A4L_BRIDGE

The persisting R&I gap between Western and Eastern Europe is a major challenge to the EU. It includes under-developed R&I ecosystems, a lower ability to attract and retain talents, single-track research careers with a lack of modern HR, and fragmented industry-academia collaboration. To improve the situation in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), Alliance for Life Sciences (Alliance4Life) was formed by 12 progressive health research institutions and universities in 11 CEE countries. Since 2018 it has become a lively community and role model of modern institutional governance and excellent research in CEE, piloted strategic institutional reforms, and succeeded in influencing national R&I reforms and EU policy. With the A4L_BRIDGE project, the alliance focuses on a broader implementation of the successfully piloted strategic changes toward enhanced attractiveness, competitiveness, and innovation strength, and newly also addresses excellence in higher education. The scientific collaboration will be boosted by a Virtual Research Centre, connecting different research groups, and thanks to seed funding, initial research projects with IP originating in CEE will be prepared to be developed into RIA projects for Horizon Europe. The alliance will develop a complex educational matrix, including mentoring, e-learning, and international internships, targeting both academic and non-academic staff in all career stages. The Industry Relationship Platform will stimulate knowledge transfer and partaking in applied research projects. Societal actors will be invited to shape the research agendas and will be addressed at events for end users of health research results. Events, webinars, and dissemination activities will target national stakeholders and policymakers, promoting ERA values and supporting the empowering of low-performing regions in their R&I upscale. The A4L_BRIDGE project will thus significantly contribute to bridging the gap in R&I performance in the EU.