As part of the public call for proposals “Activities to Strengthen Project Offices of Public Research Organizations” under the Recovery and Resilience Plan, four consortia were formed to pursue the project’s objectives of strengthening project offices. As the projects were coming to a close, a meeting was organized on 14 May 2026, at InnoRenew CoE, UP IAM to present best practices and discuss aspirations and goals for continued collaboration and the acquisition of competencies developed during the implementation of project activities.

More than 60 participants from 19 organizations that participated in the four consortia were first welcomed by the host, Prof. Klavdija Kutnar, Rector of UP, and Tomaž Boh, Director-General of the Science and Innovation Directorate at the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation. He emphasized that projects aimed at strengthening research and project offices are an important part of the participating institutions’ mission and a demonstration of their strong performance. However, it is crucial that the capabilities developed within the projects organically become an integral part of the institutions.

The meeting brought together representatives from the following consortia:

• KRPAN (lead: UL; partners: UM, UP IJS, and ZRS),

• 5XPRO (lead: KI; partners: NIB, ZRC SAZU, INZ, and IKMT),

• ROAD3P (lead: ZAG; partners: IER, INV, IHR, IMFM, and UI),

• SKUPP (lead: KIS; partners: GIS, GZ, PI).

The event was designed both to showcase best practices from individual consortia and to explore how the experience and knowledge gained can be translated into future success stories. Representatives of the consortia thus participated in a roundtable discussion with Tomaž Boh, drawing on current experiences to address the question: What will the path of the strengthened project offices look like?

The importance of international integration was highlighted both by the roundtable Experiences from study and work visits abroad, shared by project staff, and by a guest lecture by dr. sc. Ivona Peternel from the Juraj Dobrila University in Pula, who presented the CARDEA (Career Acknowledgement for Research (Managers) Delivering for the European Area), its CARDEA HUB platform and the CARDEA Academy.

An important part of the event was networking among participants to explore new collaborations, which took place both during presentations and discussions as well as during the informal portion of the event, as the event concluded with a visit to the Archaeological Park San Simon, which operates within the UP Science Centre.