IHCantabria boosts its leadership in European projects with the launch of the IHC-EUBOOST project
The IHC-EUBOOST project is aligned with IHCantabria’s strategy for the period 2025-2027
IHCantabria strengthens and increases its leadership at the European level with the launch of the IHC-EUBOOST project to promote the recruitment, management and leadership in European projects.
The Environmental Hydraulics nstitute of of the University of Cantabria (IHCantabria) launches IHC-EUBOOST, a project funded in the 2025 Call for Grants for the Preparation and Management of European Projects and Facilitation of the Attraction of International Talent, convened by the State Research Agency in the framework of the actions of the State Plan for Scientific, Technical and Innovation Innovation 2024-2027. Its objective is to consolidate and strengthen the European Projects Office (OPE) and reinforce the entity’s capacity to lead highly competitive proposals in Horizon Europe and the European Research Council (ERC).
Since its foundation in 2007, IHCantabria has consolidated a solid track record in attracting European funding, having participated in more than 110 European projects to date. This evolution responds to a strategy based on scientific excellence and the intensive search for competitive resources, which has positioned the institute as a European benchmark in coastal engineering, climate change, blue economy and water management.
Promoting European training and leadership:
The IHC-EUBOOST project is aligned with IHCantabria’s strategy for the period 2025-2027, which establishes as priority lines of action the leadership of coordinated proposals, the ERC program and the promotion of the international projection of the center and its strategic partnership ecosystem. To this end, the IHC-EUBOOST project will address the strengthening of the European Projects Office (EPO), led by Patricia Bueno Soria, with the incorporation of two key profiles specialized in consortium dynamization, technology watch and strategic positioning. As well as increasing the research capacity of the staff through advanced training in leadership and management of European projects.
This structure is part of the Research and Technology Transfer Management Unit (UGITT) of IHCantabria, a unit that brings together the European, national and international project offices, together with the Project Planning Office. Currently, this structure has 12 highly qualified professionals.
Training and digitalization are pillars of the new model, therefore IHC-EUBOOST will develop an extensive internal training program that will include: the creation of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) specialized in Horizon Europe, designed by the OPE and integrated into the ECCE-IH platform; the organization of leadership seminars “Lead your HE Project”, aimed at researchers with the potential to coordinate large consortia; and the development of an AI tool to assist in the drafting, requirements analysis and optimization of European proposals.
These measures will improve efficiency, speed up proposal preparation times and increase the competitive quality of the texts submitted to the European Commission.
Additionally, within the framework of the IHC-BOOST program, several communication actions will be developed to reinforce the IHCantabria brand at conferences, public relations and specialized forums, creating synergies and strengthening collaboration and alliances with centers of excellence, companies and international institutions. Likewise, expansion strategies will be promoted, such as the creation of a Map of New Market Opportunities, which will allow detecting priority areas for the international expansion of the institute.
The publication/result/equipment/video/activity/contract/other is part of the action REFERENCE OF THE ACTION, funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, where REFERENCE OF THE ACTION is the reference that appears in the award resolution; MICIU is the acronym of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities; AEI is the acronym of the State Research Agency; and 10.13039/501100011033 is the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) of the State Research Agency.
