Instructional goals
The course will provide the students with practical skills on how to prepare a Research and Innovation proposal, eligible for funding under the Horizon Europe financing framework. In the laboratory, the students will learn how to describe the excellence, impact and implementation fo their ideas, they will learn to test their hypothesis, and they will apply the knowledge gathered in the other courses of the LDIS curriculum.
Prerequisites
No prerequisites
Intended learning outcomes
By the end of the course, the students will have prepared a de-facto Horizon Europe project proposal. They will be able to make strategic decisions about innovative products and services, and will know the most common pitfall in the innovation pathway. Students will be able to assess the feasibility of an innovative idea through scientific approach and will know what opportunities exist in Europe for research and innovation. They will have worked on real-world applications, developed their own project proposal, and mastered basic principles of project management and coordination
Course Contents
The course is a laboratory where the students will learn stepwise how to prepare a Research and Innovation Project Proposal. The course has a theoretical component on the contents required to formulate the proposal and on different methodological approaches to proposal construction. A practical component involves the students working in groups on their own proposals
Reference Books
No textbooks. The lecturer will provide short reading assignments complementing the classes
Teaching Methods
The course will be partially frontal lectures discussing methodologies and theoretical aspects, and partially a practical workshop in which the students are expected to complete classwork and discuss their own project development.
Assessment Method
The students will be evaluated on a pass/fail criteria based on:
- level of engagement in the lecture
- quality of the coursework
- quality of the final presentation
Thesis assignment criteria
By choice based on personal interest. Assigned by the lecturer if no workable preference is available
Does the syllabus cover sustainability topics?
Yes. One lecture on impacts will touch sustainability topics, although those will not be examined in depth
Week 1 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Course orientation, syllabus overview and learning objectives;
Interaction with core courses, method of evaluation and assessment
The European Research and Innovation context, Horizon Europe, and the Funding and Tenders Portal
Week 2 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Hierarchy in Horizon Europe: Destinations, Calls, and Topics.
Structure of a topic, different sections of a project proposal, introduction to the 6 topics of the workshop
TRL and BRL levels
Creation of working groups and topic selection
Week 3 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Excellent research: how to design a project proposal in a project canvas.
Setting a vision and a value proposition. Storytelling
Setting smart objectives
Preparing an abstract
Week 4 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Excellent research: building a consortium and preparing a competence matrix
Describing and validating hypotheses
Engaging with stakeholders and interviewing
Week 5 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Excellent research: state of the Art analysis and how to demonstrate the innovativeness of an idea
Literature search: main literature search tools. Extracting information from a research paper
Patent landscaping: main patent search tools. Extracting information from a patent document
Visualizing information. Basic data analysis with Excel
Week 6 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Excellent Research: how to describe the methodology, graphical synthesis and logic diagrams
Finding out and discussing methodological challenges
The “Do not significant harm” principle
Ethics, gender dimension and Multidisciplinarity
Open Science and Data Management
Week 7 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Midterm checkpoint. Review of the project canvases. Group presentations. Feedback from teachers
Week 8 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Impactful research: differences between results, outcomes and impacts
Extracting and discussing impacts from topics
Constructing meaningful impact models. Example on simplified Economic Impact
Finding out and discussing barriers to impacts
Week 9 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Impactful research: communication, dissemination and exploitation strategies
Impact on Eu policies and strategies
IP management in European proposals
Week 10 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Feasible research: describing a work package and deifining task
Constructing a GANTT chart and assigning dependencies
Constructing a PERT chart to show information flow
Budget fundamentals
Week 11 Contenuto sessioni on line e on campus
Final presentations and discussion
Course wrap up