INESC Brussels HUB wants to put all INESC institutes on the European and international map

An interview with Ricardo Miguéis, Head of the Brussels Office

The newly created INESC Brussels HUB represents five organisations of the INESC holding – INESC TEC, INOV INESC, INESC ID, INESC MN and INESC Coimbra – combining their efforts to ensure a professional representation that “puts INESC on the European and international map in a sustainable, structured and future-oriented way”. BIP was speaking with Ricardo Miguéis, the Head of the Brussels Office, who tells how this “rocky path” is made in order to achieve “structuring and sustainable” results.

 

How did the idea/need of creating an Office in Brussels emerged?

If we really want to stand side by side with similar European organisations (Fraunhofer in Germany, Catapult in the United Kingdom, RI.SE in Sweden, Tecnalia in Spain, among many others in all European countries) we need to gain a new centrality. All these institutions have offices in Brussels, some since the early 1990s. INESC TEC, and the INESC universe as a whole, have the same distributed structure and dimension similar to all the organisations mentioned above. Thus, as a result of the vision, initiative and openness of the Boards of the five INESC institutions, it was decided to create a representation that puts INESC on the European and international map in a sustainable, structured and future-oriented way.

What are the institutions that are part of the office?

The Management Committee of INESC Brussels HUB is part of INESC TEC, INOV INESC, INESC ID, INESC MN and INESC Coimbra, on which an appointed Member of each Board is represented. It should be noted that the HUB’s Management Committee is responsible for approving the strategic guideline (three-year Strategic Plan, in this case from 2020 to 2022), the Activity Plan and the HUB’s budget.

What is the office’s mission and what are the goals to be achieved?

INESC Brussels HUB’s mission is to strategically position INESC in the European programmes, to increase its visibility and credibility as an essential organisation in key areas, to represent INESC in important European platforms, groups and structures, to support the organisational development through benchmark and sustained collaboration with other organisations of research, technological development and industry interface, to provide INESC’s researchers with a permanent physical space for support and representation in Brussels.

This is a rocky path. Structural and sustainable results are not achieved overnight and, as I say, success starts at home. In the Activity Plan for 2020, which is now being prepared, you can find training activities – for example, on how to take advantage of the European Funds for research and innovation of Horizon Europe and other European Commission’s Directorates-General – it should be noted that the new EC configuration distributes funding for innovation among eight different Commissioners from Agriculture to Energy, Environment, Industry and Internal Market, without forgetting the important structural funds, among others; on how to create the conditions and to develop successful proposals at the European Innovation Council or on the European Research Council. In the same Plan, we will have positioning and benchmark events, among which I highlight the HUB’s annual event at Brussels, intelligence development that goes from the simple yet essential “who’s who” guide to the analysis and influence of relevant public policies, among other crucial activities in order to achieve the goals that we set out.

At the moment, the short-term goal is to draw up an activity plan that results from listening to researchers and to the strategic guidelines of the Boards. No activity plan should be written in stone, flexibility and the ability to respond to the needs and goals that arise over time are crucial characteristics. However, we must also not lose focus on results and make choices based on factual information; not only is it essential, but it also helps the organisation to get to know itself better and to evolve in a sustainable way. This has to be built with everyone’s help, knowing that this is a pioneering project, which will be initiated and that represents a financial and human endeavour that we will jointly make it a success.

How does it works?

INESC Brussels HUB complements and works in partnership with the support structures of each one of the INESC institutes, from projects to HR or communication. Each INESC has a focal point that is the contact person within the organisation, who ensures an active voice of their respective interests and goals in the Strategic and Activity Plans. The HUB has a representative functional structure organised into Work Groups (WG), with Members appointed by their corresponding Boards of the five INESC institutions. There are two permanent groups, the WG Funding and the Policy and Operations Board, and, as a result of the work that they are developing (in terms of financial characterisation, analysis of strategic areas in public policies and funding instruments, as well as the existing ability in the five organisations), there will be three thematic groups representing researchers from their corresponding areas. These groups will work in order to make INESC an important international player in these scientific and technological fields, will meet and will provide privileged information and will be the vehicle for the strategic positioning of teams in consortia and influence structures of the European funding agendas. But it is also possible to meet specific goals beyond the work of the groups.

From October 2019, there will be a physical space available in the centre Brussel’s European Neighbourhood, more precisely at Rue du Luxembourg, no.3, 3rd floor. It is a five-minute walk from the two main buildings of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD), the European Parliament and the headquarters of the European Commission, and in the vicinity of hundreds of other representations of similar organisations, companies, regions, countries, technological platforms, etc. In the same building, you will find the representation of RI.SE institutions, from Sweden, of Volvo and several regions and European platforms. In the building, we also have two auditoriums that can host events of up to 70 people and our own room allows for meetings of up to 30 people. Soon there will be a web page of the HUB with all the details.

Please give us a brief description of your career path

Having started in research about twenty years ago, my career quickly changed to the management of research organisations, to the design, development and the implementation of science, technology and innovation policies. After completing a project on the impact and role of the European Union investments in Latin America (and vice versa) in technology transfer, innovation and socio-economic development (focusing on the realities of Portugal and Brazil, which made me work as a researcher residing at FIESP – Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo), it was in DINÂMIA that I had my first contact with my first challenge in research and innovation management as a manager. I realised that the key is to be familiar with teams and to help them promoting their abilities in the right direction, as well as to structure fluid and functional internal processes. I started a journey in public policy, integrating the team of Engr.º Virgínia Correia and Professor Eduardo Maldonado, who had just started the GPPQ – Office for the Promotion of the Framework Programme, a visionary initiative of the Minister Mariano Gago. I was a Contact Point and National Delegate at the 7th Framework Programme and at Horizon 2020, and I accepted the challenge of creating and forming a team and to launch the Strategic Projects and International Relations Unit of Ciência Viva.

While never leaving the role of Contact Point and National Delegate for Research Infrastructures within the scope of the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, the FCT’s management, represented by the Professor Miguel Seabra and Professor Paulo Pereira, invited me to develop the first National Roadmap of Research Infrastructures of Strategic Interest. We involved the entire national research community and we published what was then considered to be a reference roadmap and a good practice at a European level. We began a journey that has led us to the visibility and reputation of a professionalised and credible country in the research infrastructures areas, resulting in prominent positions at the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), as Chairman of the ESFRI Strategy Working Group on Energy, Chairman of the Board of European Marine Biology Resource Centre, Chair of the Science Europe WG on Research Infrastructures, among others.

Expanding this experience to other science and innovation policies was the goal as Chief of Staff of the Secretary of State for Science, Technology and Higher Education of the XXIst Constitutional Government, Professor Fernanda Rollo, as well as the Advisor to the Board of the Portuguese National Innovation Agency (ANI), then chaired by Engr.º José Carlos Caldeira. The experience and vision of Engr.º Caldeira, as well as the ones from Nuno Lúcio, in the ANI’s Board, soon managed to revitalise the base fund of the Technological Interface Centres (CIT), which didn’t exist until 2007 and to promote the first call for tender, using structural funds in order to co-finance the participation in European projects. We have implemented, within the INTERFACE Programme, the most innovative funding regulation for technology infrastructures, which was fully focused on results and not on the bureaucratic and financial control of ‘taxi invoices’. We just do what they let us do: with this ever-present mantra and with the departure of Engr.º Caldeira from ANI, I thought it was time to accept challenges that, for family reasons, I had so far refused. That was how I went to Brussels, where I took the position of Deputy Secretary-General of CESAER, the European association of Universities of science and technology, and since June of this year I began working as head of INESC’s new representative office in Brussels.

Are there any prospects for team expansion in the future?

Yes. The scale of the challenge will force the team to be expanded as soon as the initial structure is set and in progress. These offices need a small, but very professional and efficient structure. The key component is to secure the interests of the organisations it represents and, simultaneously, to have the ability to represent, organise activities and support researchers and to promote the success of long-term research and innovation. On the other hand, the training and the qualification of people in these areas is of the utmost importance, so there will be internship opportunities at the HUB, in a way that we will define in the future.

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