Education and research & innovation community

Task number	3
Name	Education and research & innovation community
Strategic Axes	Communities building, Research and Innovation, Education and Pedagogical Innovation
Workpackage	Developing UNITA communities

Objectives

• Create and support communities of educators, researchers and innovators who share a common interest in a field of knowledge and want to develop the field further through exchanges of good practice and the launch of joint project.

Inputs & Resources

Source documentation:

• UNITA Tasks_Team_List_20231120
• UNITA Budget documents

Resources

• Human Resources: List of staff on the task, roles and position: Co-leaders Stefania Raimondo UNITO and Filipe Moreira IPG (before: Mario Giacobini and Fátima Gonçalves) + 32 TT members (profiles: VR for Research or Internationalisation, Communication and events experts, Research managers, UNITA Offices and mobility specialists).
• Financial: Budget allocated to the task: 1.061.317 € travel costs; other costs 587.775 €.
• Materials: Type of materials required (computers, software, scientific tools,…): Datacloud &its Apps, LimeSurvey.
• Intangible: Type of intangible materials (communication tools, data bases,…): matching events management system.

Activities & Sub-Tasks

Source documentation: In each WP folder, document entitled “WPx_full_description)

• Task Description – T2.3 description
• GANTT – WP2 GANTT

List of activities	Actions to implement	Deadline
A2.3.1 Collect community building actions in the first phase.	Chart examples of effective community building within and across the alliance, and specifically the matching events on research and on education that took place during the pilot phase. Define effective community building within and across education, research, innovation, and university life.	Jan 2024
A2.3.2 Implement Task-focused open actions for community building.	Organize a series of UNITA Task-related matching events, hosted by different members of the alliance. Each university will autonomously determine the participants of each matching event, according to commonly agreed rules. Their objective will be to set-up formal collaborations with the potential to leverage the effect of Tasks linked to the core university missions. They will be organized in close cooperation with the Task Team of the Task in which they impact. The events will take place before M18, to ensure their effect during the 4-year period. At least two events will be organized in each university, but the final number of events could increase if additional resources are invested by the universities or collected from AP or other external agents interested in the topics. There will be four categories of matching events: Matching events on education to explore new shared education paths and shared microcredential offers (impact on T3.1, T.3.2) Matching events on research to connect research groups (impact on T4.2) Matching events on innovation to work, preferably hand-in-hand with associated partners, on local ecosystems needs, technology transfer projects, upskilling and reskilling through micro-credentials, etc. (impact on T4.1) Matching events on university life, with a focus on the well-being of the university community, promotion of sports, cultural activities, etc. (impact on T2.1) A matching event on European Citizenship to bring together all the researchers who work for Europe, its institutions, its citizenship and its identity (impact on T2.5) A matching event on digital transformation in UNITA: meeting between professionals from IT departments of universities, UNITA IT Department employees and communities of beneficiaries who would use UNITA Digital Ecosystem services (impact on T3.4) Cross-disciplinary and cross-domain events will be possible as well. In some cases, an online pre-event will be organized to facilitate contacts and start building synergies among participants. During the events, the participants will present their background and ideas, and they will have time to align their objectives and converge in a common project. All events will include an introductory session to UNITA. Thus, they will also serve as internal dissemination events.	Apr 2025
A2.3.3 Starting projects implementation.	Each participant in a matching event will receive a starting grant for the travel expenses and for directs costs of an initial collaboration with other attendees on the topics of the event. At the end of the period (M32), each formed team will present a report on their progress, achieved, and expected impact, and suggested further steps. Matching events will often be linked to starting grants, aimed at kicking off the collaboration between the partners in the Alliance towards a common scientific or, in general, community building goal. Calls for starting grants, addressed to the whole UNITA community, shall be launched after a matching event: grants will cover travel expenses and directs costs of an initial collaboration with other partners in the Alliance. At the end of the period (M32), each formed team will present a report on their progress, achieved, and expected impact, and suggested further steps.	Jun 2026
A2.3.4 Implement advanced projects. (Objective transferred to T4.2 - Hubs for research)	A board established by the Task Team and approved by the Management Committee will assess the project reports and select the most impactful ones, which will be considered for receiving a consolidating grant to keep working on the idea for a second year (M42). At the end of the period, the report on progress and impact will be updated. During the whole implementation phase (M18–M42), Task 5.2, in cooperation with the legal entity, will look closely at the projects and identify calls from which additional funding can be obtained to fully develop the ideas.	Apr 2027
A2.3.5 Summarize and draw conclusions on the second phase of UNITA community building actions.	The Task Team will elaborate a final report of the Task, with a summary of the project reports, lessons learnt, and a definition of a cooperation sparking model for UNITA. This model will be used in future cycles of events devised to strengthen even more the community.	Oct 2027

Indicators

These indicators have been gathered from the different source (list below) and have been gathered from interviews driven by Task 5.4 UNITA impact observatory.

Outputs

Source documentation: In each WP folder, document entitled “WPx_full_description)

• Task Description – T2.3 description
• GANTT – WP2 GANTT
• List of Indicators – UNITA indicators

Primary indicators

Indicators gathered from the proposal

• IND 2.3.a – Number of organized matching events
  Target: 20
  

Secondary indicators

To be defined by T5.4 members previously to interviews and to be proposed to task co leader

• Number of submitted projects to the starting grants calls
• Number of starting grants attributed

Subtask Outputs

Sub Task Outputs Indicate concerned sub task	Outputs indicator Expected results at the sub-task level / To be verified in interview with task co-leaders	Source of data To be verified in interview with task co-leaders
Open actions for community building	IND2.3 Number of matching events	UNITA OfficesBaseline 2022: 2 Monitoring 2023: +2 on research (to choose the topics for the hubs) Monitoring 2024: 5 M.Events are being organized by other Tasks and 12 will take place from Sept 24 till max. Jun 25
Starting projects implementation	MS15 starting grants allocated on projects approved by the Scientific Hubs	UNITA Offices Monitoring: the 1st grant call was in April related to the December event
Implement advanced projects	Number of consolidating grants see T4.2 (they have the budget for the grants)	UNITA Offices
Draw conclusions on community building	D2.3 UNITA report on community building in education, research and Innovation	Report D2.3

Outcomes

Source documentation:

• Task Description – T2.3 description
• GANTT – WP2 GANTT

Task Outcomes

Task Outcomes Identify the outcomes	Outcomes indicator Expected results at the task level / To be verified in interview with task co-leaders	Source of data To be verified in interview with task co-leaders
Larger and deep involvement of the academic community (researchers, teachers, students, staff)	* Number of participants to the matching events disaggregated for kind of Match.Event (researchers, teachers, students, staff)	UNITA Offices
	* Number of research units, partners and AP involved	T4.2 The composition of the res.units that take part to the calls, which are now open calls, is interesting

Notes by T5.4

• This task drives the development of new UNITA projects to contribute to the partners in terms of new research and educational offers (for this the TT3.1&3.2 are responsible).
• Implementation of new projects at the UNITA level to increase educational offers for students, research opportunities for academic staff, skill development and institutional changes for the partner universities (in collaboration with other tasks linked to the core university missions: 2.1, 3.1 & 3.2, 4.1 & 4.2).

Impacts

Source documentation:

• Task and WP long-term objectives Task Description - T2.3 description - WP2 Objectives
• UNITA Mission Statement (from Grant Agreement)

	Users / Beneficiaries Intern to UNITA	End-Users / Beneficiaries extern to UNITA
1) Who are the stakeholders benefiting of the task’s actions ?	Partners of UNITA: All the academic community: researchers, teachers, staff Students (co-tutelles and mobility)	students (co-tutelles and mobility)
2) To what extent has the local/international society changed as a result of outcomes compared to before UNITA? What are the long term results for them?		Students Local institutions and enterprises (research collaboration through new funded projects)

Outcomes at UNITA and Society level

Outcomes at UNITA and Society level Identify the outcomes: list objectives and primary indicators at task level to reach them	Outcomes and Impact indicator Expected results at the task level / To be verified in interview with task co-leaders	Source of data To be verified in interview with task co-leaders
Cooperation model for the involvement of the academic community in UNITA community building within and across education, research, innovation, and university life	* Number and brief description of activated projects on education or on university transformation (such as student/staff health) (UNITA level)	Report D2.3
Developing new ideas with impactful projects	* Number of activated and finalized research projects (publications, events, impacts of the scientific results to the broader community) (UNITA & Society level) · New funded constellation projects	Report D2.3
Impact on the local society	* Number of projects activated and finalized with local entities (such as on innovation activities) and monitoring their results. (Society level)	Report D2.3

Indicators' data sheet

Description	Unit of measurement	Source of data	Frequency	Baseline (2022)	Target 2027	Possible sub indicators
IND2.3 Number of organized matching events.	Numerical	UNITA offices	Updated yearly	2	20	Number of participants to the matching events divided per category of matching event (on research, education, innovation, university life)
Number of starting grants allocated by the research hubs.	Numerical	UNITA offices	Updated yearly	0	12 (2 events for each Hub followed by grant calls)	Number of research units, partners and AP involved (participating to the grant calls)
Number and brief description of activated projects (from matching events) on education or on university transformation.	Numerical, with qualitative text description	Task team 3.1 & 3.2, Report D2.3	Yearly from 2025	0		Amount of self-found (not from UNITA) budget for the activation of the projects.
Number of publications, workshops, seminars, other events of sharing the scientific results to the broader community from matching events on research.	Numerical, with possible qualitative text description.	Task team report D2.3	Only at the end of phase II (Dec 2027).	0		Differentiated per hubs
Number (and description) of activated projects with local entities (such as on innovation activities), with brief description of their accomplishments OR Number of organisations from the territories involved in the activation of these projects.	Numerical, with qualitative text description.	Task team report D2.3	Only at the end of phase II (Dec 2027)	0		Territories involved.

Data collection

• Manual collection: -
• Automatic collection: -