Over 400 European project management professionals from Catalonia gathered at the UAB Auditorium for the annual meeting organised by the Agency for the Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR). With the slogan "Professionalising research management in Catalonia", the meeting highlighted the work of people in research management and reflected on various aspects related to their recognition, training and professionalisation.
The opening of the meeting was attended by UAB Rector Javier Lafuente, director general of research of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Joan Gómez Pallarès, and executive director of AGAUR Manuel Molina.
Rector Lafuente welcomed participants to the meeting, whose work he highlighted as "a fundamental part" of improving the participation of universities and research centres in competitive calls for proposals and boosting the capacities of the Catalan research system. He also highlighted "the effort made by research institutions to create and consolidate structures and teams to manage and support research groups in international calls for proposals, despite the fact that they have not always had the funding support or the regulatory framework to guarantee it".
In the first general talk of the meeting, on the Catalan Science Law and the positioning of Catalonia in Horizon Europe, Joan Gómez Pallarès highlighted the fact that the law explicitly recognises aspects such as the training, promotion and mobility of technological and technical research support staff, whom he defined as one of the "essential elements" of the research system. Gómez Pallarès emphasised the "non-interventionist" nature of the law; in this sense, the institutions or agents of the system must be in charge of establishing their own strategies according to their priorities based on the economic resources provided by the Generalitat.
The meeting held at the UAB highlighted the value of the professionalisation of the people working in research management, in line with European best practices and in accordance with the relevance of Action 17 and the projects financed by the European Commission. For the first time the EU has identified research management as one of the 20 priorities of the European Research Area (ERA): "Research Management Initiative - Enhancing the strategic capacity of Europe's public research performing and funding organisations". This action highlights, among other elements, the importance of having networks or initiatives to have a strong community of research managers.
During the day, the different ongoing initiatives on Action 17 and the EU Roadmap and CARDEA projects were discussed. There were also different parallel sessions on the recognition and training of research managers, as well as seven round tables on various specific aspects of the profession and an exhibition of posters from different institutions and research centres.
