The Project
This project aims to maximize the potential of three excellent, at national/regional level, research entities in Life Sciences, located in EU widening countries: Greece (University of Patras, UPAT), Slovenia (Kemijski Institut, KI), and Czech Republic (Masarykova Univerzita, MU (the “widening partners/beneficiaries”) with established, ERDF-funded, Research Infrastructures (RIs) to reduce the innovation gap between their countries and the advanced EU institutes and raise their Reaserch and Innovation (R&I) capacity and performance.
These countries are currently considered “moderate innovators”, and MILESTONE (UpstreaM synergIes to overcome Locked-in effects in widEning regions and broaden internationalisation pathwayS for susTainable innOvatioN and compEtitive grant applications) aims to leverage their international profile and competitiveness to enable them to lead in future HORIZON EUROPE (HE) collaborative grants led by world-class counterparts with the assistance of a well-established partner from an advanced EU country (France). MILESTONE plan employs beneficiaries’ capabilities to formulate a Life Science’s Scientific and Technology (S&T) platform for joint research, knowledge transfer, scientific and soft skills’ improvement, efficient outreach, and dissemination. Through training, outreach, and networking, UPAT/GR, KI/SI, and MU/CZ, which are research-intensive entities with excellent track records and funded by ERDF National RIs in Life Sciences, will cooperate with Aix-Marseille University (AMU, France), and advanced partner, to overcome locked-in institutional and national policies towards internationalisation and sustainable development.
MILESTONE Roadmap to Internationalisation and sustainability
OBJECTIVES & WPs
MILESTONE sets the following key objectives (Ο), aligned with the programme scope:
O1: Diagnosis of individual and common barriers, gaps, and locked-in policies (WP2) that hold back sustainable development and internationalisation in EU-widening beneficiaries.
O2: Enhance the research and scientific potential (WP3 & WP5) of the partners, according to the output of O1.
O3: Improve the soft skills and the research management capacity (WP3 & WP4) of the human resources to increase beneficiaries’ competence.
O4: Increase synergies among consortium partners for the successful participation in new HE calls (WP5 & WP6), under Pillar I, Pillar II, and in other WIDERA calls.
O5: Establish an Internationalisation strategy based on an effective Dissemination, Exploitation, Communication, and Mobility plan (WP6).
MILESTONE implementation plan – 6 Work packages
The above 5 objectives will be implemented through specific activities, Tasks and Milestones (Τ, MS) organised into 6 Work Packages (WPs), including a WP for project management, coordination, monitoring, and reporting (WP1).
The MILESTONE PIs
Prof. Georgios A. Spyroulias
Prof. Stavros Taraviras (UPAT, GR)
Prof. Janez Plavec (KI, SI)
Dr. Kostas Tripsianes (MU/CEITEC, CZ)
Prof. Bruno Couttard
External Advisory Board
Prof. Frances Separovic (UNIMELB, AU)
Prof. Michael Sattler (TUM, DE)
Dr. Audrey Richard (ERINHA)