As part of SMART4ENV’s capacity-building activities, the consortium has successfully completed the first week of the Research Management and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Training Programme, delivered by SITES experts Leonardo Piccinetti, Donatella Santoro, and Irina Vitchinka.

This foundational week focused on enhancing partner organisations’ understanding of Horizon Europe pre-award processes, IPR fundamentals, and strategic research support mechanisms essential for high-quality proposal development and long-term exploitation of project results.

🔍 Key topics covered during the first training week included:

🟦 Research support strategies for pre-award activities
Strengthening internal systems to improve competitiveness in Horizon Europe applications.

🟦 IPR fundamentals
Understanding IP types, ownership rules, background & foreground knowledge, and pathways for protecting and exploiting project results.

🟦 Horizon Europe Grant Agreement expectations
Clarifying obligations and preparing institutions for successful participation.

🟦 Pre-award planning and proposal preparation
Interpreting call documents, identifying requirements, and ensuring thorough proposal planning.

This first training phase contributes directly to SMART4ENV’s mission to reinforce research excellence, improve innovation management, and support partners in building sustainable, long-term project impact.