Maurizio Toscano of Horizon Academy Project Coordinator looks back at this year’s Horizon Europe Roadshow across Canada.
Canada-Europe’s research collaboration has been substantial over the years, and the association with Pillar II of Horizon Europe in Canada offers further opportunities to accelerate this relationship.
Horizon Academy (NCP4HE) is a project funded by the European Commission, supporting the global community of national contacts (NCPS) and supporting the fostering of international cooperation. In March 2025, Horizon Academy joined other European Union representatives along with Canada’s Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) to educate Canadian researchers on the benefits and opportunities offered by partnerships with the Horizon Europe program.
The Innovation Platform spoke to Maurizio Toscano of Horizon Academy Project Coordinator to hear more about participating in Horizon Academy’s roadshow and taking out from the event.
Can you explain in detail about the Horizon Academy project and its main purpose?
Horizon Academy brings together over 100 individuals from 31 countries (22 member countries and nine related countries), providing a wide range of training opportunities for NCPs, integrating a network of legal and financial NCP coordinators, and providing broad training opportunities for participating in two digital campuses to access the NCP portal and NCP europems ebrigual for hubs to access the NCP portal and NCP campus. NCP, especially the newcomers.
The project, which is the fourth consecutive in the genre since 2014, launched in April 2023, has a 60-month period and will support the NCP community until it appears in the next Horizon Europe Framework Program, which will begin in January 2028.
How will Horizon Academy help to promote international collaboration under the Horizon Europe program?
One of the main goals of Horizon Academy is to promote international cooperation between consortium members and domestic contact points to achieve a more unified NCP system, far beyond the European boundaries.
Hundreds of NCPs are spread across the world, and they need to strengthen their capabilities and provide opportunities to learn from each other, reducing the gap between experienced national support systems. It mainly supports it through the NCP portal, which provides built-in features to support synergy between international NCP networks as well as regular training opportunities, coffee talk between NCPs, meetings and exchange events.
What does Horizon Europe’s partnership with Canada mean to you?
The partnership between Horizon Europe and Canada represents important advances in international cooperation for research and innovation. The connections over the years have been substantial, with Canadian researchers taking part in numerous European-funded projects prior to 2024, but the association marks the beginning of a new phase filled with opportunities to strengthen integration and promote joint efforts on global agendas.
For me personally, it provided new opportunities to collaborate internationally, but also provided the challenge of expanding the scope of support that Horizon Academy offers to its newly created NCP National Network. Well, after the intense weeks spent there, it also means a valuable new personal relationship.
Could you please explain in detail the role of Horizon Academy on Horizon Europe Roadshow across Canada?
Following the association with Horizon Europe in Canada, Canada’s NCP coordinator Tamara Sone reached out to us to explore opportunities for collaboration. Throughout the second half of 2024, she was actively involved in some of our training sessions and meetings and exchange events. In this context, I was contacted by the European Commission forces for international cooperation between Europe and the US, checking the interests of projects participating in Roadshow, and covering the practicality of applying it to Horizon Europe’s funding opportunities.
Specifically, one session was dedicated to practical steps to apply to Pillar II, which includes an invitation to collaborate projects in a series of theme clusters, as Canada is related to this part of the program. The second session was about the management, financial and legal aspects of his project. I was in charge of the first person and invited Lenka Chvojkova, the leader of the legal and financial work package, to cover the second. Lenka and I aimed not only to provide helpful presentations, but also to provide hands-on support during the Q&A session.
What were the key points from the roadshow?
At Horizon Europe Roadshow in Canada, representing the Horizon Academy project and the NCP network was a truly rich experience, both professionally and personally.
From a practical standpoint, Roadshow has confirmed the importance of clear, practical guidance. All sessions were filled with active participation and thoughtful questions. One of the most impressive takeaways was the true interest of Canadian researchers and research managers building partnerships with European institutions. It was inspiring to see how much I value the possibility of participating in Horizon Europe and how open it was to learn more about the frameworks, rules and collaboration pathways.
Lenka told me she really appreciates the opportunity to implement the NCP system and explain how she supports applicants and beneficiaries not only in the subject areas but also in the legal and financial issues she proudly represents.
In my daily work, as I play the back office role as both a project coordinator and an NCP portal lead developer, meeting potential participants was a relatively unusual opportunity to highlight the value of Horizon Academy’s role in the division of application processes and the support of recently created NCP networks. In fact, it was great to meet and connect with our counterparts, the NCP and support staff in Canada. We consider these personal exchanges to be essential to strengthening cooperation and to ensure long-term success of the EU and Canada Association.
And of course, we enjoyed a happy moment, like when we had to explain what “exploitation” meant in our EU projects. “Exploitation of research results” is actually good and fair in Horizon Europe, but some native English speakers are very surprising! Even international studies have reminded us that small cultural and linguistic nuances remain important and sometimes create the best memories.
In summary, Roadshow was more than just an outreach event. It was a catalyst for deeper engagement, an opportunity for knowledge exchange, and a moment that strengthened the bridge between European and Canadian research and research support communities. And of course, it is also a recommended format for new countries participating in the program over the next few years.
Maurizio Toscano
Spanish Science and Technology Foundation (FECYT)
Horizon Academy Project Coordinator
Horizon Europe NCP Portal Lead Developer
Lenka Chvojkova
Technology Centre Prague (TC Prague)
Horizon Academy Legal and Financial Work Package Leader
This article will also be featured in the 23rd edition of Quarterly Publication.
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