The 11th and 12th of December, a training course “Preparation of project proposals in the Horizon 2020 Program” was held at the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.
It was organised by the National Contact Points at the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in the thematic areas “Information and Communication Technologies” and “Climate and efficiency of use of resources, including raw materials”, structures subordinate to the pro-rector for scientific work and the Department of International Collaboration of the university.
Scientists and teams with their own project ideas were invited to the training. 33 persons registered to participate in the training. Two-thirds of them represented the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and the rest - other higher educational institutions. The participants of the training were acquainted with the basic concepts and practices concerning the preparation of project proposals of the Horizon 2020 Program.
Scientists and specialists of the National Contact Points at the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute S.Shukaev, O. Sulema and A. Pyatova presented reports “Horizon 2020 Program - structure, conditions of participation, types of the projects, levels of technological readiness”, “Practice of working with the website of the European Commision Funding & Tenders Portal. Registration on the website”, “Partner search. Formation of project consortium”, “Developing a project idea. Project proposal: preparing and making a project. Developing a cost estimate and budget for the project. Determining the expected results of a project”, “Making a project proposal. Application procedure. Expert evaluation. Issues for protection of intellectual property rights. The most popular mistakes of project design”.
“This training course is not the first. We held Information Days before it, says S. Shukaev, the Head of the National Contact Point at the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in “Information and Communication Technologies”. However, the training on project application writing was held for the first time. The final year of the Horizon 2020 Project begins and there are many contests to participate in. We are pleased to note that not only teachers, but also many young people - postgraduate students, assistants and junior researchers - participated in the training. First of all, the preparation of project applications requires knowledge of English, and young people know it well, moreover, young people are more motivated than the older generation.
Horizon 2020 Program is very competitive. Participation in it demonstrates the appropriate university status and that the level of the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute’s scientists allows them to participate in international projects. Currently, only 21 universities of Ukraine participate in Horizon 2020 Program, which is only 7% of all universities of the country. The Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute’s scientists are working on the four projects of this program. By this indicator we still occupy the 3rd place. The Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (7 projects) and the Kharkiv National Aviation University (6 projects) are ahead of our university.
A new European Union program will be launched in 2021. It is already called “Horizon Europe” and will work from 2021 to 2027. The budget of the Horizon 2020 Program is 80 billion euros, from 2021 it will reach 100 billion euros. It is extremely necessary that as many people as possible participate in the preparation of project application, the realisation of the projects to gain experience, finding new contacts with foreign partners to show that the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute is the worthy partner in these projects”.