TORCH D9.5 - Pilot Final Report

The purpose of the Pilot year, i.e., the third and final year of the TORCH project was dedicated, on the one hand, to test the joint open, responsible research and innovation (RRI) strategies and policies developed based on the results of the first 15 months of the project when the partners completed scoping exercises. On the other hand, it is also a central aim of the Pilot year to develop Action Plans (see D9.2) and finalise CHARM-EU Alliance-level R&I strategies (see D8.4) to support the collaboration of Alliance members beyond the TORCH project in the coming years.

The seven Pilots realised in 2023 are the following ones:

1) Charting current Equality Data collection practices in CHARM-EU institutions – an action of data collection following the request of the evaluation of the Midterm Report of the project;

2) Open Science Rewards and Recognition Toolbox – the first steps of creating a comprehensive toolbox of Open Science rewards and recognition, piloted through one call of a CHARM-EU Open Science Recognition Award;

3) Citizen Science Training – piloting a citizen science training module on institutional level at the University of Barcelona;

4) Open Science Training – piloting an open science training online and in hybrid format in the collaboration of Alliance members, offered to staff members of CHARM-EU;

5) Joint Support Strategy for Research Proposals – supporting research groups in submitting proposals and, by collecting experiences from this process, laying the ground for the long-term RRI collaboration of CHARM-EU, designing a joint research support structure;

6) CHARM-EU Research & Innovation Days – a workshop-format thematic networking and brainstorming event for researchers of CHARM-EU member universities to jointly design research proposals;

7) Creation of a virtual Technology Transfer Offices’ network (TTOs) – linking the TTOs of the member universities and arranging meetings where they define topics of common interest and share experiences and good practices.

The aim of the present report is to summarise the results of the Pilots and to provide recommendations to WP8 Strategies and Policies to fine-tune those strategic documents that were drafted before the Piloting period.

The structure of the report is fivefold. After an introduction (1), a methodological overview is provided (2) about the process and documentation of piloting. The most extensive section (3) details Pilots. Then (4), the possible ways of continuing of Pilots and the Recommendations to WP8 are listed. Finally (5), a summary of the activities Pilot year is provided with most important events.