During 28–29 October 2025 at the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB), Izabela Raszczyk and Anna Krajewska from the ICCVS Research Support Team attended the 4th BESTPRAC Thematic Group Event held under the theme “Bridging the Gap: Project Managers and Research Support Teams in Action”.
The Barcelona meeting reminded us how crucial the interface between EU project managers (PMs) and research support services is, especially in the context of implementation of EU-funded projects. In our team, however, members do often have both roles.
The talks during the event were organised in two tracks: “Working Group 01: Administration/Management & Legal” and “Working Group 02: Finance”. Both were very hands-on and helped to refine our understanding of diverse aspects of research management and administration. Topics, that were discussed, included: the organisation models of research support and research management units, challenges in daily operations, the invisible roles in research project management as well as EC audits, CFS, lump sum project administration, joint reporting tools, ERC proposal support models, and many more. Congratulations to the organizers from EARMA and local hosts from PRBB for an excellent agenda.
New contacts in the RMA community have been made and those already established could be strengthend. This activity has contributed to the tasks planned in the Horizon Europe project CANVAS (GA 101079510) within Workpackage no. 4 focused on increasing project management capacities through a better access to EU networks of research managers.
Moreover, the stay in Barcelona allowed to refresh contacts with former ICCVS staff members as well as previous project partners – for strong networks to enable a better research environment.
Group photo by Bestprac