Online survey: Prioritization of research topics by NKS

 

In total 165 stakeholders participated in the online-based prioritization survey that concluded the second project phase. The final evaluation of the Clustered Thematic Topics (CTTs) and Integrated Research Topics (IRTs) by the National Key Stakeholders validated the CTTs and IRTs reported in Deliverable D3.3 as relevant and complete trans-national research topics. All IRTs and CTTs within the 4 themes of the conceptual model (Demand, Natural Capital, Land Management, Net Impacts) were scored as being important or most important. Further information on the type of stakeholders that participated in the evaluation and their backgrounds are provided in Deliverable D3.4 (Makeschin et al. 2016).

 

Next steps to the Strategic Research Agenda
and Match-Making process

 

As we approach the end of INSPIRATION’s second year, the baton that passed from the country review of research needs to the team that identified clustered thematic topics (CTT) and integrated research needs (IRT) is about to be passed on again. The four themes – Demand, Natural Capital, Land Management and Net Impact – contain between 4 and 7 CTTs and WP3 leader, Franz Makeschin, extracted 17 IRTs. Feedback from our National Focal Points and National Key Stakeholders led the Core Group to conclude that all the CTTs and IRTs should be carried forward.  So the baton is now in the hands of Paul Nathanail and Sandra Boekhold to write the Strategic Research Agenda that all INSPIRATION’s partners will use to help the match-making process of bringing funders together in the closing 12 months of our project and beyond.

 

WP3-NKS meeting in Venice, September 2016

 

In September 2016, the Venice workshop aimed at a final quality check of the clustered and integrated research topics identified in the second project phase. The topics were intensively discussed in parallel working sessions organized in an expert hearing format, which was much welcomed by all participants. Besides project partners, 63 National Key Stakeholders as well as representatives of EU projects RECARE, iSQAPER, VOLANTA, SOILCARE and eLTER participated in the meeting for a cross-checking with their current activities. Further details of the meeting are reported in the D3.4 report.

 

Annual meeting WP3-NKS meeting in Faro, June 2016

 

This year’s annual meeting of the INSPIRATION consortium was held in Faro, Portugal on 8 – 10 June 2016. The first day was a meeting of INSPIRATION project partners focussing on a review of the achieved status and administrative issues. On the second and third day, four National Key Stakeholders from each country represented in INSPIRATION joined the event for a WP3-NKS meeting in dedicated sessions. The ambition was to provide a comfortable environment to liaise between project partners and the NKS in order to review interim clustering results of national research demands. The meeting included discussions on potential funding schemes and concluded with excursions to the Algarve coastal region, which provided interesting examples of land-use management challenges.

 

INSPIRATION National collated results summarized
on posters

 

Each country involved in INSPIRATION has elaborated a poster that provides a summary of the national results included in the Deliverable 2.5. Each country presents on these posters its key results and its individual key message or lesson learnt. Follow the link for further information and to download the posters from our website.

 

First implementations of INSPIRATION’s SRA
already start

 

At national level, INSPIRATION partners from Slovenia, Sweden and France have had the opportunity to include specific research ideas identified by INSPIRATION in upcoming research calls. For example in Slovenia, following the national workshop, an agreement is to be signed between the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) and the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning of the Republic of Slovenia to fund a common Targeted Research Programme (CRP). The matchmaking phase in 2017 of the INSPIRATION project is intended to further facilitate the uptake of collected research needs.

 

Workshop of Work Package 3 with National Focal Points at ETH in Zürich, April 2016

 

The aim of the Zürich workshop was to give the WP 3 theme leaders the opportunity to discuss with the country representatives their thematic approaches and to check that the content collected in the first year of INSPIRATION in Deliverable D2.5 is correctly understood. During the workshop the subsequent procedure was discussed for synthesizing the national inputs under themes of the INSPIRATION conceptual model. WP3 also received valuable feedback on how to fine-tuning their approach and how to present it to selected NKS in the WP3-NKS workshop held in Faro in June 2016.