Call for expression of interest to participate in EIT Food RIS Public Sector Representatives Activity Line (PSRAL) 2023

EIT Food RIS PSRAL delivers capacity building and professional education to representatives of the public sector in countries of the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. It provides insights into new agri-food technologies, mission-oriented innovation policies for the food system and best practices in leveraging publicly funded research infrastructures for industrially oriented R&D and entrepreneurship. PSRAL consists of two interlinked educational programs. EIT Food InfraBooster promotes the effective use of publicly funded research infrastructures owned by universities or research institutes and relevant to the R&D efforts of private sector agri-food companies and startups. EIT Food Government Executive Academy encourages policymakers from national and regional authorities to enhance innovative policies in accordance with agri-food trends, best practices, and opportunities for international collaboration.

Applications are invited from countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Montenegro, Republic of North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine.

Eligible organisations

Eligible scientific organisations need to meet the following criteria:

1. Operating as higher education institute or public research institute;
2. Operating in a country targeted by the call (confirmed by office registered address);: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Montenegro, Republic of North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey or Ukraine;
3. Own commercially relevant research infrastructure for the agri-food sector (see research infrastructures definition HERE) in one of the EIT Food innovation areas, including targeted nutrition, sustainable aquaculture, sustainable agriculture, alternative proteins, digital transformation and traceability, and circular food systems.
4. Possessing knowledge, skills, and resources needed to carry out the tasks (including previous experiences in using research infrastructure for R&D projects in specific segments of the food system, science-industry collaboration, and effective management of agri-food research infrastructures).

Tasks of selected scientific organizations:

• Responsibility for delivery of selected teaching segments/parts of educational modules of EIT Food InfraBooster and EIT Food Government Executive Academy (based on relevant experiences and domain knowledge, and using the guidance provided by the University of Warsaw as Activity leader);

• Support and mentoring of EIT Food InfraBooster teams – scientists, technicians and infrastructure managers from scientific institutions, owning specialist agri-food research infrastructures for which potential commercial uses will be explored;

• Communication activities/scouting for potential applicants to educational programs, leveraging a wide network of contacts with public sector organizations in own country and potentially also other RIS countries;

• Participation in recruitment, selection and evaluation processes of applicants and individual participants of the educational programs;

• Preparation of inputs into Project documentation and reporting, including the following deliverables: “Communication and Dissemination Report”, “Report on EIT Food InfraBooster” and “Report on EIT Food Government Executive Academy”. Detailed instructions and templates will be provided by University of Warsaw.

• Communicating with local media to ensure at least 2 publications in the local language describing the Project, published each year;

Selection process

Interested and eligible organisations are invited to submit their applications by 14 March 2023, 11 am CET, using the attached EIT Food RIS PSRAL Application Form”.
Please send the electronic version of the application, based on the attached template, to: pnawrocki@wz.uw.edu.pl. Incomplete applications or applications submitted by ineligible organisations will be rejected.

Benefits for selected organisations:

The organisation selected as a project participant will be offered the following benefits in 2023:

• Ability to benefit from the association with EIT Food and the EIT community (as a project participant in EIT Food activities) and the brands of EIT Food and the EIT;
• Rights to participate in thematic project meetings organized by EIT Food and its partners (no membership fees will be required from project participants; EIT Food will not cover travel costs to attend internal meetings, but organisations designated as project participants can use their assigned budgets to cover these costs);
• Rights to promote the association with the EIT Food project, disseminate research infrastructures and commercial offers for the agri-food industry developed as outcomes of the EIT Food InfraBooster;
• Opportunities for networking with representatives of public sector organizations from RIS countries (national/regional authorities, top-level management of scientific organisations, scientists and professionals involved in managing and commercialisation of specialist research infrastructures for agri-food sector) and EIT Food partners, including opportunities for joint project ideation and involvement in other EIT Food projects;
• Opportunities to join a project funded by Horizon Europe framework programme and benefit from funding as defined in this call document;
• Opportunity to leverage publicly funded research infrastructures for industrially oriented R&D and entrepreneurship;
• Knowledge and organisational support of EIT Food, its CLCs and partners in implementing the activities planned for each educational program of the project.

Deadline for applications: 14.03.2023, 11 am CET.

Below you can download the Call for EIT Food RIS Public Sector Representatives Activity Line 2023.