On 20th March 2021 we officially entered Spring 2021 but, unfortunately, we still have to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. Hopefully, in the next months things will improve and we can resume some aspects of our previous lifestyle like enjoying a cold beer with friends and starting travelling again which, for frequent travellers like myself, this long period spent at home is becoming really “too” long.
However, Spring always brings some fresh air and for EPN Consulting brought the co-ordination of a new Erasmus+ project that was kicked-off last week (remotely, sigh..) with an excellent group of partners. We will give our contribution to fighting climate change and we will work hard until June 2023 to achieve it. More info in the article of this newsletter.
In the meantime, EPN Consulting continues working on the current Erasmus+ project: i2SustainIT (Impact Incubator for Nurturing Sustainability) which aims to maximise the understanding of impact, impact investment and sustainability to tackle societal and environmental challenges. Among the different Intellectual Outputs we have to achieve, there is one that needs your help: less than 5 minutes of your time to fill in this survey and you will help us produce the “Design Thinking for Impact Incubation Toolkit” which you will find here once ready, along with other useful and free-of-charge tools such as the “Impact Measurement Guidelines” and the “Impact Investment & Sustainability Handbook“. Many thanks in advance for your help!
Another great news of this Spring 2021 is the pre-approval of Horizon Europe, the largest EU funding framework, that boasts an allocated budget of EUR 95.5bn to promote Research & Innovation in several fields and in line with the EU Green Deal guidelines to make life and activities in the EU more sustainable.
The first calls for proposals are expected to be published in April 2021 and – as usual – you will find calls deadlines included in our Events section ASAP.
As happened in Horizon 2020, EPN Consulting will be happy to help you prepare robust proposals and find partners across our international network of 2.500+ professional contacts in case you don’t have time to search for them.
EPN Consulting can also be an effective partner in your consortium: as a matter of fact, despite Brexit, the UK will be fully entitled to take part in Horizon Europe projects. Contact us to know which topics and work packages we could cover!
Additional good news: the new Erasmus+ programme for 2021-2027 was published in the EU Official Journal. As many of you may know, during Brexit negotiations unfortunately the UK decided to withdraw from this valuable scheme. We at EPN Consulting have been assessing the possibility of opening a new office in the EU to continue working with our European partners in the next 7 years. Stay tuned for further info!
Following this withdrawal decision, the UK has launched its own programme to study and work abroad, the Turing Scheme, whose calls for proposals are already open and have two deadlines: 9th April and 7th May 2021.
As you can see, despite the difficult period we have been living, pieces of good news are available that help us think forward, at least until 2027! 🙂
Stefano Mainero
EPN Consulting Founder & CEO