CU hosts Excellence-in-ReSTI meeting & awards












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            * Pilot project taught ins-and-outs of project design & management
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            By Jan Velinger




            July 2, 2019


            Few doubt the importance of social and technological innovation projects; in a period of e
            playing fields or shifting sands, it is more important than ever that good ideas don’t fal


            Charles University got on board the Excellence-in-ReSTI (Research, Social and Technologica
            pilot project for that primary reason: for participants – graduates - to be able to gain a

            and valuable experience in getting projects successfully funded and off the ground.





            The head of Excellence-in ReSTI, Gábor Szüdi of the Centre for Social Innovation in Vienna


            “Today we are basically celebrating the end of the project Excellence-in-ReSTI which was f
            the Danube Transnational Programme. It ran for two-and-a-half years and the main idea was 

            blended learning program covering early stage project management. For graduates to get bet
            development and innovation project management. The result was 20 courses across five modul


            “The idea was to provide support in learning new things in project management, we had a vi
            for communication, and provided a strategy moving forward as it was very important to show
            that the results were sustainable. This strategy means that we can also pass on the inform

            innovative learning to others who come after. That is important.”

            Gábor Szüdi explains that 30 people from 14 countries were being awarded for successfully 

            programme. Asked which courses were essential within the overall project, he pointed to se

            “One of the main things that participants needed was a strong understanding of EU policies

            if you want to get funded, the next is project design and once it is submitted, project ma
            understand how to make it successful. I personally ran a course on budget development and 
            important: we summarised a lot of materials for participants because every project is diff

            no way around it, this is something they really had to learn.

            “And what we are focussing on mainly here are international projects, Horizon 2020 is the 

            development programme and the Danube Transnational Programme (because we are financed unde
            two horizontal modules which sound a little more esoteric – social innovation and business
            we needed to do that because that is what participants were really interested in.


            “The project was so developed that it included a survey and interview process and in this 
            actually able to respond to what people all around the Danube region were really intereste

            able to react. We really wanted to provide something that people could apply practically i




            Asked if he was happy with the success rate, Szüdi answered enthusiastically.


            “Yes absolutely. Thirty people are being awarded and the success rate was something like 8
            was a lot of material for them to tackle and they got through it. Because it was the pilot
            it is important to point out that they also provided us with a lot of valuable feedback so

            know what to improve next time, so I am more than satisfied. That’s the next step: to impr
            courses by August.


            “Above all, we wanted to be sure, having gone through the programme that nobody would leav
            dark about any of the aspects. Because that is otherwise a huge problem: lots of people ha
            but many don’t know how to write them up in a way they can secure funding. They also have 

            knock based on the project.”

            Is it enough? Gábor Szüdi considered the question as proceedings on Monday got underway: h

            start and that the mandatory feedback was showing there was much more confidence among par
            forward. He admitted it was a continuing process, a stepping stone, a start. If you want t
            among all of the international competition, he said, there was, in fact, always more to le

            do.

            That there is always a higher mountain to climb should probably surprise no one with even 

            in this field: what is clear is that Excellence-in-ReSTI helped provide an understanding a
            tools moving forward, helping graduates navigate their way through the often confusing maz
            creation and management - now and in the future - with a far greater chance of success.