Abstract:

Main objective of our project “Grant Office – The Way to Successful Projects (GROFF)” is (i) the development of the university system of qualified support for preparation and management of international research projects and (ii) the education of academic and administrative staff in objective and financial management, communication and presentation skills, financial legislative and other competences essential for the high-quality preparation and successful management of projects.

The project GROFF consists of 8 key activities (KA): KA01 Education in English language and ICT competences, KA02 Education in project management, KA03 Practical and professional training, KA04 Learning by doing, KA05 Education in legislative, dissemination and commercialization of scientific results, KA06 Software application for preparation, management and administration of projects, KA07 Workshops and KA08 Evaluation of project activities.

The project GROFF has started on the 1st of August 2011 in the framework of the Operational Programme Education for Competitiveness and will end on the 31st of July 2014. The project is funded by the European Social Fund and the state budget of the Czech Republic.

The implementation phase began with an independent survey focused on necessity and interest in managerial skill education for academic and administrative staff. During the project implementation phase we have collected a lot of data. Comparison of the data coming from the survey and the data collected during the project implementation phase brought interesting outputs and new ideas for the future.

The project GROFF is closely connected with another project implemented by the University of Pardubice named “Regional Information and Contact Point for International Cooperation in Research (RIKoC+)” which is focused on (i) the information service about HORIZON 2020 programme and (ii) daily work on the real research project proposal preparation, project management and administration.

Implementation of both presented projects (GROFF and RIKoC+) should help to enhance the participation of the University of Pardubice in HORIZON 2020 and other European research programmes.

Keywords:

Project, international research projects, European social fund, project preparation, project management, education, HORIZON 2020.