The WAITRO Capacity Development program aims to strengthen the capacity of individuals and institutions as well as enabling its members to be more responsive to global challenges and market needs. Competence in leadership, know-how, and advocacy is indispensable for RTOs to master the ever-changing conditions of conducting research and development. This is why, in 2020, WAITRO developed the Capacity Development Workshop Strengthening International Collaborations within the Horizon Framework.
We were able to welcome over 40 researchers from 20 member organizations from all over the world. Originally, it was planned to host the event in person in Barcelona, but that was not possible due to COVID-19, so the date and place of the workshop was changed to an online format. This reduced the potential for interaction created by putting everyone in the same room, but had the huge advantage of enabling us to admit more participants.
This was the first online workshop of such a size hosted by WAITRO and it received very positive feedback, which is why the WAITRO Secretariat decided to expand its online services and offer more members the opportunity to actively participate in WAITRO activities, independent of where they are.
The three days’ workshop was designed to enable WAITRO members to participate in international research collaborations, in particular in the Horizon framework and to prepare WAITRO members for the shift from Horizon 2020 to Horizon Europe. The participants were split into two groups to better cater to their different experience levels. Whil