Let us return to the important WIDERA workshop organised by the European Commission and the European Research Executive Agency at the end of last year.
Policymakers, project coordinators, National Contact Points, members of the ERA Forum and Programme Committee, and representatives of the European Commission and the European Research Executive Agency met to exchange ideas and experiences. The WIDERA Feedback-to-Policy Workshop brought together a vibrant community of people working at the heart of Europe’s research and innovation landscape. The common goal: to better connect European policy with the realities of implementation on the ground.
Turning Experience into Policy Insight
The Horizon Europe work programme “Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area” (WIDERA) plays a unique role in delivering the priorities of the European Research Area (ERA). With its wide and diverse portfolio of projects, WIDERA generates a wealth of practical knowledge and tested solutions. The workshop focused on how this experience can feed back into policymaking — not only at EU level, but also nationally and regionally. The event created space for open discussion and exchange between projects and policymakers. Its objectives were to:
- Share concrete, policy-relevant results and impacts from WIDERA-funded projects
- Encourage wider uptake of project outcomes across the ERA community
- Foster dialogue, collaboration, and community-building
- Contribute to shaping future policy and programme development
Spotlight on Policy-Relevant Projects
A wide range of projects showcased how they are contributing to ERA priorities and systemic reform. These projects focus on structural change and strengthening the research ecosystem:
- Research careers: Sustainable Careers for Researcher Empowerment (SECURE)
- Research management: Career Acknowledgement for Research (Managers) Delivering for the European Area (CARDEA); Creating a European Framework for Research Management Training and Networking (RM FRAMEWORK)
- Knowledge valorisation: Creating FUTUre societal RESILIENCE through innovative, science-based co-creation labs (FUTURESILIENCE)
- Research assessment reform: Strengthening CoARA and Enabling Systemic Reform of Research Assessment – A Booster (CoARA Boost)
- Gender equality: Advancing the zero-tolerance approach to gender-based violence in higher education and research in the ERA (GENDERSAFE)
- Ethics: Operationalising AI ethics for learning and practice: a global approach (AIOLIA)
- Citizen engagement: European Citizen Science (ECS)
- Open science: Unpacking the possibilities of Intellectual Properties for Open Science (IP4OS)
- Reproducibility: Improving Reproducibility In SciencE (iRISE)
- Open access publishing: Developing Institutional Open Access Publishing Models to Advance Scholarly Communication (DIAMAS)
All presentations can be downloaded here: WIDERA Workshop ERA
Widening Participation and Spreading Excellence
This part of WIDERA focuses on reducing disparities and strengthening excellence across Europe by supporting institutional transformation and capacity building. Highlighted initiatives included:
Teaming: Establishment of Smart City Center of Excellence (FINEST TWINS), BiG DAta for SmarT SociEty (GATE)
Twinning: Strengthening Excellence for Advanced Osteosarcoma’s Predictive Models (PREDICTOS), Sustainable Industrial Design of Textile Structures for Composites (SustDesignTex)
ERA Chairs: Fire-safe Sustainable Built Environment (FRISSBE), Establishing the Center for Environmental and Technology Ethics (CETE-P)
Excellence Hubs: Carbon Initiative for Climate-resilient Agriculture (CARBONICA), Greek-Turkish Solar Energy Excellence Hub to Advance the European Green Deal (SolarHub)
European Excellence Initiative: European Higher Education Institutions Network for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences (Edu4ClimAte), Strengthening Research and Innovation Excellence in Autonomous Aerial Systems (AeroSTREAM)
These projects demonstrate how European cooperation can drive institutional change, strengthen capacities, and create lasting impact across the research and innovation landscape.
All presentations can be downloaded here: WIDERA Workshop Widening
Looking Ahead
The workshop reaffirmed the importance of keeping policy and practice closely connected. By learning directly from projects, policymakers gain valuable insights into what works, what needs adjustment, and where future efforts should focus. The highlights aned report from the workshop can be downloaded here: WIDERA Workshop Report
