Supporting Novel Co-creation Initiatives (ORION task 3.5, D3.11 Report on the implementation of novel co-creation initiatives) sought to support making research funding and performing institutions more permeable to Responsible Research and Innovation principles by encouraging collaboration of Core and Associated ORION partners with stakeholders in the quadruple helix. This report summarises the learnings during the first two phases of this task: the design and dissemination of the funding call; and the evaluation and selection of successful proposals.
The design of the funding call was a co-creation process during which ORION partners started collaborating with stakeholders in industry (Innovative Medicines Initiative/European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations), other higher education organisations (Eurodoc), and the public sector (European Commissions, DG Santé and RTD; Swedish Innovation Agency).
The co-creation process to design the funding call resulted in an open and flexible call criteria broadly focussed on health and biomedicine. This flexibility supported a wide uptake of the funding call, with 15 proposals submitted covering topics ranging from fundamental life sciences research projects, point of care applications, to projects in science education, public engagement and science communication.
The evaluation and selection of successful proposals allowed a practical collaboration of the ORION consortium with ORION Advisory Board members who evaluated the submitted proposals. ORION Advisory Board members welcomed this opportunity to collaborate and praised the quality of the proposals. The professional proximity between the consortium and the evaluation members allowed to highlight a few challenges and shortcomings, which can be corrected in the future.