Conference Horizon Europe Summit, organized by STEMwise and IMPULS Advising on May 22, 2024, presented challenges and achievements within the EU Horizon Europe program and success stories from Croatia. One of these is EIHP, which implemented the first Horizon project in 2014, as was discussed by the head of the Project Management Office (PMO) at EIHP Ana Belščak Cvitanović, PhD.
"Using funds from the Horizon Europe program has brought many advantages to EIHP. We have opened up new research areas and topics, and the key outcomes of all our projects are the transfer of knowledge and the implementation of research results, the expansion of the partner network and work on global projects for global challenges. The key to success in securing financing is a combination of several factors: a good project setting and management support, a good project team, experience and expertise in a certain area, previously established cooperation with a project consortium and a strongly developed project culture within the institution," said Belščak-Cvitanović.
She warned that people often have a specific idea they want to submit as a proposal to a newly opened call. "This is never a good way. The project proposal must relate to the scope of the open call, and the project outcome must relate to the priority of the call. Therefore, setting a good project structure is very important, and this implies defining realistic goals and indicators of the project," said the head of the PMO office at EIHP, adding that during the proposal preparation phase, it is extremely important that the project manager - coordinator is well organized, that timely information about what is required of the partner and that communication be frequent and transparent.
Her advice for everyone who wants to secure financing from the Horizon Europe program, and from 2021 to 2027, 95.5 billion EUR of grants is secured, is to continue building their networks of contacts and partnerships, to be visible and know how to present their expertise, and to include PMO offices as support during project preparation, as this will help project managers not to waste time on issues of budget preparation, administration and similar.
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