Sardegna Ricerche

RINA supports Sardegna Ricerche to promote European research, development and innovation programmes

Business Time
Industry Start date: 10/2018
End date: 10/2019


Challenge

Currently, Sardinian businesses and researchers find it difficult to open up to the international context and take advantage of the opportunities offered by European research programmes. This is due to several factors: lack of awareness of the opportunities offered by European programmes, limited knowledge of complex financial instruments, few chances to aggregate into strong partnerships.

The European Research helpdesk, managed by Sardegna Ricerche, was born in 1998 with the aim to provide local companies with useful information, support and assistance and with the task to encourage the participation of businesses, universities, research centres, public bodies and individual researchers in European Union programmes.

Approach

As from October 2018, RINA supports the European Research helpdesk of Sardinia Region and offers consultancy services for the participation in the European Union development programs, with particular reference to Horizon 2020 and LIFE 2014-102. The twenty-year experience gained in the European Commission Framework Programmes and the in-depth knowledge of Europeans’ key topics and assignments(more than 250 projects written, coordinated and supported ), in fact allowed RINA to award the contract “Technical assistance services to support the European Research helpdesk in the European programming (2014-2020)”.

Companies, universities and research centres are provided with the necessary means to successfully participate in Horizon 2020 and LIFE calls. RINA’s activity programme covers the whole process, starting from  idea generation (and subsequent assessment of the opportunity to make a proposal), to the identification of the most appropriate instruments to successfully participate in the European development programs, covering the preparation and submission of the proposal and the later project management of the activity in case of financing. Furthermore, in line with the approach taken by Sardegna Ricerche, RINA has set up several multidisciplinary skill development programmes covering all the key aspects of the European planning process that will allow potential participants to act autonomously in choosing calls, in preparing proposals and managing projects.

Conclusion

The benefits of this project, for companies especially SMEs, universities, research centres, public bodies and individual researchers operating in Sardinia, are numerous: an increased knowledge related to the possibilities offered by European programmes and a greater capacity for choosing the call, preparing successful proposals, opening up to the International arena and managing the overall projects’ lifecycle.

Samuele Ambrosetti