Horizon Europe Office in Ukraine held an event for Kryvyi Rih National University focusing on specific aspects of participation in Horizon Europe Programme

On June 3, an information dissemination event: Specific Aspects of Participation in the Horizon Europe Programme took place. The online event was conducted by specialists from Horizon Europe Office in Ukraine, NRFU, for employees of Kryvyi Rih National University. In total, over 130 interested persons took part in the event.

The event was opened by Igor Taranov, Head of Horizon Europe Office in Ukraine. In his speech, he presented statistics on Ukraine’s participation in the Horizon Europe Programme, comparing them with the previous Programme Horizon 2020 and also provided statistics on the success rate of Ukrainian organisations prior to the opening of the Office in September 2023 and as of May this year, which demonstrate an increase in Ukraine’s participation.

In addition, the Head of the Office noted that it provides a range of services, including: informing potential applicants about relevant EC calls and events (webinars, trainings, matchmaking, pitching, etc.); organising information and training events for the stakeholders, as well as National Contact Points; organising Project Proposal Writing Camps in partnership with the EC; facilitating the search for partners for joint projects; providing advice to applicants who are just starting out in EU grant programmes, preparing applications to participate in Programme calls, or implementing projects; monitoring and analysing data on the participation of Ukrainian organisations in ‘Horizon Europe.

Particular emphasis was placed on international cooperation with the Horizon Europe offices in European countries, representatives of research and scientific institutions in Europe and America, and the National coordinators of the COST, Erasmus+, EUREKA, the EIT Community Hub in Ukraine, the IP Office, the Defence Innovation Office in Kyiv, and other EU programmes funding science and innovation.

Dmytro Brovko, Vice-Rector for Research at Kryvyi Rih National University, welcomed the participants. The representative of the higher education institution spoke about its research activities and outlined its priorities in grant work.

The working session consisted of presentations on the following topics:

• basic information about the Horizon Europe (Vladyslav Mykhailenko, Leading Officer);
• features of working on the EU Funding and Tenders Portal (Nataliia Didenko, Deputy Head of the Office);
• ways to search for partners for joint preparation of the project proposal (Maksym Kolisnyk, Leading Officer);
• tips for creating a strong consortium (Oleksandr Moiseiev, Leading Officer).

Towards the end of the event, during a very lively Q&A session, participants had the opportunity to put their questions directly to the speakers. It should be noted that Kryvyi Rih National University had no previous experience with grant programmes, so this event was extremely important for its employees, who saw great potential in the Horizon Europe Programme in terms of integrating the institution into the European Union’s research environment and fostering international cooperation, particularly through participation in EU programmes.

Igor Taranov summed up the event, emphasising that the Office was open to cooperation and ready to provide comprehensive professional assistance, and wished the university staff success in writing project proposals and winning Horizon Europe Programme calls.