More UEx in Europe, the University of Extremadura boosts research internationalization
The aim of this new University of Extremadura project, which is being coordinated from the European Projects Office, is to promote the participation of selected research groups in Horizon Europe, the European Union’s framework program for research and innovation for the period 2021-2027.
“More UEx in Europe_Internationalization of the areas of Biology, Biotechnology, Biochemistry, Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, Social Sciences and Humanities (2023-2024)” works to increase participation and success in the most competitive international program and in those research areas with very low participation that add up to 103 of the 213 research groups of the Extremadura Science and Technology Service (SECTI).
Taking into account the weight of these research groups in the SECTI, participation in technological networks/platforms is facilitated, missions to Brussels are organized and other activities aimed at being part of winning consortiums for the presentation of projects in Horizon Europe.
All these actions of the OPE have already had the first results in 2023 with the participation of UEx researchers in 4 important professional events in the last four months of the year.
The first was OpenLivingLabDays (OLLD) which took place in Barcelona from 21 to 23 September 2023. It was attended by researcher Manuel Pulido Fernández, from the area of art and territorial sciences, coordinator of the proposal submitted to the Horizon Europe Program call: HORIZON-MISS-2023-SOIL-01-08: Co-creating solutions for soil health in Living Labs. Living Labs professionals, change agents, creators, entrepreneurs and academics gathered at this meeting to develop new ideas and form partnerships for projects.
Also in September, the CARE4BIO brokerage event (#CARE4BIOBrokerage) took place in Brussels (Belgium). In this case, to create consortia in the Horizon Europe Cluster 6 calls in 2024 (Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment) and with the participation of researcher Alfonso Ortega Garrido, from the Plant Physiology Area.
In October, researcher Vicente Montes Jiménez participated in the Interclustering Forest based sector, in Gradignan, Bordeaux (France), a networking day for innovation in the forestry sector, including clusters, companies, technical centers and academic institutions of the forestry and wood sector with the same motivation.
Finally, on October 27th, in Mainz (Germany), the researchers of the School of Industrial Engineering of the University of Extremadura Alfonso Carlos Marcos Romero, Laura Mendoza Cerezo and Jesús Manuel Rodríguez Rego attended the 10th Edition of the European Key Enabling Technologies Exchange Event, co-organized by the German and French National Contact Points (NCP) for the industrial part of Cluster 4) and the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN).
Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) are a basic source for innovation and, according to the European Commission, provide indispensable technological elements that allow the development of a wide range of new materials, products, processes and services with higher added value.
The UEx participants presented their own project concepts for future cooperation in the Horizon Europe program.
These initiatives are enabling researchers from the University of Extremadura to participate in the most prestigious and competitive international projects.
The activity is part of the action GPE2022-001068, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, being GPE2022-001068 the reference in the award resolution (Convocatoria Gestión de Proyectos Europeos 2022).
