May 12-13, 2014. Hosted by AIT, Vienna.
YEAR ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2014
The 2014 YEAR Annual Conference took place on 12-13 May in Vienna (Austria). The two-day annual conference of the Young European Associated Researchers was hosted by AIT – Security and Safety Department.
Especially addressed to young researchers, the conference brought together more than 50 researchers from 7 different European research institutes (AICIA, AIT, SINTEF, TNO, VITO, VTT and Fraunhofer).
PROGRAMME
Day 1 – Experience and methods to generate EU project proposals
Presentations and panels sessions on best practices to set up a European research consortium and to build up a valorisation plan were conducted by renown speakers such as Eric Claassen (Erasmus Centre for Valorisation), Hans Boumans (TNO), Roland Sommer (AVL), Jeannette Klonk (NCP Austria), Helmut Leopold (AIT), Markus Clabian (AIT), Ross King (AIT), Martin Kraft (CTR). The day was concluded by an interactive session from Joe Gorman (SINTEF) addressing the topic of the redaction of EU project proposals.
Presentations from Speakers:
- Welcome & Introduction to the conference by Caroline Lemeire
- Introduction to Horizon 2020: Strategic planning and key success factors of a European project by Jeannette Klonk (FFG, NCP Austria)
- Experience report: Journey from the YEAR2013 Conference to the “SmartFoodChain” proposal by Colm McCaffrey (VTT)
- So you think you know everything about writing an EU project proposal? by Joe Gorman (SINTEF)
Day 2 – Workshop on project ideas and 2014 YEAR Awards
19 project ideas were defended by young researchers to win one of the 2 YEAR Awards, corresponding to 5000 EUR each to establish their pre-projects across different research organizations and a European Project Management training course. After going through a 3-min elevator-pitch to present the project ideas, all Workshop participants voted for the project ideas they can best contribute to. This selected 5 project ideas, which were further developed in teams for a couple of hours and finally presented to the jury. The jury, formed by some of the speakers from the previous day, evaluated the 5 project ideas and revealed the two winning project ideas before the closure of the conference:
Antti Iivari from VTT in collaboration with AIT; and Bart Michielsen from VITO in collaboration with AIT, TNO and VTT were awarded in the second edition of the YEAR Awards for their project ideas entitled “Smart IoT Gateway for Healthcare” and “Upcycling of industrial waste into value added products”, respectively.
Additionally, more than 20 young researchers took part in the Social Week-End in Vienna (10-11 May) organized by YEAR, to extend their network and get know other participants while enjoying the city.
On Saturday, young researchers from 12 different countries had a guided tour around the old town and tasted Viennese specialities followed by a glimpse of the local nightlife. On Sunday, a sweet pit stop at a Kaffehaus after visiting the historical Schönbrunn Palace concluded the plan.