Fostering transnational cooperation between National Contact Points (NCP) in the area of quality standards and horizontal issues

ended

The NCP Academy is a continuation and expansion of the former NCP Academy support action (2014-June 2018) covering the period September 2018 to August 2020. The project brings together Horizon 2020 NCP Coordinators and Legal and Financial NCPs to implement training on cross-cutting issues for National Contact Points and address quality standards and good practice. It aims to build capacity measures tailor-made for the needs of the NCP community by implementation of a high-quality training programme and provision of opportunities for the exchange of experiences and of good practices. It maps NCP clients` needs and their satisfaction levels and provides central services to the stakeholders/users of the Legal and Financial NCP services. The NCP Academy consortium will cooperate closely with other NCP Networks to implement procedures that ensure a timely flow of information allowing collaboration. It will focus on removal of any duplication between networks and new routes to efficiencies of implementation. It supports the European Commission in providing feedback and analysis. Thus, this project serves as vehicle for building up and mobilising expertise, contributing to future developments. The project addresses the continuous concerns that the programme evolves during its lifetime (2018-2020), that lessons are learned, and that newcomers join the NCP network. It goes some way towards ensuring that adequately trained NCPs will be in place upfront for the next Framework Programme, Horizon Europe. The NCP Academy includes activities aimed at helping NCPs in those countries that have been participating at lower levels in the programme up to now, for example, training, mentoring, twinning and awareness raising actions aimed at increasing visibility of well-qualified potential applicant organisations in those countries.