We had the opportunity to participate in the European Commission’s Horizon Europe Safe, Resilient Transport Call (HORIZON-CL5-2022-D6-01-08) as a coordinator. It was a formidable challenge, as we were coordinating between a total of 10 different organizations, all domain experts, to ensure the best possible solution for the Safer navigation and tackling containership fires topic. We stood to benefit from the ingenuity and keenness of the consortium partners in tackling this daunting call with a positive attitude and a spirit of adventure. The RIF team provided us with valuable guidance, especially at the outset of the proposal writing process for ‘SafeNav’.
The main goal of the aiD project lies in the employment of state-of-the-art advances in machine learning (ML), human-computer interaction (HCI) and augmented reality (AR), in order to improve deaf and hard of hearing (HoH) people communication and social integration. The H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie RISE action, which funds this project, helps us interact with academic and non-academic sectors, both within and beyond Europe, through exchanging research and innovation staff, and sharing knowledge and ideas. Thus, we were informed about the needs of deaf and HoH people directly from industrial services and user applications, and we were able to improve our services by receiving frequent feedback for the impact of our communication pipeline to deaf people interaction and social integration. The National Contact Points of Cyprus have provided invaluable experience and guidance regarding project management, including both technical management and financial management aspects.
During the unprecedented times of Covid-19 where mistrust was flourishing, writing a proposal on trust in science, was very challenging and fascinating. Approaching grant writing as a problem-solving task through a collaborative multidisciplinary approach, was crucial for the success of the proposal. VERITAS combines psychology, social sciences and engineering, to synthesize existing knowledge, pursue network analysis on social media and evaluate methods for enhancing trust in science. It analyses the ecosystem of trust in the research system and the pivotal role of the stewards of trust, whose responsibility emanates either from their official mandate and mission, as in the case of research funding organizations, or from their de facto power and influence, as in the case of social media companies.
Having raised over 10 million EUR for my research group so far, I am no novice in bidding for competitive funding with all its ups and downs! For prestigious calls such as the ERC, universities and private agencies offer prep sessions. Having participated in such sessions in the past, the professionalism and hands-on help that the Cypriot National Contact Point offered was outstanding, helping me secure a host institution’s support, organizing mock interviews, and one-to-one meetings with successful grantees — for free! Following this experience, the incredible density of ERC grantees for a small country like Cyprus is no longer a mystery. Ms. Karakasidou and her team are a unique asset to Cyprus, and I will be forever thankful for their support.
Στο παρελθόν ένας αποτρεπτικός παράγοντας για την υποβολή ερευνητικών προτάσεων για χρηματοδότηση υπήρξε η προσωπική πεποίθηση ότι πρόκειται για μοναχική και ψυχοφθόρα διαδικασία. Οι φόβοι μου γρήγορα διαψευσθήκαν όταν άρχισα να προετοιμάζω την αίτηση για το ERC. Βρήκα τόσο θεσμική στήριξη όσο και προσωπικό ενδιαφέρον από συναδέλφους, λειτουργούς της ΙδΕΚ και του Πανεπιστημίου Κύπρου, που με βοήθησε σε όλα τα στάδια της αίτησης (π.χ. ανατροφοδότηση, προετοιμασία για την συνέντευξη, κλπ.). Ιδιαίτερα το ERC αποτελεί μια εξαιρετική ευκαιρία καθώς, σε αντίθεση με άλλα προγράμματα μικρότερης διάρκειας, δίνει τον απαιτούμενο χρόνο (5 έτη) ώστε να στηθεί μια ερευνητική ομάδα και να διεξαχθεί έρευνα υπό τις ιδανικότερες συνθήκες. Επίσης, δίνει απόλυτη αυτονομία στους συντονιστές να ‘τρέξουν’ το έργο τους, όπως αυτοί/ες κρίνουν δόκιμο.