RIS4CIVIS: Research and Innovation Strategy for CIVIS

Strengthening CIVIS in research and innovation

The project “RIS4CIVIS” supports the Research and Innovation dimension of CIVIS, in line with its shared, integrated, long-term strategy and in synergy with its education dimension. The 3-year project was awarded a 2 million euros budget by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 "Science with and for Society" programme. 

RIS4CIVIS aims to enable the CIVIS Alliance and other European universities to pave the way and pool out their expertise to address the 21st-century challenges through world-class R&I.

Let the experts who lead RIS4CIVIS take you on a tour of the project in our playlist of video interviews.

Discover RIS4CIVIS

Let the experts who lead RIS4CIVIS take you on a tour of the project in our playlist of video interviews.

Integrating a long-term Research and Innovation strategy

For CIVIS to achieve this objective, we will develop an integrated, long-term R&I Strategy, based on our complementary strengths, but also addressing obstacles that stand in the way of deeper R&I cooperation.

Our strategy will:

• Take into consideration the important roles that academia, industry, government, civil society and the environment play in R&I (Quintuple Helix model);
• Be fully in line with the CIVIS Mission Statement, including our civic mission and educational dimension;
• Build on the cooperation and results that have so far been achieved within our Alliance;
• Address current societal challenges, including contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); the objectives of the European Green Deal to contribute to the achievement of climate neutrality by 2050; the new challenges raised by the COVID-19 pandemic and the role universities are expected to play in fighting outbreaks and to strengthen societies’ resilience and preparedness; digitalisation, Artificial Intelligence and Big Data; also taking into account the Commission’s other policy priorities and ensuing future regulatory and legal changes (e.g. Communications on Biodiversity, Circular Economy, Hydrogen strategy etc.);
• Integrate new challenges as they emerge;
• Integrate the upcoming European Research Area cycle synergistically with the new cycle for the European Higher Education Area;
• Involve the new EU-Africa partnership, especially its research and innovation dimension;
• Renew international cooperation and collaboration (and competition) with the other industrialised countries at the international level;

Developing a research and innovation strategy for CIVIS

Through the project RIS4CIVIS, the member universities of the CIVIS Alliance are creating a bold vision for the research aspects of our cooperation. By assessing our strengths, finding shared priorities for development and improvement, and testing innovative measures, we are developing a roadmap for the future of research and innovation in CIVIS. This will guide our own strategy and also serve as an inspiration to other alliances and policymakers.

6 transformational modules

RIS4CIVIS integrates the following dimensions as key conditions for successful cooperation between modern, forward-looking Universities.

Module 1: Developing a Common Research and Innovation Strategy

What topics must our strategy address, and how can we work on them together?

Module 2: Sharing infrastructures

Is it possible to facilitate access to research infrastructure across our Alliance, offering researchers new opportunities and increasing the impact of our work?

Module 3: Reinforcing Academia-Business R&I Cooperation

Cooperation with regional ecosystems is a vital link in the innovation chain. How can it be strengthened by European university alliances like CIVIS?

Module 4: Strengthening Human Capital

Which ambitious common standards on working conditions and career development can help CIVIS attract and retain the best research talent?

Module 5: Mainstreaming of Open Science

How can CIVIS take Open Science from vision to practice with a common approach and support for the implementation of this new paradigm in research?

Module 6: Embedding Citizens and Society

Engagement with citizens and civil society is at the heart of CIVIS, so what will this mean in the research domain?

3 stages over 3 years (January 2021-December 2023)

1. Benchmarking
   Establishing an inventory of current practices and resources while identifying the barriers we face in enhancing cooperation on R&I.
2. Consensus-building
   Mapping the ways we might work together on R&I and selecting our shared priorities.
3. Validation through case studies
   Putting our ideas into practice to test and evaluate vital aspects of the proposed strategy.

1 INSPIRING OUTPUT:

CIVIS R&I Strategy and Institutional Transformational Model to be shared with other European Universitie

Paving the way forward

For each of these six ‘Transformation Modules’, we will:

1. Establish, through intensive benchmarks, the current situation across our Alliance and define the ideal endpoint;
2. Identify, through consensus-building, Roadmaps to reach these endpoints and to remove legal, regulatory, financial or other barriers in the short-, medium- and long-term: where the removal of barriers is not in our hands, develop Recommendations to national and European policy-makers on the way forward;
3. Implement our case studies-based Roadmaps, thereby testing and validating them.

The knowledge gained in each of these activities, across all six Transformation Modules, will nurture the ongoing development of the CIVIS Research & Innovation Strategy. We will synthesise our six Roadmaps, as well as the benchmarking, consensus-building and case studies that went into them, into a CIVIS Institutional Transformation Model to serve as a source of inspiration for other European Universities wishing to engage in R&I cooperation as well as for the European Commission in designing its future programmes and policies.

Resources & reports

• RIS4CIVIS brochure
• RIS4CIVIS infographic
• RIS4CIVIS mission statement
• WP1 Benchmarking Report
• WP2 Consensus-building Report
• WP2 Preliminary Roadmap
• WP3 Validation through Case Studies Report
• WP4 Training Platforms and Information sharing databases
• WP4 Preliminary Policy Report
• WP5 RIS4CIVIS Communication and Dissemination Strategy
• WP5 Forum of European Universities (FOREU) Conference Report
• Briefing note: Module 1 - Developing a Common Research and Innovation Strategy
• Briefing note: Module 2 - Sharing research infrastructures
• Briefing note: Module 3 - Academia-business R&I cooperation
• Briefing note: Module 4 - Building common standards for HR policies
• Briefing note: Module 5 - Mainstreaming of open science

• Briefing note: Module 6 - Embedding Citizens and Society

Contact information

For further information on RIS4CIVIS, please contact:

• Julie Hyzewicz, RIS4CIVIS project manager: julie.hyzewicz@univ-amu.fr

Co-funded under Horizon2020

The RIS4CIVIS project is co-financed by the European Commission under the Horizon2020 ‘Science with and for Society’ (SWAFS) programme and the CIVIS member universities.

This flagship European programme aims at fostering the cooperation between Science and Society supporting extensive actions in Research and Innovation to tackle European societal challenges. 

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N° 101016691

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