Abstract:

Thanks to the financial aid from the EUPRO and EUPRO II programmes of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, the Czech National Information Network for framework programmes (NINET) has been working since 2000. Since its very beginning, the NINET network consisting of Regional Contact Organizations and Branch Contact Organizations has been focusing primarily on the provision of information and advisory services on the area of EU framework programmes for research and development.

The Regional Contact Organization South Bohemia – the contact for the European Research Area – has already been the fourth follow-up project of the Global Change Research Centre of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, whose aim is to actively support the involvement of regional scientific and research institutes in projects of international scientific and research cooperation.
At the moment, thanks to new funding opportunities supporting researchers (e.g. EU operational programmes), its initial activities (advisory, consulting and information) have expanded to include very popular and sought-after support activities whose ambition is to increase the competitiveness of researchers and thus enable them to be more involved and to apply their skills in international activities in the field of science, research and innovation.

These supporting activities are focused on marketing science and research, and particularly on the education and development of managerial skills of researchers.

The educational activities include organization of seminars, courses and summer schools aimed at issues regarding the management of scientific and research activities, preparation and management of international projects, financial management of projects, intellectual property protection, human resources management, communication and presentation skills and the use of IT tools in the context of project implementation.
Such educational activities are always scheduled and carried out with regards to the current needs of researchers in the region, and are performed by lecturers with many years of experience in the field. They are intended for PhD students, researchers from university and academic background, scientific and research institutions as well as for administrators of scientific research projects.

The project Regional Contact Organization South Bohemia – the contact for the European Research Area (LE11008) - is funded from the EUPRO II programme of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic.

Keywords:

Educational activities, development of managerial skills, international scientific and research cooperation.