​Megatrends can be defined as extensive patterns that are likely to shape the future of our world for the next 10 to 20 years and beyond. They are expected to impact multiple aspects of society, including economics, politics, technology, culture, and the environment. These trends have the potential to create new industries, reshape existing ones, and alter the way we live and work. 

In this article, we invite you to get to know Anita Tregner-Mlinaric, one of META Group’s experts, as we discuss industry trends and her work as an innovation expert. Anita is a Senior Advisor and has been with the company for over 10 years. She has extensive professional experience across multiple sectors and the professional experience gained in the international environment (UNDP, OSCE, U.S. Embassy, USAID, META Group, European Commission).

Anita is originally from Croatia and is known within the team as a light-hearted, friendly, and supportive colleague. She is also a fitness addict who loves to dance and travel.

What does your professional journey look like, Anita? What led you to this profession and eventually to META Group?

Initially, I was supposed to venture into the tourism sector as this was supposed to be my professional vocation. Nonetheless, life took me in a different direction. After the war in Croatia, numerous international organizations started to appear in the region. I spent more than ten years working for several international organisations in Croatia and the rest of the Western Balkans. To some extent, our efforts were geared towards preparing Croatia for EU membership. We implemented various programs aimed at enhancing the country’s economic development and competitiveness. Among others, these programs included initiatives to uplift the SME sector and their skills through tailored-made certified training programs.

These experiences not only broadened my network but also allowed me to keep in touch with the institutions and stakeholders I previously worked with, which I am still exploring to identify opportunities for collaboration with META Group. This was a phenomenal journey, filled with diverse projects that allowed me to adapt swiftly to various sectors and programs. My professional role was always related to close collaboration with directors as their “right hand” to ensure the successful implementation of the programmes.

What is your area of expertise and current responsibilities?

From the moment I arrived, I took responsibility of overseeing the implementation of various EU-funded programs that META Group was spearheading. Working alongside Andrea di Anselmo, who, like me, has extensive experience in policy development, we focused on initiatives that were primarily policy related. These were horizontal activities that built capacity across a wide range of fields and that were mostly related to cohesion policy and smart specialization.

We also focused on the capacity building of the newer member states to absorb EU funds in a more strategic manner, empowering them to build their own organizational capabilities and become more successful in utilizing these funds and programmes. While our other projects shared a similar scope, they mainly focused on smart specialization or investment initiatives, all of which were aligned with our mission to empower organizations and individuals to achieve their full potential.

How have innovation policies changed or evolved since the time you entered this sector?

Well, it’s been quite a journey. While some states have always been important players in the innovation space, we have seen some amazing progress in certain countries. EU 13 countries that were previously considered less developed, like Slovenia, Poland, Czech Republic, Baltic countries, have really stepped up their game and made impressive strides in their innovation policies.

Of course, there are still some areas that need improvement, but the good news is that EU is taking notice and actively working to address these issues. We’re seeing a shift away from solely relying on structural funds and towards a focus on direct funds, which is a promising development. But there is still much work to be done, and sharing best practices between countries is a key part of achieving success. Ultimately, our goal is to bridge the gap between newer and older member states and create a more unified and innovative Europe.

At the moment, which projects are you currently involved in?

For the past two years, I was assigned as a senior expert and advisor to DG Regional Policy, focusing mainly on cohesion policy. My job has been to advise European regions that have been mobilised and engaged through S3 Partnerships under Thematic Smart Specialisation Platforms (TSSPs) of the European Commission on how to shape their investment projects and steer them towards a strategic approach to progress towards (and depending on) their maturity stage. It’s been a challenging and yet rewarding experience since many of the S3 Partnerships that I have supported have reached the set milestones and needless to say that I’ve learned so much along the way. I was supported along this journey with another expert, Cecilia Gañán de Molina, who was my “partner in crime” that became my close friend due to the intense work and time we have spent together.

This experience has also enabled me to specialize in new instruments and become one of a few consultants with knowledge and experience on the subject, such as ERDF Interregional Innovation Investments (I3) Instrument so I delivered a lot of presentations to inform the regions on this topic.

On the other hand, this also gave us the opportunity to participate in a consortia applying for this type of instrument. We are proud to have been awarded with the I3 project, named DEREMCO, which commenced at the beginning of this year and was among the first group of 11 projects being funded under this instrument

Which are the most challenging aspects of your role?

Finding the right partners to participate in projects may be challenging and it is a crucial aspect not only of receiving funding but also of effectively managing and implementing a project.

What is it like to work as a project manager

Very often you find yourself in a leadership position. What is it like in this field?

One of META Group’s key strengths is our collaborative approach to problem-solving. By working together as a team, we are able to quickly identify and address any issues that arise. It’s important to be proactive in this regard, as timely action can prevent minor challenges from escalating into major problems.

As project managers, we recognize that every project will encounter some level of difficulty or risk. However, our success depends on how effectively we respond to these challenges. By promptly communicating with our colleagues and management, we are able to devise solutions that minimize the impact on the project, its beneficiaries, clients, and stakeholders. Ultimately, this proactive approach helps us ensure that the project stays on track and meets its objectives.

Which is the part that you enjoy the most in your job?

Working with META Group has been an incredible learning experience for me, and I doubt that I would have become an expert of the European Commission if I didn’t have the chance to acquire all this knowledge and experience through the company. I am grateful for the open communication that allows me to seek guidance from my supervisors when needed. Moreover, I am encouraged to take on new challenges and to promote both myself and the company in the process.

As a senior adviser to the European Commission, I have gained valuable experience in evaluating EU-funded projects and providing project reviews. It is gratifying to know that my expertise has been recognized by these institutions, and that I am trusted to make important decisions regarding project funding. It helps to better understand certain processes or policies or to get closer to the policy makers, which in the end is also a pretty big achievement for the company itself. Overall, my time at META Group has enabled me to grow professionally, and I am grateful for the opportunities that have been presented to me.

In general, how would you say that META Group helps clients and beneficiaries?

When it comes to clients and beneficiaries, I believe that sometimes being a smaller a medium-size company is a strength, because we can provide tailored services and solutions. We also pay a lot of attention to the quality of the delivery. This acts as a powerful reference so often our partners, clients or beneficiaries return.

Moreover, there is a sort of family feeling within the company that seems to be reflected outside, because we are highly motivated by our work, we appreciate the company and the people we work with, and this gets translated in the way we deliver our services.

For me, this kind of mentorship that I was given by my management and my colleagues is priceless. This helps you to grow professionally and it is something so rare to find in a work environment. I appreciate it a lot. I have been with META Group for over ten years, a testament to the company’s exceptional culture and family-like atmosphere.

What are the trends that you see in your sector right now?

The consultancy sector is constantly growing. But I think companies in this field are faced with a talent retention problem. They are not able to keep skilled people because bigger companies tend to put more pressure on employees. This is impacting the fluctuation of people. There are also cases in which the quality of the service delivery is not always the best due to high work volume and lack of agility. We see that the organisations we work with appreciate our company’s approach.

Could you share with us a nice META memory?

I would mention the way that the company has always been there for me, very receptive in personal issues that I dealt with at times. My mother was very sick fighting with cancer, and I had to go from Brussels, where I have been living, to Croatia and work from there for months while also taking care of her. There was always a lot of understanding for my personal situation, providing support without any prompting.

This kind of professional and private life balance that META Group helps a lot with being motivated and doing your best to be on top of the job. Also, the interaction with colleagues and management. When we have an opportunity to be together and socialize, we always have an amazing time, lots of laughing, while on the other hand, when we work, we are very professional and efficient. It’s a winning combination that makes for an enjoyable and productive work environment.

You might also like

• Antonello Fiorucci: We are moving from a solution-led to a problem-led approach
• Andrea di Anselmo on Horizon Europe projects: new knowledge and benefits for citizens

Research & Development (R&D) activities play an increasingly strategic and recognized role in providing solutions to challenges of our time. Indeed, they do it in a multidimensional way. This role is confirmed by the European Commission through Horizon Europe, EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation. With a budget of €95.5 billion, the programme supports the creation and better dispersion of excellent knowledge and technologies.

What appears evident, however, is that R&D processes cannot be exhausted in the exclusive development of a solution. They need to generate impact, generally defined as a long-term economic, social or scientific benefit.

The results of a research, no matter if in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) or SSH (Social Sciences and Humanities) must be connected to the benefits they ought to generate; the “trigger” that enables the long-term impact is the use of this result by economic, social and scientific actors who apply the invention or new knowledge to solve pressing problems and challenges facing our society.

Impact in the scientific community

This is why, in Horizon Europe, the concept of impact has joined that of scientific excellence, imposing a new paradigm on researchers who must inevitably confront themselves with the need to facilitate the use of their research results to enable impact.

The latter represents a challenge for many teams who are used to focusing on scientific excellence but are not as prepared to manage Exploitation and Dissemination processes. This difficulty was confirmed by a survey carried out by META Group with researchers from a prominent Italian university. According to the study, most of the researchers’ efforts (46%) are channeled into the publication of scientific papers with the aim to inform the R&D community about their activity and only a small part (14%) to “engage” potential users or present more effective solutions than the existing ones in tackling various problems. 88% of those interviewed believe that their research activity can only enable an impact of a scientific nature, while 61% believe that maximizing the value of their research consists in having a paper listed in an academic environment.

Facilitating and achieving the use of R&D results is a challenging but necessary process for those participating in programs such as Horizon Europe, aimed at providing solutions to economic, social and scientific challenges. Yet organisations participating in these programmes tend to consider the development of the “solution” a priority, not addressing how this solution can be implemented or adopted in everyday life. This is even more evident in social sciences and humanities disciplines, where results are usually less direct, immediate, and tangible than those generated by STEM research.

No use = No impact

Starting from these considerations, META Group contributed to the Agency for the Promotion of European Research (APRE) 2022 annual conference with a “No use = No impact” workshop on how to put the use of results at the heart of research to create impact.

The participants could benefit from the international experience of the META Group experts and discussed how to “translate” research into multidimensional impact and enable tangible benefits for citizens, businesses, and the next generations. Special attention was given to university areas dedicated to the Third Mission, particularly to services related to the valorisation and dissemination of findings and knowledge.

Aware of difficulties, the European Commission provides free support services to help researchers tackle environmental, energy, digital, and geopolitical challenges. Horizon Results Booster (HRB) aims to bring a continual stream of innovation to the market and maximise the impact of EU-funded research.

Horizon Results Booster

“This is the largest contract on valorisation and dissemination of research results ever awarded by the European Commission. Having both the possibility and the responsibility to complete is an exciting challenge for our team. Above all, it represents the culmination of a journey that began more than 25 years ago and had us always working alongside researchers”, says Alessia Melasecche Germini, CEO of META Group.

The HRB services support R&D partners, ensuring research activities have lasting impact on the economy and society. They provide support and coaching for portfolio dissemination & exploitation strategy, business plan development and go-to-market activities.

The services are delivered for free to closed or ongoing projects financed through FP7, Horizon 2020, and Horizon Europe programmes. They can be requested online on the Horizon Results Booster website. To date, almost 1000 services have been requested, and over 870 projects supported through Horizon Results Booster.

To learn more, visit www.horizonresultsbooster.eu or reach out to booster@meta-group.com.

Article originally published by the Agency for the Promotion of European Research in the APRE Magazine

STEM disciplines undoubtedly represented the strongest and most successful answer to the 20^th century challenges. They enable effective responses in all crucial sectors for the progress of our societies and economies.

But having a broader interdisciplinary approach has become a pivot of the strategies and policies all over the world. It seems to be the common ground for facing the most urgent crisis of our time, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the military conflict in Ukraine.

R&D investments and funds

In the last 25 years, G20 countries increased their gross domestic spending on R&D. That shows how policymakers are setting this trend as one of the growth pillars. Nevertheless, there are still two main challenges to tackle:

1. How R&D investments can drive growth?
2. Should R&D funds focus only on technical domains, or on a more comprehensive approach?

To be effective, the funds invested in R&D have to produce research results that should be used or reach the market. This is not always the case. There is a struggle to transform results into benefits. And this way maximize the scientific, societal, economic, and technological value of public funding.

Three steps to succeed in generating value from research:

1. Generation of knowledge.
2. Transfer of knowledge into use.
3. Promote use to generate impact.

What has happened so far in Europe was the massive financing of the first step without properly supporting step 2 and 3, which are equally crucial. The European Commission with the Framework Programme “Horizon Europe” will give more importance to defining a clear and feasible impact pathway and focus on measures to maximize impact. These activities will not be a “nice to have” any longer. But a “must have” as beneficiaries will have a specific clause in the research contract to run Exploitation, Dissemination and Communication activities.

Lighting Up the Pathway to Impact for SSH

More efforts will be made to foster impact from research results. However, many of the most difficult problems we face as a society, including climate change, racial injustice and cyberattacks, are shaped by human behavior. This means that they can be tackled through public policy. That’s why solutions often require more than technical knowledge. Whether social, economic, environmental, or health-related, solving such challenges calls for critical thinking, historical understanding, cultural literacy, and creativity. It requires the skills, competencies and the understanding spreading from Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH).

SSH were part of the Horizon 2020 funding programme even if the related impact of this sector has been intangible. Social sciences take part in almost 25% of interdisciplinary projects, and humanities in just 10% of Horizon 2020 projects. The integration of the SSH in interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research has been moving at a slow pace.

The Horizon 2020 programme took a two-pronged approach to SSH: a dedicated societal challenge that focused mainly on SSH disciplines and the cross-cutting principle of SSH integration across the whole programme. Effective SSH integration was considered a key determinant of sustainable societal impact.

To accelerate this trend, the European Commission wants to create with Horizon Europe (HE) a strong interaction between STEM and SSH fields. The integration of SSH across Horizon Europe responds to the programme imperative of addressing SSH as a key cross-cutting issue. Building on the experience from Horizon 2020, SSH is present across all clusters under the new programme, including specific and dedicated activities such as missions and partnerships.

SSH as an innovation enabler beyond the social impact

A study conducted by King’s College London and Digital Science underlines that the research underpinning societal impact is multidisciplinary and the social benefit arising from research is multi-impactful. The study identified over 3.700 unique pathways to impact after analyzing the relationship between 149 fields of research, 36 research program categories and 60 impact topics.

Horizon Europe will tackle the main European society challenges in the next seven years through:

• generating an interdisciplinary research approach with the interaction of STEM and SSH
• supporting research projects in exploiting the results generated to create an impact beyond the social impact

Accordingly, it is crucial to use research results as the base for generating impact and to work consistently on maximising it. From this perspective, the exploitation outputs will be instrumental to Dissemination and Communication activities that inform potential adopters and raise the awareness of the general public. Following this pathway means adopting a demand-led approach to address the needs of specific target groups. The spotlight is on the selection of Key Exploitable Results (KERs) and identifying the necessary steps to ensure their use after the end of the research project. This methodology does not depend on the “type” of result. This problem-oriented approach can be applied to SSH research results, where the impact creation has rarely been considered as crucial.

R&D results in Social Sciences and Humanities

Exploiting R&D results is a challenging process for researchers as they usually use a “solution-driven” approach. This issue is more prominent when we consider R&D results from SSH where the outcomes are less tangible than in STEM.

To better understand this process, META Group has implemented a survey at the University of Macerata.  It involved individuals involved in R&D: researchers, professors, PhD students, research fellows and administrative staff. Here are some of the findings.

Read more about the survey results here.

Based on the results of this investigation, a pilot project has been created and implemented. “Research impact on SSH” was funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research to increase the impact of the University of Macerata’s Third Mission.

Case study: University of Macerata

The Italian Ministry of Education funded in 2021 the “Research impact on SSH” project to increase the impact of the University of Macerata‘s Third Mission. Over the years, the University implemented different actions to promote the Third Mission in a typical SSH context. The activities were directed both within the University. The reference was professors, the technical-administrative staff, researchers in training as doctoral students, fellows, and scholarship holders, as well as students. In the other hand, externally it was mostly addressed to the productive fabric and the local community.

Today, innovation is driving exponential changes in every sphere of society. It occurs much more rapidly than people’s responsiveness and resilience. This implies the need to strengthen the ability to respond to the new challenges introduced by innovation with activities that generate impact, starting from SSH research results.

With this project, the University of Macerata will pursue a positioning strategy by strengthening the ability to generate impact out of the research activity carried out in the SSH, in line with the European policy for the seven-year period 2021-2027.

SSH researchers

The project addresses two relevant issues:

1. The lack of skills and awareness of SSH researchers and universities support and ILO staff around the use of research results.
2. The low contribution of SSH to impact on societal challenges.

One dimension of the project is focused on a set of coaching activities to increase the effectiveness of the support provided by the Third Mission office. In particular for those services related to exploitation, dissemination and communication of research results. The second dimension focused on increasing researchers’ awareness around exploitation, dissemination, and communication.

In other hand, while designing and implementing the pilot project at the University of Macerata, the META Group experts identified a set of activities that can be a starting point for any research organization aiming at maximising impact:

1. Ex-ante analysis
2. Promotion of the project and involvement of final beneficiaries
3. Coaching for the ILO and support staff
4. Coaching of selected research teams
5. Project’s results sharing

Read more about the activities implemented as part of the pilot project here.

Finally, it has become increasingly evident that the generation of a valuable wider impact is unlikely unless moving towards a multi-dimensional conception. To make it possible, there is an opportunity arising from the next generation of researchers. Aswell as there is from the new EU-funded research programmes. They have also overcome the curiosity-driven perspective for the pressing demand for an effective impact creation.

As a future area for investigation and study, it will be important to analyse if the paradigm based on the mix of SSH with STEM-deriving methodologies is actually capable to provide effective answers.

​The dishwasher, windshield wiper and caller ID are just a few of the inventions that changed our lives, and we have women to thank for. But when it comes to naming famous investors, most people would probably start with male figures.

A study released earlier this month by the European Patent Office (EPO) finds that 13.2% of inventors in Europe are women. The analysis is based on the percentage of women inventors named in all patent applications to the EPO from 1978 until 2019. It highlights that while the women inventor rate in Europe has been rising in recent decades, a strong gender gap remains. The rate of women inventors is also far below the share of women among science and engineering researchers and graduates.

Only 13% of European inventors are women

According to the EPO study, the rate of women inventors in Europe (13.2% in 2019) is higher than that of Japan (9.5%), but below that of South Korea (28.3%), China (26.8%) and the US (15.0%).

In Europe, Latvia (30.6%), Portugal (26.8%), Croatia (25.8%), Spain (23.2%) and Lithuania (21.4%) have the highest proportion of women inventors, while Germany (10.0%), Luxembourg (10.0%), Liechtenstein (9.6%) and Austria (8.0%) have the lowest.

The study finds that chemistry stands out as the technology sector with the highest share of women inventors (22.4% in 2010-19), while mechanical engineering (5.2%) has the lowest share. Within the chemistry sector, patent applications in the areas of biotechnology and pharmaceuticals have rates of over 30% women inventors.

Another interesting finding is that patent applications from universities and public research organisations have a significantly larger share of women inventors (19%) than those from private business (10.0%). The report reveals that women are more likely to be found in inventor teams than among individual inventors, but they tend to have less senior positions in those teams than men.

Gender Equality Plans

But how can we change the current status quo and boost inclusiveness in the field of patents? Promoting women in science and innovation is one of the key factors to our future sustainability and competitiveness but it remains a major challenge.

One solution to improve women participation and determine institutional change may be implementing Gender Equality Plans. The EU-funded SPEAR initiative is developing such plans in nine European research organisations. Its main objectives are to increase the number of institutions that implement these plans, remove barriers and improving career prospects for women in academia, improving the gender balance in decision-making bodies and strengthening the gender dimension in research content.

SPEAR has benefited of support services to boost the exploitation and dissemination of their solutions through Horizon Results Booster, an initiative of the European Commission implemented by a consortia led by META Group.

Initiatives like SPEAR have the potential to decrease the gender gap in research and innovation and allow women to play a more significant role in the development of new patents. This could mean having more women inventors like the Spanish robotics engineer Elena García Armada, who received the Popular Prize of the European Inventor Award 2022 for her adaptable exoskeleton to help paralysed children walk. Her invention was inspired by meeting a young girl named Daniela who was paralysed in a traffic accident. The exoskeleton enables children to walk during muscle rehabilitation therapy, improving their well-being and extending their life expectancy.

This is not the case of the Polytechnic University of Turin, the oldest Italian public technical university. The institution was awarded by the European Commission with the “HR Excellence in Research”, a distinction that recognizes the commitment in ensuring a positive and attractive environment for researchers from all over the world. Research and education are pursued together with a deep cooperation with the socio-economic actors. This facilitates the knowledge transfer and leads to a tangible impact in the economic, societal and scientific sphere.

Making a difference through the impact of research result

At the University of Turin, META Group delivered a capacity building exercise for both the technical and administrative staff and the researchers. The aim of this pilot was to raise awareness on how to enable impact when implementing Horizon Europe projects. The focus was on how to create the context for maximising impact. This is becoming a critical aspect of research initiatives supported by Horizon Europe and also by other funding programs, such as Next Generation EU, etc.

META proposed a “pathway” that engaged side by side the staff of the EU research office and those involved in research activities. The exercise included a workshop for the university staff followed by a webinar for the researchers to analyse impact in Horizon Europe projects.

The programme also included an on-site writing lab on how to prepare a solid and competitive impact section in a EU-funded proposal. This last session was open to researchers and professionals from the technical staff and research office. This opportunity gave them the chance to improve the most critical aspects of the impact section in their current projects or applications.