Summary of I. Symposia with Representatives of R & I Structures

Abstract

This document presents the summary of I. innoCORE Symposia which was held in Istanbul on 16 May 2022 with the description of the events, participants, agenda and conclusions. Delivery D 2.2. “Summary of I. Symposia with Representatives of R & I Structures” has been classified under the second work package (WP2 – “EELISA Research and Innovation Strategy ) of the EELISA innoCORE project. The aim of the first innoCORE Symposia, which was held in Istanbul on 16 May 2022 with the representatives of R & I Structures, was to take the opportunity to bring the EELISA members and research partners together in Istanbul at ITU (Istanbul Technical University). The symposium was accomplished in two-directions. Whereas the first part focused on a more theoretical approach, regarding the picture of the R&I productivity and capabilities of the EELISA Alliance, the second part during the afternoon focused on making connections at subunit levels. Connecting the EELISA researchers and promoting joint research activities was a key aim of EELISA InnoCORE and European and International Project Offices was the key player to meet this aim. Three events which took place in the symposia revealed some essential highlights on the key learnings from the practices and activities, enabling or challenging factors, actions and strategy options and the lessons learned from EELISA, EELISA innoCORE and UNFOLDS projects The research outputs of EELISA, in terms of publications, patents, and projects, show that the research capabilities are significant for most of the strategic research areas and SDGs. R&I output analysis revealed strong linkages between SRA and SDGs, presenting solid evidence of the sustainability orientation of the Alliance. The mapping of existing research capacities, research outputs and their distribution across EELISA partners has been accomplished, and the results are discussed with partners. With the completion of this task, opportunities and challenges to move EELISA’s research capacity and capabilities ahead have also been discussed. The Future directions workshop provided some important issues to be considered in further steps, such as striking a balance between collaboration and performative competition, need for the development and dissemination of interoperable and coordinated networking tools and structures, IPR management across the alliance and building sustainable Alliance capabilities. The workshop discussions have, again, emphasized that creating synergy between partners and uplifting the total sum of individual contributors is the most tangible added value of the Alliance. Another important note was the need for elaborating on the open science-oriented R&I performance of the alliance perspective as a part of the EELISA R&I capacity analysis. Moreover, the findings on the strengths regarding the high capacity research areas of EELISA, opportunities, challenges and improvement areas on sustainability focus, communication, connection, information management, IP Management unwrapped the strategic intervention options. Some of the short-term actionable options focused on linking, motivating and opening the way of including researchers through IT systems advancement and organizing inclusive and target-oriented events. In the longer term, the development of the management frameworks, including IP management, occurred as the prior needs. In this report summarizing the innoCORE symposium, it is concluded that; the major challenges include the lack of researcher engagement and the lack of systematic collaboration modes/methods across partners. As tangible outcomes of the innoCORE have just begun to solidify, participants of the symposium often agree that the first challenge can be tackled with increasing dissemination activities and several systematic training/best practices sharing programs. The second challenge entails harder and multi-faceted problems. As it has been repeatedly reported in the resulting discussions of the panels, development and increased use of EELISA-wide IT platforms to identify, connect and engage different HEI stakeholders (researchers, OPIs, entrepreneurship ecosystem, administrative staff etc.) is a recommended strategic action. Specification of central decision-making and resource allocation authority of EELISA needs to be better outlined to ensure prioritisation of SRAs and the modes by which collaboration should be put into action. Besides, better connection and alignment of communities and clusters will be crucial for the potential alignment of R&I efforts among partners.(DRAFT NOT YET APPROVED BY EUROPEAN COMMISSION)