1. Meet and Exchange Workshop:
Gabinete de Promoção dos Programa Quadro ID&I
Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia | Agência Nacional de Inovação
Meet and Exchange Workshop:
Best practice in Project Officer – NCP interactions

2. The Feedback from our SME NCPs
On EASME website there are several addresses for questions, and an online form where all requests for clarification are recorded. This makes it unnecessary to contact the officers individually.
Getting to know the Project Officers led to an attitude of openess and willingness to help  which is reflected in prompt answers to the requests sent.
EASME officers have been very willing to attend PT events and to meet individually with companies.

3. DG Connect The Feedback from our ICT NCPs A centralized approach…
Best Practice…
2 days training for NCPs on ICT topics (including the ones outside of the WP) + Q&A sesion with Project Officers organized by idealist (like poster presentation).
NCPs have face to face contact with Project Officers
All topics management, evaluation and interaction with NCPs is done directly with DG CONNECT. There are no agencies in the middle at any stage of the process.
DG CONNECT works directly with NCPs  One Project Officer as Contact Person for NCPs.
After this meeting, the NPCs have direct contact with the officers via and can ask questions directly.
The ICT NCPs network has na important role in using all the opportunities to improve NCPs training and foster interaction wth PO.

4. The Feedback from our Energy NCPs
For Energy, there are agencies in the management of the topics - EASME for the Energy Efficiency call and INEA for the remaining ones.
The relationship between NCPs and EASME is closer than with INEA. The interaction between NCPs and agencies should be closer. EC has organized only one dedicated meeting with Energy NCPs since September 2014.
There is a functional mailbox for NCPs but the answer is always anonymous.
NCPs need to know the PO to have fast and straightforward replies.

5. The Feedback from our FET NCPs
The NCPs-EC relationship was a bit strange and absent.
For some time, DG CONNECT gave the same training to FET and ICT NCPs (and treated them in the same way, which was not very useful for an FET NCP)
Recently, REA organized a specific training meeting that included only FET NCPs. It was a good experience and there was openness for direct contact between the NCPs and the officers present.

6. The Feedback from our NMBP NCPs
Best Practices
As soon as POs responsible for each topic are known, the NCPs receive the list with their contacts;
There is 1 PO responsible for the communication with NCPs  she is kept in copy in all exchanged with POs.
This PO is also the one responsible for the NCPs network which is a good practice since it helps in identifying the best POs to train NCPs (trough webinars and NMPTeam on site trainings).
There are 2 NMBP NCP meetings per year + 1 Infoday.
BIOTEC
The program is small (3 project officers) and therefore direct contact is relatively easy, although in more formal matters the contacts are made through the Head of Unit or the Contact Person for NCPs.
SC2 NCPs are responsible to give support to the biotech part but are not invited to the NCP meetings where the program is presented.

7. The Feedback from our Bioeconomy NCPs
There is a functional mailbox for claifying doubts, unlike in the past when there was a list of PO by topic;
SC2 NCPs have one contact person in DG RTD and another in DG AGRI, with whom is established the first contact;
NCP meetings became biannual, and after several years always with the same Agenda (where they sometimes forgot to change the date), they now have a more interesting agenda, trying to cover all the issues relevant to DS2 (Biotec, BBI, EIT, ...)
Very recently, NCPs began to receive profiles of researchers searching for consortia disseminated by EC services (3 within a week), a procedure that seems wrong;
It also considered bad practice not to disclose to NCPs the contacts of their NCP colleagues from other countries. This information is not confidential since it appears in the participant portal and as such, a list of the appointed NCPs should be sent to all SC2 NCPs.

8. The Feedback from our Climate Action NCPs
There is only a functional mailbox for claifying doubts | SC5 NCPs have a contact person in DG RTD that is the PO in charge os the NCP network;
There is no list of PO by topic;
Typically the answers to questions posed by mail do not go beyond what is written in the topic;
DG GROW, which oversees the raw materials area, is more open-minded and more pragmatic about the answers. In the infoday, it was possible to know each officer responsible for each topic (but, officially, no listing was provided)
Only if we attend Infodays, and depending on the subject, we do know the names of the officers and we can try to contact them directly - it is a practice that is subject to the willingness / openness of the officer.
In global terms, I believe that outsourcing DG RTD calls to the EASME agency complicates interaction with NCPs because at some point we do not know who "really knows the topic" vs. "who will brief the evaluators"

9. PT-NCPs
Mafalda Dourado
Deputy Coordinator
GPPQ