IMPULSA: Impulsa Europa – Fortalecimiento de la Capacidad ante las Oportunidades del Programa Marco Horizonte Europa de la Plataforma Oceánica de Canarias

The IMPULSA project will allow PLOCAN not only to maintain the current rate of growth in PLOCAN’s participation in the framework programmes, but will also mean a substantial acceleration of this participation, allowing it to increase the number of proposals in which the ICTS can become involved, as well as increasing the number of proposals in which PLOCAN acts as coordinator.

The project is based on boosting different aspects directly related to the success of participation in European projects, such as:

1. Increasing staff and their training: IMPULSA will allow PLOCAN to incorporate staff specialised in the achievement of projects in the Horizon Europe programme, which will strengthen the performance in this programme, accelerating participation in proposals through the increase in the capacity to respond to invitations, the extension of the networks of partners and the generation of its own proposals. In addition, IMPULSA will improve the capacity of both new recruits and in-house staff by enabling new tools for staff capacity building with strategic investments in their training, in order to enhance project management skills with specific training such as PRINCE2, and access to training focused on Horizon Europe.
2. Improving work efficiency: IMPULSA will enable PLOCAN to acquire and renew project management tools, such as Changepoint, and explore collaborative working tools.
3. Increased presence and collaborators: IMPULSA will increase PLOCAN’s presence in networks and events of interest aligned with the strategic interests of the entity. Through IMPULSA, PLOCAN will not only renew its membership of technology networks and repeat attendance at strategic events, but will also be able to devote additional efforts to identifying, evaluating and joining new networks (e.g. partnerships) and events.
4. Increased leadership: IMPULSA will enable the outsourcing of part of the proposal preparation activities, enabling a substantial increase in the number of proposals coordinated by PLOCAN. The support of a consultancy firm will not only improve the ratio of proposals submitted by the entity, but will also improve the success rate of these proposals, and will mean an increase in the number of projects led by PLOCAN in this new framework programme compared to previous ones.

Al incidir en los aspectos anteriormente listados, se espera un impulso clave en el desempeño de PLOCAN en los programas marco europeos, que permitirá no sólo incrementar el retorno de inversión para la ICTS, sino que será un impulso catalizador y un proceso tractor de cara a germinar el impacto a las entidades del tejido económico de la comunidad autónoma y del estado en general. PLOCAN tiene una red regional y nacional de colaboradores muy bien asentada, y uno de los cometidos de la actividad de la oficina de proyectos es mantener y aumentar esta red.