Aiming to strengthen strategic partnerships across European HEIs as well as the link between the European Research Area (ERA) and the European Education Area (EEA), the Horizon 2020 Science with and for Society call is supporting the R&I projects of 17 European University Alliances as testbeds for exploring the potential for institutional transformation and implementing synergies between Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe. One of the supported projects is TORCH, which is building up the research and innovation dimension of the CHARM-EU Alliance.   

The REA report titled “Progress of University Alliance Projects – Projects funded under Horizon 2020” provides an analysis on the intermediate progress of the 17 projects by addressing the challenges faced by the alliances, identifying good practices and progress made in implementing changes and proposing recommendations. Best practices and tangible progresses within TORCH were highlighted regarding several different R&I areas.  

Regarding the engagement of non-academic actors, the report emphasizes how TORCH partners were able to reflect on their own respective strengths and weaknesses by sharing in-house policies and practices. The early and clear definition of objectives and indicators for business-academia cooperation was pointed out as well as the concept of Knowledge Creating Teams as a means to strengthen relations between researchers and other stakeholders.   

TORCH was also featured in connection with mainstreaming Open Science. The design of the TORCH Open Science Community Dashboard structured around the categories identified by the Open Science Career Assessment Matrix (OSCAM) was highlighted for allowing the discoverability, access, and reusability of relevant resources from alliance partners on Open Science.   

Furthermore, the report also mentions TORCH’s tangible progress on developing a common R&I agenda through mapping and collecting best practices and case studies. Regarding the promotion of gender equality, the report highlights the agreement of partners to utilize TORCH results for the future review process of institutional Gender Equality Plans.  

You can read and download the full report here.  

If you would like to learn more about how TORCH is working to build CHARM-EU’s research and innovation dimension, visit the webpage of the project. If you are interested in gaining ready-to-use knowledge on the various areas of Open Science, register to the CHARM-EU Open Science Day organized on the 9th of June. 

References:  

European Commission, European Research Executive Agency, O’Neill, G., Acheson, H., Progress of University Alliance Projects – Projects funded under Horizon 2020 IBA-SwafS-Support-1-2020 Call – Pilot I, Publications Office of the European Union, 2023, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2848/533035