Opportunity for the RM ROADMAP project

Action 17 and its potential for the RMA community.
https://earma.org/news/action-...

During 2000, the European Commission developed a common European Research Area (ERA) to strengthen the EU's position on research and development. To draw attention to this, the European Commission published a communication for a New ERA in 2020. This was then adopted by the European Council in 2021, which established a new governance for the ERA with the ERA Forum and put forward the first-ever ERA policy agenda with 20 action points to address the current challenges facing Europe.

Action 17 wants to strengthen the strategic capacity of Europe's public research performing and funding organisations. In practice, this means that the EU wants to respond to and develop solutions for the issues that research managers and administrators (RMAs) in Europe face: the uneven distribution of RMA communities and expertise across Europe, the need for training, new skills, and networking opportunities for RMAs, and the lack of recognition of the profession of research managers or research support staff.

The European Commission envisions the strategic capacity of RMAs to be strengthened by building capacities in four key areas: Upskilling, Recognition, Networking, and Capacity Building. This will be achieved by building upon the support offered by existing RMA communities, such as EARMA. The role of the European Commission here is to coordinate the existing projects, align the initiatives on the European level and provide funding, which will be complemented by the Member States for activities on a national level.

To support the implementation of the new ERA, the Council set up a https://ec.europa.eu/transpare... for experts and representatives from EU countries to discuss the implementation of the agenda and will set up a platform to compare progress, share best practice, and generate feedback.

While the implementation of the new ERA Policy agenda is still ongoing, RMAs in Europe are also supported by the Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON). Two Coordination and Support Actions (CSA) pilot projects by the European Commission started in Q2/Q3 2022: RM ROADMAP (coordinated by EARMA) and CARDEA (coordinated by University College Cork). These projects are a product of the European Council's conclusions on the new ERA and are set up to deliver a pilot action for a Europe-wide networking program for science managers including research infrastructure managers.

It is vital that our community uses its voice to support this important initiative. We are very close to reaching the threshold for implementation so it is crucial to reach out to your national representatives and policymakers to explain why they should support Action 17.


Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the granting authority. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 or Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101058475.

Funded by
the European Union