Centralised development projects 2020

The project aims to support the cooperation of public universities in the implementation of strategic objectives defined in the framework of the Innovation Strategy of the Czech Republic 2019 - 2030, which defines key national priorities that are necessary to strengthen the innovation potential of the Czech Republic in line with the vision of "Country for Future". These visions and strategic goals must be intertwined with the processes and strategies of universities, which should be taken into account in the formulation of strategic documents as part of their social responsibility. The timeliness of this project is reinforced by the ending period of the universities' strategic plans (2016-2020) and the need to draw up new ones, taking into account the vision of "Country for the Future", for the next period.

Collaboration of the participating universities is planned in the form of a platform based on sharing experiences and principles in drafting strategic documents for the next period. The platform will provide a space for setting strategic objectives for the universities, taking into account suggestions and information from public authorities, industry representatives and interest organisations.

The project will support the cooperation of partner schools with industrial practice in the regions concerned and thus contribute to the implementation of all nine strategic objectives defined by the Innovation Strategy of the Czech Republic 2019 - 2030.

Project objective:

Through the project, on the one hand, the participating universities will present to their partners from the public and private sphere the promising development trends of their fields in direct correspondence with the directions and themes of the Innovation Strategy of the Czech Republic 2019-2030, and at the same time they will receive information/suggestions/challenges from the external environment, especially from the regions.  Within this platform, the universities have to play a quality role of leader and moderator both within the roundtables/own discussions, respectively the exchange of information, and within the formulation of the necessary conclusions. This will significantly strengthen the social responsibility of universities in the implementation of the Innovation Strategy of the Czech Republic 2019-2030. At the same time, this platform in the form of feedback will improve the content and conclusions of the Strategic Plans of universities. This process must not be a one-off event. In order for the project to have the desired added value, the principle of continuous common "best practice" must be set. The practice of roundtables, the process continuous practice of sharing with each other and then using the information and knowledge of the project partners in their own activities, the creation and implementation of their own and joint strategies, learning from each other, learning together from the surrounding successful world, all this is an effective way to fulfill the Innovation Strategy of the Czech Republic 2019-2030 and the corresponding sustainable development of each participating entity and our entire society.

The project is aimed at increasing the expertise of project staff, or those involved in the project process within the HEIs, including the key element of transferring and applying experience and good practice within the HEIs involved. The outputs of this project, including the knowledge and experience that will be shared and made available to all participating HEIs, will be taken into account and used in the long term in the activities of the participating HEIs in the application of legislative rules, subsidy rules for the effective use of subsidy resources.

 The outputs from the joint professional trainings and internal seminars (know-how, procedures, processes, rules, which will be preserved in the form of analyses, minutes and other forms of documentation), the database of evaluators and the map of subsidy opportunities will be accessible after the end of the project implementation and will also be further used for the internal needs of each participating HEI as a tool for preserving knowledge and know-how, streamlining and meeting the requirements of legislation, provider rules and other regulations.

Project outputs:

1.Thematic trainings, expert discussion blocks - 4 times - Education of HEI representatives including round table discussions with experts in relevant areas for the implementation of subsidy projects (labour and legal issues, subsidy rules, controls and audits, records of project assets and outputs, public procurement, etc.)

2. Grant Opportunities Map - grant map and an overview of grant and subsidy schemes used so far across all participating HEIs. Possibility of individual extension for each participating HEI and usage. 

3. Internal seminars and training - 2x - Implementation of rules, legislation and processes within HEIs

4. Common electronic tool for sharing outputs and exchanging good practice - Shared communication environment and documents produced

Main Objectives:                

1. Coordination of EIS technology development                  
2. Unification of data and user interfaces on modern technologies and open standards               
3. Sustainable development and implementation of standard functionalities to support computerization and automation of integrated EIS processes                     

Scheduled CRP outputs:

1. EIS HW Infrastructure Sharing
2. Coordinated preparation for possible renewal of EIS Section 2
3. CUL document storage technology
4. Upgrade iFIS interface - VERSO
5. Upgrade data pump technology
6. Uniform UTF-8 data format
7. End of support for Oracle Report operation
8. Connection of ERP systems to public procurement systems (JPA)
9. New interfaces for iFIS, File Services and ISDS data boxes
10. Support for correcting documents-invoices between integrated systems
11. Electronic invoicing according to the EU/Czech Republic standard
12. Development and unification of ERP system user interfaces
13. Coordinated modifications and extension of PaM VEMA
14. Support in processing extended VAT obligations
15. Development of the Register of Contracts based on practical experience
16. Development of the SPSL according to the NSESSS: based on concrete suggestions, in particular from the electronic CP
17. Addition of new standard functionalities of e-business modules
18. Addition of licensing and/or implementation of modules and functionalities from the EIS standard solutions catalogue
19. Development of the Budget module
20. Other development of standard EIS functionality according to HEI priorities

Output of the VŠPJ sub-project:

1. Development of catalogue functionalities of the Budget module

The affiliated universities have developed a capable portfolio of project support in the field of national grants, they are successful applicants and researchers in operational programmes (e.g. OP VVV, OP Z, OP PIK...) and at the level of cross-border cooperation (Interreg). In this role, the project management is familiar with the different grant opportunities, calls, terminology and processes in project implementation and is a good support for the whole academic community.

However, in the field of international grants like H2020, the universities involved are inexperienced or very unsuccessful due to inexperienced project management. The project does not have the ambition to address R&D potential for excellent research in the H2020 framework, but focuses on project support, which is an essential tool for obtaining funding and subsequent project management.

Project Objective

To establish a project support facility (project support) for each participating university to submit international grants

• Respecting the R&D potential of the HEI (the assumption is that the HEI has at least 1 focus for excellent research)
• Be prepared, familiar with terminology, processes, international grant opportunities or calls
• Build an effective team throughout the life cycle of international projects

Involve the HEI in the following activities:

1. International training events

Mandatory activity

1 participant from the VŠPJ will attend 2 international training events lasting no longer than 5 days focused on international grants, specifically on Horizon 2020 or the upcoming Horizon Europe follow-up. At the events, participants will learn about professional issues and there will be potential to establish cooperation with foreign HEI project centres.

Sample events selected:

• Horizon 2020 Proposal Development (Event organised by Europa Media with a focus on understanding all aspects of project preparation for the H2020 grant programme)
• Project Management for EU Funded Projects (The Project Management for EU Funded Projects course is organised by the European Academy for Taxes, Economics and Law and focuses on the requirements of the European Commission in relation to the management of EU funded projects throughout their lifecycle, that is from the decision to award the grant to the final audit of the project. The programme also includes topics on how to properly prepare a project application to ensure that the project is viable, that the promoter avoids subsequent problems and that the project, as designed, can be brought to a successful conclusion.)
• International Grant Academy (An event organised by the EU Grant Academy based in Slovenia focusing on all aspects of preparing a competitive project for Horizon 2020 and other EU funded programmes.)

2. Infoday

Mandatory activity

Information seminar on demand. Expertise will be provided by the Technology Centre of the CAS, which is pre-arranged. Given that the H2020 calls are practically over, the seminar will be focused on the new Horizon Europe framework programme, the first calls of which should be announced in January 2021. The content of the seminar will be prepared by the TC of the CAS (free of charge), the organisational arrangements will be provided by one of the partner universities. For the Academy of Sciences, about 4 persons

3. Meeting of partner HEIs - sharing of experience

Mandatory activity

2 day meeting of all partner HEIs to share experiences in building project management of international grants. The following will be discussed:

What problems have been encountered at each school with building a staff portfolio and how have they been solved?

Which international internships do you recommend for getting the most effective education?

What insights did you gain from your internship abroad?

What internal processes at your home HEI did you adjust and how?

Where do you see the potential for establishing an R&D consortium to submit a grant for the following year?

About 4 people for the HEI

4. Coordination of the activities of the sub-part

Mandatory activity

This is about organizing all previous activities, communication with project partners, communication within the HEI to set up individual activities.

In the past, the Polytechnic University of Jihlava participated in the successful implementation of the project of the national portal on science, research and higher education - Universitas magazine, thanks to which the participating universities started cooperation in the field of sharing experiences in communicating key topics to target groups. This platform currently brings together internal stakeholders of the participating HEIs and aims to expand its network to include external stakeholders. This can be achieved by creating a network of spartners in the regions.

The project aims to create a sub-database of worthy topics in the field of education, create a list of gartners to moderate the discussion from the public and other interested institutions, NGOs and the commercial sector from our region, design new communication channels to strengthen the social responsibility of HEIs, support the media campaign of the Roundtables.

This project will focus on inter-university cooperation in the technical development of computerization of selected areas of student administrative agencies of HEIs.
An important area of the project is the development of computerization of admission procedures. The implementation will concern electronic signing and delivery with regard to Law No. 500/2004 and No. 297/2016, the follow-up to the new structure of studies and accreditation, evaluation of admission to studies. The project will also focus on the development of the electronic circulation and delivery of documents, evidence of interim and overall study results and on the areas of quality of education in accordance with Regulation No. 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Law No. 297/2016. This will mainly involve replacing the current transmission of paper documents with electronic ones, by sending or transmitting them through learning and related information systems. At the same time, it will be necessary to ensure the legal conditions of the filing service according to Law No. 499/2004 and integration with the filing service so that the filing system is addressed in the processes of the HEIs where it is mandatory in accordance with the legal obligation. In the area of computerisation of quality-oriented administrative agendas in education, development focuses on the processes of accreditation and internationalisation (mainly in the area of processes relating to departures and arrivals or the link to Erasmus without paper) through information systems. Following on from the previous objectives, the project will focus on the development of computerisation of information shared by the target groups of the school, computerisation of human resources support (implementation of e-training, career plans and staff training, familiarisation with regulations, registration and evaluation of staff) and support for decision-making processes (for the needs of school management).
The development of the agendas will be implemented with modern ICT to support use on mobile devices.

Outputs:

1  Modifications of the electronic admission procedure to abolish the circulation of paper documents (V1, V3)
2  Comparison of the possibilities of application of model solutions related to the computerization of documents against the environment at the VŠPJ (V2)
3  Development of the student agenda for paperless circulation and delivery of documents, documents and decisions and replacement of approval processes by electronic ones, towards all target groups (V3)
4   Development of language versions of the student part of the information system (V4)
5    Development of quality in education focused on the development of the electronic timetable, electronic index and electronic internal reports from the student agenda into mobile applications for Android (V5)
6   Participation in joint seminars and involvement in consultations on individual outputs and sample school solutions (V1-V5)
7    Peer comparison of partial outputs to achieve use in practice (V1-V5)
8    Final evaluation of the project and preparation of the final report (V1-V5)