Competence centre for large R&I initiatives in Agder

The project “Competence Centre for Large Research and Innovation Initiatives” (KOMPFORSK) has been a collaboration between NORCE, UiA and Agder County Municipality. KOMPFORSK contribute to the development of competitive regional research environments that mutually reinforce each other, strengthen the knowledge environments and contribute to the development of the region through international cooperation.

Main goal

Establish and operate a virtual competence centre for large research and innovation initiatives in Agder, with the aim of increasing regional success rates when applying for European research and innovation funding.

Objectives

1. Increase the visibility and strengthen the position of Agder’s research communities, at UiA and NORCE, to increase impact in European programs through central roles in relevant EU networks, platforms, and thematic research clusters.
2. Develop methodology (methods and processes) that will facilitate access to EU funding programmes and larger national funding programmes.
3. Contribute to an increase in the success rate for EU proposals from UiA, NORCE, and other key actors in Agder.

KPIs

1. Increased number of central roles in prioritised national and EU networks, arenas and research clusters.
2. Methods developed in KOMPFORSK are implemented in the EU application processes of the organisations.
3. All submitted proposals shall be over threshold, and the success rate in EU shall increase by 10 percentage points in the Horizon Europe-period.

Project summary

With financing from Sørlandets kompetansefond og Aust-Agder utviklings- og kompetansefond, the project startet in November 2021. After the start-up phase in 2022, the project got off to a good start and there has been a lot of good exchange of experience, increased international networking and positioning, and not least increased application activity.

Nettworking activity

Membership in important networks has grown significantly in the first years of KOMPFORSK. Researchers and advisors have had the opportunity to participate more actively in important networks. Researchers and advisors, affiliated with the center, participated in at least 18 relevant networks, including the Research Council of Norway's National Reference Groups for Horizon Europe, COST networks, AI, Data and Robotics Partnership, Hydrogen Europe Research and Batteries European Partnership Association.

In addition, an important focus area has been the positioning and visibility of our research environments and the region in relevant physical arenas. During 2023 and 2024, researchers and advisors have participated in several relevant European events with the help of KOMPFORSK funding, including among others European Hydrogen Week, European Robotics Forum, Wind Energy Hamburg, Sosial simulation conference and European Sustainable Energy Week.

KOMPFORSK has thus facilitated the continued and future increase of membership and participation in prioritized national networks, EU networks, platforms and thematic research clusters (KPI 1)

The project has created a toolbox, where expertise and experience gained through the projects are concretized in the form of tangible deliverables (e.g. manuals, strategies, standard documents, etc.). Research advisers, affiliated with the center were closely involved in the preparation of the methodology and will use it in the future. This will contribute to implementation of the methodology in the organizations’ EU processes. (KPI 2)

KOMPFORSK has actively contributed with input to the establishment of the Agder European Office and started interaction with the association throughout the autumn and winter of 2024. This prioritization has helped to ensure the continuation of both support for European positioning and networking and the transfer of expertise to and integration of the "KOMPFORSK" methodology into the Agder European Office's mobilization work from 2025 onwards.

Proposal activity

There has been a high level of application activity among the researchers involved, with participation in more than 30 submitted or started applications to Horizon Europe since its inception, of which approximately 10 have been coordinated by the project partners. As of now, this has resulted in five projects where NORCE Agder or UiA is the coordinator (COGNIMAN and iBot4CRMs) or work package manager (ReMeD, Stor-Hy and FAMOS).

Before KOMPFORSK was initiated, application initiatives from Agder were largely fragmented and independent of each other. We are now seeing a far greater degree of exchange of experience and knowledge across academic communities and institutions. In the long term, such an exchange of expertise will increase the quality and impact of our applications to Horizon Europe. This is reflected, for example, in the increased success rate for UiA from 6.6 (Horizon 2020) to 20% (Horizon Europe) as of November 2024. (KPI 3). In recent years, NORCE has had a success rate of approx. 30%.

In addition to the increased success rate, the funding amount has also increased for both UiA and NORCE in the Horizon Europe (HEU) program compared to the previous Horizon 2020 program. UiA’s funding has increased from EUR 3.1 million (Horizon 2020) to EUR 10.0 million in Horizon Europe until November 2024, and NORCE has increased from EUR 29 million in Horizon 2020 (the entire period) to over EUR 42 million in Horizon Europe until November 2024. The Horizon Europe period is 2021 to 2027. Furthermore, the organizational collaboration and communication between UiA, NORCE and Agder County Municipality has increased both at the researcher, advisor and management levels. This has led to several other initiatives such as active collaboration around a thematic EU network's application for the final period of Horizon Europe (2025-2027). The network received support in November 2024 and will be an important part of the region's collaboration platform.

There is no doubt that the KOMPFORSK project, as one of several strategic and important initiatives, has contributed to the increase in the success rate and project volume from Horizon Europe to the research communities in Agder.