Societal Challenge 2: so much more than implementation

On 15 June, almost 70 coordinators participated in the Societal Challenge 2 Coordinators' Day.  46 projects that deal with "food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime inland water research and the bioeconomy" were presented.

During the afternoon cluster sessions and the thematic workshops, the coordinators had the chance to introduce their projects to a variety of different audiences (including colleagues from EASME, DG RTD, AGRI, MARE and DG SANTE), to network with their peers and start thinking about possible collaboration among projects and funds.

And that’s not the end of the story! Soon after the event the present gave way to the future.

Indeed, on 25 June, the 2019 calls for proposals of Societal Challenge 2 were introduced to around 340 participants at the Info Day. REA Head of Department B, Maciej Gorka, opened the event, and DG RTD and AGRI delivered presentations. A discussion on tips and tricks followed. The audience was informed of the practicalities of Societal Challenge 2 call evaluations with some key facts on participation statistics, and details on the main aspects to consider when preparing a proposal. REA’s Horizon 2020 experts video illustrated the advice of participating as an evaluator to gain more experience in the evaluation process.

Maciej Gorka participated in both events and highlighted the strong connection between project and policy in Societal Challenge 2: “We always closely cooperate with parent DGs, in particular to feed developments and results back into the policy-making process”. These two events brought together policy and project actors to exchange information on Societal Challenge 2’s developments.