Fair Future

Consistent with the objectives of the German government's strategy for the internationalization of education, science and research, the funding program “Innovation Union Europe – Germany's Commitment to the European Research Area” and the BMBF initiative “SME internationalization”, the present project aims to expand and consolidate sustainable and intensive collaborations with outstanding researchers as well as business and educational institutions in Central and Southeastern Europe. As an experienced and innovative partner institution (the most innovative University of Applied Sciences in Lower Saxony), the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences aims to provide access for excellent German researchers to the European research area through the intended cooperation, on the one hand. On the other hand, it allows excellent scientists from Central and Southeastern Europe to exploit their innovation potential in Horizon Europe and to strengthen the science-practice transfer in the respective regions. The project at hand focuses on the main topics of the European Research Framework Program. The scientific and practical issues fit especially to the impact areas nine and ten as required by the strategic plan, which intend to reduce inequality, to support equal opportunities and to cope with social exclusion (European Commission, 2021a). The Corona pandemic is creating new challenges for these areas by reinforcing tendencies of division and radicalization as well as disadvantages of minorities on an individual and societal level. Therefore, the European Commission has placed an emphasis on funding research projects that investigate the societal and economic consequences of the Corona pandemic in terms of diversity as well as discrimination and inequality (see upcoming calls under the category “Innovative Research on Social and Economic Transformations”, (European Commission, 2022). Even though the deadlines of the current calls are not within the funding period of this project, they clearly highlight a great need for future solutions to xenophobia and separationist tendencies in the context of the Corona pandemic. This project addresses these aspects by developing an innovative approach that investigates the handling of diversity and discrimination in companies, public institutions and NGOs in a flexible way according to the requirements of the respective call. Thereby, structural, societal and individual factors in the context of the Corona pandemic and the different European partner countries are taken into account. Additionally, a focus on the applicability and transferability of the project results (knowledge transfer platform, participation of stakeholders) is already given in the conception phase, so that a strong impact can be ensured. Both the innovative research approach and the consideration of practical implications and the needs of various stakeholders throughout the research process are unique features of this project, which particularly emphasize its scientific performance, innovative strength and its capability to tie in with current discourses.

The following milestones have been defined for the proposed project.

The first milestone represents funding phase 1 and includes the acquisition of new cooperation partners through approaches of consortium members, the use of consortium structures (e.g., Era-Net, Enterprise Europe Network), structures of the universities, as well as conferences. Here, each member has the responsibility to decide individually which event formats and facilities will have the greatest impact in attracting transfer partners. For the consolidation of the cooperation of the consortium members and practice partners it is planned to visit five of the partners (the prospective key members) and to discuss with them and representatives of regional stakeholders strategic and content-related issues of the cooperation, the proposal submission as well as the network development. Furthermore, the first milestone includes management tasks for the preparation of the knowledge transfer platform, correspondence as well as service especially for practice partners who are to be tied to the network. The latter tasks will be performed during the entire project period.

The second milestone defines the basis for a successful application. To achieve this, the consortium will select at least one Horizon Europe Call. Furthermore, in order to prepare the application, the results of previous own research as well as other country-specific results will be reviewed. The results will be translated into English and collected on the knowledge transfer platform in the form of wikis, so that they can serve as a scientific basis for the application; the wikis include prepared concepts, ideas and results shared on the platform, which – under the moderation of the applicant – can be edited, developed and shared for acquisition purposes by the consortium. As it cannot be ensured that a relevant call will be available immediately at the beginning of the project, funding for this step will be scheduled for the entire funding phase 1. Preliminary work will already be started if there is any uncertainty, so that the best possible basis can be created at the beginning of funding phase 2. In funding phase 2, a model will be developed on the basis of this extended research and existing results as well as the experience of those involved, which should reflect the changes that diversity management will have to cope with in the coming years in the best possible way. The thematic focus can be placed on the topics of competencies and competence transfer, handling of discrimination, or prejudice and racism, depending on the thematic focus of the identified call. Based on the call and the framework model, scientific and practical questions are then translated into concrete EU project goals.

The preparation of a joint EU application for Horizon Europe represents the third milestone. Following the creation of a call, suitable ideas, a network and structures in funding phase 1, these ideas are collected and further developed on the knowledge transfer platform. Once one or more suitable research ideas have been generated, a workshop is organized at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences with all potential project participants in order to formulate the concrete project concept. The final proposal will be developed by the applicant in close cooperation with the NCP and the EU office of the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences, coordinated with the consortium and submitted by the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences.

The fourth milestone includes all cross-sectional tasks. Project coordination, organization of project meetings, providing data for evaluation/monitoring of success, controlling of costs in cooperation with the area of third-party funding, and meetings with EU advisors regarding the formalities of the planned EU proposal are handled by the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences. This also includes the preparation of the interim report for funding phase 1 and a corresponding final report. In order to promote young researchers, all project participants will involve staff and students in their research activities.