From March 11 to 13, 2023, Monika Šandrejová, member of the Central Administration Office, participated at intensive three-day training for project managers with a focus on the current EU framework program for research and innovation, Horizon Europe (2021-2027). V4 Training for Research Project Managers is organized by the national liaison offices for research and innovations from the countries of the Visegrad Group in Brussels – SLORD, CZELO, NRDIO, PolSCA.

The training was attended by 35 project managers working at universities and research institutions in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Cyprus, Ireland, Germany, Romania, Ukraine, and the Netherlands. The program included presentations by speakers from the Directorates-General and executive agencies of the European Commission, as well as other experts with practical experience. The purpose of the interactive training is to increase the professional capacity of its participants by providing targeted information about the EU policies that have an impact on their work, enhancing their networks and networking skills, and creating opportunities to learn from the best practices of other organizations.

There was also a great opportunity to present the institution in so-called Pitch presentations which opened the door to networking among the participants and encouraged them to get new contacts. During this presentation, Monika introduced to the members the FunGlass Centre and its passion for glass research as well and she presented also the ongoing horizon projects CLiCAM, GlaCerHub, and FunGLASS. A fruitful and active discussion followed up after the presentations.

The scope of the event was limited in capacity – but still Monika had the opportunity to meet with the CLiCAM project partner representative – Ms. Monika Betlej from the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology to discuss the best practices at their universities as a form of the CLiCAM’s benchmarking initiative.