Presenting Engage2020 – a sister project of the PE2020

The European Commission has identified seven Grand Challenges – key issues ranging from demographic change, green transport to efficient energy. And it is targeting the challenges with the largest research programme to date – the €80 billion Horizon 2020. The challenges can only be tackled effectively if all of society’s actors are fully engaged. And this is what Engage2020 will contribute to.

The Engage2020 project will map and explore existing societal engagement in research and innovation and inspire new actors to include this in their praxis. The project focus is on where and why citizens, stakeholders, CSO’s and other societal actors can be engaged in research and innovation processes. The aim is to increase the use of engagement methods and policies in connection to the Grand Challenges. Continue reading Presenting Engage2020 – a sister project of the PE2020

How we started PE2020, a new EU project on public engagement

Kick-off meetings are important milestones for new EU projects. It is the place and time for the consortium to gather together for the first time and push the project into the right direction. PE2020 kick-off meeting was held in Helsinki in 5-7 March, 2014. The meeting required a lot of work before and during the meeting but the real work gets really going only after the meeting! At some point, Mikko -the PE2020-project coordinator- who is a true scientist from the heart, was afraid that he will turn into a full-time manager while having to have each little detail thought over and organized, but he was relieved after realizing that the consortium is very experienced in completing EU projects. The preparatory work paid off, since the meeting was very successful and the consortium partners could spend a major part of the meeting talking about research and not just managerial issues. (Although a new definition was invented: mikkomanagement, instead of micromanagement, thanks Luciano! I think this will carry us through the project.)

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Continue reading How we started PE2020, a new EU project on public engagement