The European Commission will invest almost €16 billion in research and innovation in the next two years under Horizon 2020, the EU’s research and innovation funding scheme, following a new Work Programme for 2016-17 adopted in October 2015. Based on intensive consultations with the relevant EC officials and discussions about funding priorities the European Training Academy is very pleased to invite you to upcoming events.
 
If you are coordinating or preparing a project proposal or searching for partners on EU projects we could assist you and share our experiences and networks.
 
You may benefit from analysis of specific calls for proposals performed by the leading EU authorities, the best partners to establish an international consortium, consensus-driven discussions to define project outline, proposal writing by experienced experts or insight to the EC evaluation criteria from experienced evaluators.
 
This challenging two-day training is designed to exceed participant’s expectations and boost the impact and sustainability of ongoing and emerging projects.
 
The first day focuses at the most effective strategies how to get into Horizon 2020.
 
Panel discussion from 09.00 – 10.00 will frontload delegates with information about new funding priorities and new political realities. Followed with the half-an-hour session to clarify expectation of the European Commission. Reputable officials and experts are invited to share their extensive expertise about the open and upcoming calls: Mrs Tania Friederichs, Dr. Renzo Tomellini, Dr Andrea Mogni, Mr Andrej Grebenc, and guest speakers. Updates about the program are regularly available at  http://www.eu-academia.eu/

Speakers are invited to consider all topics of interest, like migration crises, energy supply, Junker’s plan, new COSME’s work programs, political changes in the EU, cooperation with the Balkans, Med-Dialogues and Russia. Provided there are questions from the participant’s side all the “hot topic” complementary to the new H2020 calls can be addressed during the Q&A at the panel.
 
On the participant’s side based on registrations so far, we expect delegates representing reputable organizations from France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Lebanon, Hungary, Sweden, Norway, Lithuania, entire Balkans i.e. Albania, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Serbia, and even Russia and El Salvador.
Organizers have supported so far three requests for reduced fees to participants from low income economies.
 
Following session “H2020 call analysis workshop” from 11:30 to 12:15 will be practical exercise for participants to find the most adequate topics and calls for proposals, make call analysis, and clarify appropriate Work Breakdown Structures for different H2020’s types of actions.
 
Snack breaks on both days will be organized chaos, opportunities to meet and dialogue with experts, other participants and make new contacts. 
 
Session about “Project development tools” from 13:00 – 14:00 will provide overview of the entire process of proposal preparation focusing on the most effective tools for project design. Workshop will enable designing project proposal WBS in line with evaluation criteria and during the feedback discussion provide practical tips and advices for proposal preparation.
 
As the “Partner search, profile development and high quality consortium creation” are among the major challenges for success in Horizon 2020 from 14:15 – 15:45 participants will develop or refine their partner profile, and receive hands-on assistance form trainers to identify the partners or consortium leaders for specific calls.
 
Second day will focus on the Excellence in project design and proposal writing for open and upcoming Horizon 2020 calls.
 
During the morning from 09.00 to 10.00 trainers will make analysis of participant’s project initiatives, partner’s profiles, project concepts or proposal texts. It would be very useful to have one of the three prepared before the session or sent in advance via email before the training.
 
Following workshop “Writing of impact” from 10:00 to 11:45 will build further on the first session to challenge participants perceptions how to lead sustainable innovation and identify key factors for excellent Impact.
 
“Excellence in project proposal writing’ session from 12.00 to 13.00 is focused on the most advanced tools how to impress the evaluators and reach the maximum score in every section, addressing all sub-criteria for proposal evaluation.
 
Workshop “Project proposal evaluation” form 13:30 to 14:30 will test what was learned during the training and place participants in the role of proposal reviewers to make evaluation of already submitted H2020 project proposals and analysis of project proposals - why has EC given money to one project proposal and rejected others.
 
The closing Coaching session from 14:45 to 15:45 will offer practical advices from the trainers and authorities concerning participant’s concrete project initiatives and refine participant’s action plans. As participants are mostly looking for concrete steps, names, procedures trainers will be prepared to get to grassroots level or address the most complex questions to provide practical advices for immediate next steps.
 
Coaching session should result with clear feedback about participant’s project initiatives and action plan i.e. What should be improved, planning, impact, justification, communication or sim. Who could help, or who to address with the project, how, when. In order to continue most effectively. This might require to go beyond usual formalities and procedural issues but crossover various fields to enable or foster positive results.
 
Altogether more than six outstanding experts from funding and implementing organizations will provide training or briefings on a wide range of topics to help participants tackle the most relevant challenges. Effective interventions require precise coordination and everyone would benefit to have upfront the description of participants interests.  We are happy to receive participant’s specific requests via email to ensure the highest cost vs quality ratio. 

Programme will provide immediate and effective support to organizations and project leaders currently preparing project proposals; consortiums or managing EU funded projects. This is a mind changing experience, designed for professionals seeking excellence in the EU project development, funding, lobbying and leadership; The program develops competencies and skills for initiating and implementing projects satisfying the highest quality criteria and understanding stakeholder issues that enable high impact and sustainability.
The event will bring exceptional benefits to the delegates who themselves represent most prominent stakeholders (universities, research institutions, civil society organisations, SME's, NGO's, public bodies, etc.) and will provide outstanding quality of training for excellence in H2020 project development and proposal writing. Followed by effective strategies and tools for partner search.

Speaskers
Keynote speaker will be Tania Friederichs, Policy officer for research and innovation at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Research and Innovation.
Furthermore, leading European experts, proposal writers and evaluators will provide hands-on coaching during thematic panel sessions and workshops.

Dr. Andrea Mogni
He specialized in International trade at the Rome University and international Financial Management at the MIT – Boston (Sloan programme). He has lectured in Italian and American Colleges and Universities, including UCLA and W. Virginia State.

Dr. Renzo Tomellini​
Head of Unit for Strategy in Directorate for Climate action and resource efficiency. He teaches knowledge management and currently is lecturer in “Management of Enterprises in the European Union” at the University of Bergamo, Faculty of Economics. His career has been into materials science and engineering, first in steel making and then in Nanotechnology, whose development he pioneered in Europe via and integrated and systemic approach, also creating and managing a dedicated group gathering concerned European Commission services. He is energetic on a transformative agenda for a sustainable and responsible development, also at international level; he is particularly engaged in the European environmental research and innovation policy.

Dr. Andrej Grebenc
He is working at European Commission for over a decade, involved in FP7 projects since the start of the programme in 2007, participated in preparation of new EU programme for research and innovation H2020, FP7 and Horizon 2020 Programme Management.

Boško Nektarijević
Boško had been providing support and training to EU project leaders since 2002 in leadership, cross cultural negotiations, project development, project proposal writing, etc. Principal designer of many educational programmes for over 6000 managers from business, government, academic, security and NGO sectors under the umbrella of various EU funding programs and projects.

Main speaker
Prof.dr.Steve Quarrie
He has given training courses for the past 10 years on aspects of generic scientific research skills on 2-3 day courses attended by over 1500 participants in Serbia and Europe, and took part in regular BSN training courses for EU projects and proposals. He has been an external expert on several Tempus projects in the Western Balkans and evaluator for project proposals for IPA (IPA Adriatic and IPA CBC) and university degree study programmes for the Serbian Accreditation Commission for Higher Education. Through BSN he is currently a participant in the FP7 KBBE project, COMPETE, to improve project impact and sustainability through training courses for project participants and a participant in the Tempu project, CASA, Building Capacity of Serbian Agricultural Education to Link with Society.Steve has written more than 10 successfully-funded proposals for research, worth over €5 million, including 4 EU FP projects.

If you agree that the interests of your mission would be advanced by this opportunity to make a direct impact on the innovation leaders in Brussels,please find more detail info attached and registration instructions at the http://www.eu-academia.eu
Course Programme
Registration

In the meanwhile, any request from your side would be gladly welcomed and you may contact me via email [email protected] or mob +381 698220914 or + 386 51 317 357

Looking forward to the opportunity to welcome you in Brussels.

Kind Regards,

Program Committee
Dr. Steve Quarrie
Ratko Bojović
Alenka Orel