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.
CA21163: Text, functional and other high-dimensional data in econometrics: New models, methods, applications (HiTEc) seeks to integrate cutting-edge analytic developments involving innovative sources of information, such as text, functions, perceptions or imprecise data, in econometrics. The aim is to create an international network of experts with the capacity to develop and implement new efficient inferential procedures for using such information in econometric modelling and forecasting. The Action emerged from the collaboration of researchers in econometrics, mathematics, statistics and computer science. Initially, a group of about ten researchers pre-defined the basis of the proposal. From there, a network of secondary proposers was formed by contacting colleagues with experience in the considered topics spanning different European countries. Both well-known senior researchers and young researchers with the potential to boost the research beyond the Action were considered. Priority was given to pursuing gender balance above the usual percentages in the involved areas. Targeting a technological and social impact, applied econometricians were included to mine textual information gathered from newspapers, articles, opinions and sentiments recorded by poles, in combination with other complex and traditional data. To expand to other areas and facilitate the transfer of knowledge and technology, experts and stakeholders from external domains such as environmental sciences and health also participated in writing the proposal. Once the proposal started, more than 120 applications to join the Action were received. Balancing the COST policies regarding inclusiveness and excellence is challenging, but highly beneficial long-term. The Core Management Group has developed rules to promote fair participation in networking and training activities, and the results at this state are promising. I recommend a researcher who would like to submit a proposal for approval of a new COST Action to get a clear understanding of the aim of the COST Actions as networking tools. COST Actions require creating a broad and balanced network with synergies to work together. The extensive guidelines provided by COST and an overview of existing Actions can help to write the proposal. Since successful applications are freely available, reviewing any Action in related topics in detail is essential. The evaluation criteria can help in developing a project that includes the points that are considered essential for COST.
Toolkit of Care is a COST Action led by Media Art and Design Lab (MADLab) at Cyprus University of Technology. The Action consists of an interdisciplinary group of creative practitioners, academics, researchers and arts/crafts organisations that specialise in creative technologies and that have considerable experience in the production and dissemination of this kind of knowledge across Europe and internationally, have come together to form a “critical network of care”. The Action’s network will collaborate to share their collective expertise and technical knowledge employed in creative ways to develop knowledge and methodologies of care. The main aim is to produce a well formulated and integrated TOOLKIT OF CARE and comprising articles, prototypes, audiovisual documentation, technical manuals, theoretical analysis, prototypes, and data. It will act as a model of how to successfully share knowledge and expertise across different geographical regions and social groups. MADLab led the proposal process for the COST Action “Toolkit of Care”. We initially contacted our existing contacts to get on board, and as our proposal topic developed, these contacts also brought in other contacts of theirs. We collectively brainstormed for the duration of a few months on a few guiding bullet points, as it was important to make sure that everybody’s expertise was reflected in the proposal. MADLab drafted the proposal, while liaising with Ms Karakasidou, the COST National Coordinator, for any queries that arose by any of our initial proposal network’s partners during the drafting process. Ms Karakasidou provided timely and helpful support. Once the first draft of the proposal was created and we ensured that all proposers were in agreement, we shared the draft with our COST National Coordinator for review. She came back to us swiftly with very useful comments and suggestions, which contributed to the success of our proposal. Our experience to date has been positive and the Action’s networking activities have provided the opportunity to network with peers from overseas institutions and create new meaningful contacts. We would recommend to any researchers planning to submit a proposal to carefully familiarise themselves with the specificities of COST actions in order to ensure they get a good understanding of the COST Associations’ priorities, and also to take advantage of the expertise of COST National coordinators. COST rules can be a little challenging at first, however COST National Coordinators can advise on such matters.
I would like to acknowledge the significant contribution of Mrs Makri in the development of a proposal that has eventually received funding under the Horizon Europe scheme. Mrs Makri, provided in a timely manner exceptionally useful hints and tips on the development of the proposal. Besides sharing her knowledge, she has expressed genuine interest for the outcome of the final results. I would like also to thank Mrs Sepou and the European Programmes Deportment, as a whole, for their professionalism and constant support.
CyRIC is currently coordinating two Horizon Europe Cluster 6 projects, both of them focused on ways to support the transition of agriculture towards more sustainable practices. Being myself an engineer and CyRIC a technology company, we work on technological solutions that help farmers, advisors, veterinarians, food processors, authorities and other stakeholders to take more informed, data-driven decisions, exploiting what novel technology can offer. A key point for our success is our close cooperation with the farmers, the industry and all other actors involved. The agriculture and food sector is often reluctant to changes. Therefore, one needs to engage with all stakeholders throughout the whole process, from proposal design till project implementation (collection of requirements, co-design of solutions, piloting, validation) in order to deliver solutions that have increased adoption potential.
Embarking on this journey for the EIC project proposal was quite a ride! Receiving this prestigious award involved diving deep into the research in multiple disciplines, being crystal clear about our goals and objectives, making sure our ideas really matched that of a high-risk/high-gain visionary project, and keeping determined during the grant preparation phase. The challenge however balancing cutting-edge R&D innovation and project feasibility felt like walking a tightrope. Teamwork is key to transcending our message about the project vision to the panel and, hence, convincing the reviewers we can achieve our ambitious objectives. My advice for others? Plan very early, iterate the project concept with your partners a lot, seek feedback and support from experienced research facilitators – their support can be a game-changer – and think outside of the box. With the right plan, strong commitment and solid support system, turning our ideas into winning EIC Pathfinder Open grant is evidently doable!
