Following the Members’ suggestions for the new strategy, CEPIS has launched a series of actions related to research, development and innovation (R&D&I). This initiative is being led by the Member of the CEPIS Board of Directors Aida Omerovic.
The activities kicked off with an initial online meeting on 28 February, attended by people from 6 different CEPIS member societies. The President of CEPIS, Luis Fernandez-Sanz, outlined the overarching principle of this area of action: CEPIS is not an organization to carry out R&D&I on its own. Instead, it would engage in projects, consultations, dissemination, etc. but only as associated partners, subcontractor or simply a collaborator/observer. As a second strand of action, CEPIS would increase the visibility of the projects which CEPIS member societies and their experts lead or participate in: promote presentations of projects by societies and experts from societies, as well as share information on opportunities for experts and Societies to participate in different project proposals.
The meeting also featured a presentation from Fundación ONCE of a project where CEPIS is an associate partner.
During the discussion, the participants proposed various potential activities, such as co-organising conferences with organisations like IEEE, focusing also on “non-buzzword” topics, creating a curated resource area that member societies could use to find information about EU funding sources, and creating a repository of data on experts and projects from CEPIS member societies.
As with all CEPIS expert groups and activities, the success and results depend very strongly on members’ participation, so we encourage all Member Societies to engage.
A follow-up meeting is planned for mid-April. The Secretariat will send out the invitations in due course.
