Researchers from the U!REKA partners spent three days together to get to know each other's expertise and research background, discuss common interests and research themes, and thus lay the foundations for possible future research initiatives.
Soon after the event was announced, the Research Days were fully booked. With 100 researchers from the U!REKA partners, it was not hard to imagine that an inspiring and creative dynamic would emerge, which could lead to lots of concrete ideas. Researchers from the universities of applied sciences of Ghent, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Vienna, Lisbon (IPL), Helsinki (Metropolia), Ostrava (VSB-TUO) and Odessa participated.
Connection
Els Stuyven, Director of Research Affairs at HOGENT, looks back on the event with great satisfaction: "The first intention was to bring researchers from the U!REKA alliance together physically. After all, getting to know each other is essential for conducting solid research. Just because someone has the right expertise on paper does not mean you can collaborate well. Connection is at least as important," she says.
The fact that the Research Days brought together researchers with very different expertise was a huge added value as well, believes Mark van Wees of Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and coordinator of the U!REKA Knowledge Creating Communities working group: ‘The expertise gathered at the Research Days - from IT and governance to social sciences and healthcare - is highly complementary, which means that research topics can be approached from different angles and hence very profoundly.’
Ten project concepts
To give the participating researchers the opportunity to get to know each other and each other's backgrounds, extensive interaction was encouraged, through various methodologies. On the second day, thematic clusters were compiled from the discussions and workshops, which led to ten project concepts.
This does not necessarily imply that these concepts will lead to research projects only: other types of initiatives might be developed, which could also be education-related. ‘For example, some colleagues intend to develop a Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) based on their contacts at the Research Days’, Els points out.
"Now it is a matter of maintaining the momentum of the ideas developed over the past few days and supporting the researchers in advancing their work. How to do this in the best way will be determined in the coming period," Els clarifies, adding that the U!REKA Research Days might become an annual event, hosted by a different U!REKA partner each year.