-31

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