scholarly journals How to Implement Context-Sensitive Evaluation Approaches in Countries with still Emerging Evaluation Cultures

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 368-381
Author(s):  
Susanne Buehrer ◽  
Evanthia Kalpazidou Schmidt ◽  
Dorottya Rigler ◽  
Rachel Palmen
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Evaluation Capacity Building ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
Structural Funds ◽  
Evaluation Approach ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Societal Needs

Evaluation cultures and evaluation capacity building vary greatly across the European Union. Western European countries, such as Austria, Germany, Denmark and Sweden, have been termed as leading countries in the evaluation as they have built up well-established evaluation cultures and carry out systematic evaluations of programmes and institutions. In contrast, in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, efforts continue to establish evaluation practices and further develop the current evaluation culture. In Hungary, for example, an established research and innovation evaluation practice does not exist, not one specifically considering gender equality in research and innovation evaluations with the exception of research and innovation programmes financed by the EU Structural Funds. Based on the results of a Horizon 2020 project, we apply a context-sensitive evaluation concept in Hungary that enables program owners and evaluators to develop a tailor-made design and impact model for their planned or ongoing gender equality interventions. The development of this evaluation was based on a thorough analysis of the literature and 19 case studies, building on documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews. The article shows that this evaluation approach is applicable also in countries with a certain catch-up demand of the existing overall evaluation culture. The special feature of the presented evaluation approach is, on the one hand, that the evaluation is context-sensitive. On the other hand, this approach makes it possible not only to depict effects on gender equality itself, but also to anticipate effects on research and innovation. Such effects can, for example, be a stronger orientation of research towards societal needs, which makes it particularly interesting for private companies.

The Europlanet Evaluation Toolkit

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita Heward ◽  
Jen DeWitt
Keyword(s):  
Worked Examples ◽  
Planetary Science ◽  
Hard Copy ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Evaluation Approach ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Word Clouds ◽  
Interactive Workshop ◽  
The Impact

<div> <p>In this presentation, we will give an overview of the Europlanet Evaluation Toolkit, a resource that aims to empower outreach providers and educators in measuring and appraising the impact of their activities. The toolkit is intended to provide advice and resources that can be simply and easily integrated into normal outreach and education activities. It is available as an interactive online resource (http://www.europlanet-eu.org/europlanet-evaluation-toolkit/), as a downloadable PDF and as a hard copy (including a book and set of activity cards).</p> </div><div> <p>The toolkit has been developed over a number of years with content provided by professional outreach evaluators Karen Bultitude and Jennifer DeWitt (UCL, UK). Initially, a series of focus groups and scoping discussions were held with active outreach providers from the planetary science community in order to determine what they wanted from such a toolkit, and what sort of tools would be of most interest. A shortlist of tools was developed based on these discussions, with volunteers testing out the tool instructions once they were drafted.</p> </div><div> <p>The toolkit begins with a brief introduction to evaluation and steps to choosing the right tools. This advice takes the form of a series of questions to help design an evaluation approach and make the most efficient and effective use possible of limited time and resources.</p> </div><div> <p>The toolkit offers a choice of 14 data collection tools that can be selected according to the audience (e.g. primary, secondary, interested adult, general public), the type of environment and activity (e.g. drop-in, interactive workshop, ongoing series, lecture/presentation or online) or according to when they might best be used (during, beginning/end, or after an event). The online version of the toolkit includes a set of interactive tables to help with the selection of which tool is most appropriate for any given situation.</p> </div><div> <p>The toolkit includes descriptions and worked examples of how to use two techniques (word-clouds and thematic coding) to analyse the data, as well as some top tips for evaluation and recommended resources.</p> </div><div> <p>For some of the tools, case study examples include information about how the tools have been used in the context of an event, how data was actually collected and analysed and what conclusions were reached, based on the data gathered.</p> </div><div> <p>The Europlanet Evaluation Toolkit has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 871149 (Europlanet 2024 RI) and 654208 (Europlanet 2020 RI).</p> </div>

Monitoring and assessment of an oil spill event with very high resolution tools. 

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana M. Mancho ◽  
Guillermo García-Sánchez ◽  
Antonio G. Ramos ◽  
Josep Coca ◽  
Begoña Pérez-Gómez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
In Situ Observation ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Port Authorities ◽  
Different Sources ◽  
Very High

<p>This presentation discusses a downstream application from Copernicus Services, developed in the framework of the IMPRESSIVE project, for the monitoring of  the oil spill produced after the crash of the ferry “Volcan de Tamasite” in waters of the Canary Islands on the 21<sup>st</sup> of April 2017. The presentation summarizes the findings of [1] that describe a complete monitoring of the diesel fuel spill, well-documented by port authorities. Complementary information supplied by different sources enhances the description of the event. We discuss the performance of very high resolution hydrodynamic models in the area of the Port of Gran Canaria and their ability for describing the evolution of this event. Dynamical systems ideas support the comparison of different models performance. Very high resolution remote sensing products and in situ observation validate the description.</p><p>Authors acknowledge support from IMPRESSIVE a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 821922. SW acknowledges the support of ONR Grant No. N00014-01-1-0769</p><p><strong>References</strong></p><p>[1] G.García-Sánchez, A. M. Mancho, A. G. Ramos, J. Coca, B. Pérez-Gómez, E. Álvarez-Fanjul, M. G. Sotillo, M. García-León, V. J. García-Garrido, S. Wiggins. Very High Resolution Tools for the Monitoring and Assessment of Environmental Hazards in Coastal Areas.  Front. Mar. Sci. (2021) doi: 10.3389/fmars.2020.605804.</p>

scholarly journals Aerial Campaigns for Cal/Val purposes in the Context of Copernicus - Survey Results of the Project “Copernicus Cal/Val Solution (CCVS)”

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Holzwarth ◽  
Martin Bachmann ◽  
Bringfried Pflug ◽  
Aimé Meygret ◽  
Caroline Bès ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gap Analysis ◽  
Model Development ◽  
Metrological Traceability ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Data Policy ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Essential Contribution

<p>The objective of the H2020 project “Copernicus Cal/Val Solution (CCVS)” is to define a holistic Cal/Val strategy for all ongoing and upcoming Copernicus Sentinel missions. This includes an improved calibration of currently operational or planned Copernicus Sentinel sensors and the validation of Copernicus core products generated by the payload ground segments. CCVS will identify gaps and propose long-term solutions to address currently existing constraints in the Cal/Val domain and exploit existing synergies between the missions. An overview of existing calibration and validation sources and means is needed before starting the gap analysis. In this context, this survey is concerned with measurement capabilities for aerial campaigns.</p><p>Since decades airborne observations are an essential contribution to support Earth-System model development and space-based observing programs, both in the domains of Earth Observation (radar and optical) as well as for atmospheric research. The collection of airborne reference data can be directly related to satellite observations, since they are collected in ideal validation conditions using well calibrated reference sensors. Many of these sensors are also used to validate and characterize postlaunch instrument performance. The variety of available aircraft equipped with different instrumentations ranges from motorized gliders to jets acquiring data from different heights to the upper troposphere. In addition, balloons are also used as platforms, either small weather balloons with light payload (around 3 kg), or open stratospheric balloons with big payload (more than a ton). For some time now, UAVs/drones are also used in order to acquire data for Cal/Val purposes. They offer a higher flexibility compared to airplanes, plus covering a bigger area compared to in-situ measurements on ground. On the other hand, they also have limitations when it comes to the weight of instrumentation and maximum altitude level above ground. This reflects the wide range of possible aerial measurements supporting the Cal/Val activities.</p><p>The survey will identify the different airborne campaigns. The report will include the description of campaigns, their spatial distribution and extent, ownership and funding, data policy and availability and measurement frequency. Also, a list of common instrumentation, metrological traceability, availability of uncertainty evaluation and quality management will be discussed. The report additionally deals with future possibilities e.g., planned developments and emerging technologies in instrumentation for airborne and balloon based campaigns.</p><p>This presentation gives an overview of the preliminary survey results and puts them in context with the Cal/Val requirements of the different Copernicus Sentinel missions.</p><p>This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the grant agreement No 101004242.</p>

The European Union and Israel since Oslo

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry van Bommel
Keyword(s):  
The European Union ◽  
Cooperation Agreement ◽  
Scientific Cooperation ◽  
Association Agreement ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
Peace Initiatives ◽  
The Eu

This chapter discusses the strengthening of ties between the EU and Israel during the breakdown of Oslo as well as during other fruitless peace initiatives. Shortly after the Oslo process began, the EU and Israel initiated negotiations on broadening their cooperation. This led to the signing of the EU–Israel Association Agreement in 1995. As well as economic cooperation, which was established as early as 1975 in a cooperation agreement, this new treaty included other areas, such as scientific and technical research. In more recent years the relationship between the EU and Israel has been deepened further. In 2014 the EU and Israel signed the Horizon 2020 scientific cooperation agreement, which gives Israel equal access with EU member states to the largest-ever EU research and innovation program. In itself, there is nothing wrong with the deepening of economic, scientific, cultural, and political relations between countries. However, the deepening of relations between the EU and Israel means indirect support for the Israeli occupation and the policy of expanding the settlements.

Definition of a Protocol for the Knowledge, the Analysis and the Communication of the Architectural Heritage

2017 ◽  
pp. 94-131
Author(s):  
Marinella Arena
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Scientific Community ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Architectural Heritage ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
A Value ◽  
New Frontier ◽  
Definition Of

The communication of architecture is a complex and multidisciplinary process, indispensable for enhancing a monument properly and to allow understanding and knowledge to a large number of users. The European Architectural Heritage, and the Italian one in particular, is enormous; the processes of knowledge, cataloguing and analysis are far from being complete. This fact has prompted the European Union to invest, especially in recent years, in research projects designed to increase the communication strategies and put a value on the present assets in its territory. For example, the programs of the European Commission for Research and Innovation, found in “Horizon 2020”, define the communication based on the new media as the new frontier for the enhancement of architectural heritage (Reflective Cities). The main goal is to develop a better awareness of the Architectural Heritage through increased interaction between the citizen, the monument and the scientific community.

Study of Tropical Cyclones in the North Indian Ocean basin using Percolation in Climate Networks

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shraddha Gupta ◽  
Jürgen Kurths ◽  
Florian Pappenberger
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Tropical Cyclones ◽  
Ocean Basin ◽  
North Indian Ocean ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
The North ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Interacting Systems ◽  
Climate Networks

<p>Every point on the Earth’s surface is a dynamical system which behaves in a complex way while interacting with other dynamical systems. Network theory captures this feature of climate to study the collective behaviour of these interacting systems giving new insights into the problem. Recently, climate networks have been a promising approach to the study of climate phenomena such as El Niño, Indian monsoon, etc. These phenomena, however, occur over a long period of time. Weather phenomena such as tropical cyclones (TCs) that are relatively short-lived, destructive events are a major concern to life and property especially for densely populated coastlines such as in the North Indian Ocean (NIO) basin. Here, we study TCs in the NIO basin by constructing climate networks using the ERA5 Sea Surface Temperature and Air temperature at 1000 hPa. We analyze these networks using the percolation framework for the post-monsoon (October-November-December) season which experiences a high frequency of TCs every year. We find significant signatures of TCs in the network structure which appear as abrupt discontinuities in the percolation-based parameters during the period of a TC. This shows the potential of climate networks towards forecasting of tropical cyclones.</p><p> </p><p>This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 813844.</p>

Climate Advanced Forecasting of sub-seasonal Extremes (CAFE), ITN Project

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvaro Corral ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Extreme Weather ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Atmospheric Flow ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Seasonal Time Scale

<p>The CAFE Project is a Marie S. Curie Innovative-Training-Network (ITN) project funded by the EU. The ultimate goal of the CAFE project is to contribute to the improvement of sub-seasonal predictability of extreme weather events. This will be addressed through a structured and cross-disciplinary program, training 12 early stage researchers who undertake their PhD theses. CAFE brings together a team of co-supervisors with complementary expertise in climate science, meteorology, statistics and nonlinear physics.</p><p>The CAFE team comprises ten beneficiaries (seven academic centres, one governmental agency, one intergovernmental agency and one company: ARIA, CRM, CSIC, ECMWF, MeteoFrance, MPIPKS, PIK, TUBAF, UPC, UR) and ten partner organizations (CEA and Munich Re, among them).</p><p>CAFE research is organized into three main lines: Atmospheric and oceanic processes, Analysis of extremes, and Tools for predictability, all focused on the sub-seasonal time scale. This includes the study of Rossby wave packets, Madden-Julian oscillation, Lagrangian coherent structures, ENSO-related extreme weather anomalies, cascades of extreme events, extreme precipitation, large-scale atmospheric flow patterns, and stochastic weather generators, among other topics.</p><p>Information about the CAFE project will be updated at:</p><p>http://www.cafes2se-itn.eu/</p><p>https://twitter.com/CAFE_S2SExtrem</p><p>This project receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 813844.</p>

Planets in a Room: an educational tool for Europlanet

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Livia Giacomini ◽  
Francesco Aloisi ◽  
Ilaria De Angelis ◽  
Stefano Capretti
Keyword(s):  
Online Community ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Planetary Science ◽  
Science Museum ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
3D Printed

<p>Planets in a room (PIAR) is a DIY kit to build a small, lowcost spherical planet simulator and planetarium projector. Teachers, science communicators that run a small museum or planetarium, planetary scientists, amateur astronomers and other individuals can easily build it and use it on their own, to show and teach the Earth and other planets and to develop and share material with a growing online community. Having started in 2017 with a first version made using 3d-printed technology, PIAR has lately gone green, with a new wooden, plastic-free version of the kit. (http://www.planetsinaroom.net/)</p> <p>The project has been developed by the italian non-profit association Speak Science, with the collaboration of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and the Roma Tre University, Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica.</p> <p>It was funded by the Europlanet Outreach Funding Scheme in 2017 and was presented to the scientific community at EPSC and other scientific Congresses in the following years. Today, it is being distributed to an increasing number of schools, science museum and research institutions. PIAR is also one of the projects selected by the Europlanet Society for education and public outreach of planetary science: in 2020, it is being distributed to the 12 Europlanet Regional Hubs all around Europe, to be used in a number of educational projects.</p> <p>In this talk we will review the state of the art of the project presenting a selection of educational material and projects that have been developed for PIAR by scientists, teachers and communicators and that are focused on planetary science and on planetary habitability.</p> <p> </p> <p>Acknowledgements</p> <p>We acknowledge for this project the vast community of amateur and professionals that is actively working on innovative educational systems for astronomy such as planetarium and virtual reality projects (both hardware and software). Planets in a room is based on the work of this vast community of people and their experiences and results. We also acknowledge Europlanet for funding this work: the project Europlanet 2024 RI has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 871149.”</p> <p> </p> <p>References</p> <p>Giacomini L., Aloisi F., De Angelis I., “Planets in a room”, EPSC Abstracts Vol. 11, EPSC2017-280, 2017</p> <p>Giacomini L., Aloisi F., De Angelis I., Capretti S., “Planets in a Room: a DIY, low-cost educational kit”, EPSC Abstracts Vol. 12, EPSC2018-254, 2018</p> <p>Giacomini L., Aloisi F., De Angelis I., Capretti S., “Planets on (low-cost) balloons”, EPSC AbstractsVol. 13, EPSC-DPS2019-1243-1, 2019</p> <p>Giacomini L., Aloisi F., De Angelis I., Capretti S, “(Green) Planets in a Room”, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-22153, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-22153, 2020</p>

Policy framing and resistance: Gender mainstreaming in Horizon 2020

2020 ◽  
pp. 135050682093549
Author(s):  
Bianka Vida
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Research And Development ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Gender Mainstreaming ◽  
Advisory Group ◽  
Framework Programme ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Policy Framing ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Policy Frame

Scholarship on gender mainstreaming (GM) in the European Union (EU) consistently highlights the disappointing implementation of gender mainstreaming. This article contributes to that discussion through the analysis of the first policy frame on gender equality in the work programmes of the EU’s Framework Programme for Research and Development, Horizon 2020, from 2014 until 2016. This article analyses how GM as a transformative strategy is contextualised by advisory group experts, and what is being achieved within Horizon 2020 work programmes. In opposition to the Commission’s rhetorical commitment to GM, this article demonstrates that Horizon 2020 work programmes exemplify a failure of implementing GM, further depoliticising gender equality in the Commission’s neoliberal context.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document