The Teaming Initiative: Establishing of New European Centers of Excellence in Plant Biology and Medicine

    

    

    Figure 1: The number of Teaming projects from the first two Horizon 2020 calls, distributed in different scientific areas (plant science, biology and medicine; chemistry and physics; computer science, information and communication technologies; economy). Source: CORDIS (https://cordis.europa.eu/).
    

Because of their earlier start, the first Teaming projects are much more advanced and the centers of excellence established or by them are already fully integrated in the research and innovation ecosystems of their respective countries. Moreover, the first four centers of excellence are now leading European institutes in their fields.

The projects established with the initial funding of the two Teaming calls from Horizon Europe are given in Table 1 (in alphabetical order): ANTARES, BBCE, BIOPOLIS, CETOCOEN, CY-BIOBANK, HCEMM, MIA-Portugal, PlantaSYST, SANO, and THE DISCOVERIES CTR. These Teaming projects, with the exception of the last one (prematurely terminated on the 20th of August 2020), have successfully established new centers of excellence in plant sciences, biology, and medicine, described below.

ANTARES, with coordinator the BioSense Institute (Serbia) and advanced partner Wageningen University (The Netherlands), aims to transform the BioSense institute into a world-class research center for advanced technologies in sustainable agriculture and food security (https://antaresproject.eu/). This is one of the two Teaming projects with focus on plant biology and agriculture. The project received 15 M Teaming grant and 20 M co-funding from the Government. Its success is evident by the fact that the BioSense institute is now the leading plant science organization in Serbia, with more than 80 projects in addition to ANTARES. The BioSense institute has become a vital link between academia, industry, and the end users (farmers) in Serbia, offering advanced digital solutions to all stakeholders.

The BBCE project aims at establishing the Baltic Biomaterials Centre of Excellence in Latvia (https://bbcentre.eu/). The coordinator is Riga Technical University, with partners Latvian university and research institutes, as well as advanced partners from Germany and Switzerland (Table 1). The research focus of BBCE is bioengineering of tissues is bone regeneration and repair [1-3]. As this project started recently (2020), it is still gathering pace but already delivering promising results.

BIOPOLIS, another project from the second Teaming call, aims at upgrading the Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources from the University of Porto to a Centre of Excellence for agrobiodiversity, conservation and competitiveness of local genetic resources and farming systems, as well as environment and biodiversity assessment and monitoring (https://www.biopolis.pt/en/) [4,5]. The Portugese coordinator partners with organizations in Portugal and France (Table 1). In addition to the 15 M EUT Teaming grant, the project receives a generous funding of 85 M from the Government. This will undoubtedly secure bright future for this center.

CETOCOEN, coordinated by the Masaryk University in the Czech Republic and advanced partners from Austria, Switzerland, and UK, will support the Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment (RECETOX) (https://www.recetox.muni.cz/). The research focus on this center is studying the complex impact of the environment, lifestyle and socio-economic status on human health by long-term epidemiological and clinical studies [6]. It received 14.3 M from Horizon 2020 and additional 26 M from the Government. The research out comes of this center will deliver exciting information how to nourish a healthy society.

The project HCEMM, coordinated by the National Research, Innovation and Development Office, combines the efforts of several Hungarian universities, the Biological Research Center of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) to create the Hungarian Centre of Excellence for Molecular Medicine (HCEMM) (https://www.hcemm.eu/). Applying the highest standards adopted from its advanced partner EMBL, the HCEMM is working on research and development related to healthy ageing [7-9]. In addition to the 15 M Horizon Europe grant, additional 37 M EUR is attracted from the Hungarian Government and the founding institutions. In 2020, HCEMM received a status of a National Laboratory. HCEMM is a “game changer” organization in Hungary, as it was established as a non-profit Ltd.: catalyzing profound changes in the Hungarian research ecosystem.

MIA-Portugal, with a Portugese coordinator and advanced partners from The Netherlands and UK, aims at establishing the Multidisciplinary Institute of Ageing (MIA) (https://www.uc.pt/mia/). MIA is another center of excellence in Europe focused on healthy living, reflecting the importance of this to our society [10]. Established in 2020 with the 15 M seed money from Horizon 2020, MIA set ambitios goals such as: improve health life expectancy, reduce the socio-economic burden of age-related diseases, and perform fundamental and translational research, ultimately becoming one of the top European centers in biology of ageing.

The purpose of project PlantaSYST is to establish the Center of Plant Systems Biology (CPSBB) in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Coordinated by CPSBB, the project has partner institutes from Bulgaria and Germany (Table 1). CPSBB was founded in 2015 with the help of the first Teaming call and has quickly became the leading plant science organization in Bulgaria [11,12]. Initially, PlantaSYST received 15 M from Horizon Europe and a building from one of its partners, Maritsa Vegetable Crop Research Institute. Later on, CPSBB received additional co-funding from the Government and land from Plovdiv Municipality to construct its new research complex. Now, CPSBB is the most productive plant science institute in Bulgaria, in terms of peer reviewed scientific publications and collaborative projects. Like HCEMM in Hungary, CPSBB is changing the research ecosystem in Bulgaria, as it is the only plant science institute which is fully independent, not part of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences or the Bulgarian Agricultural Academy.

The SANO project, coordinated by the Center for Computational Personalized Medicine (SANO) and supported by partner organizations from Poland, Germany, and UK, aims at developing new computer methods in healthcare and diagnosis via novel personalised approaches to patient treatment (https://sano.science/). The new center was established in 2019 with a 15 M grant from Horizon 2020 and quickly became the project coordinator. More than 100 people are now employed or associated with this center.

Support from National and Regional Authorities

The Governments of the Widening countries were fully aware of the importance of these newly established centers, hence they provided generous co-funding. Whereas the Horizon 2020 grants were mainly for personnel costs and indirect costs, the Governmental co-funding was for developing new infrastructure: constructing new buildings (or upgrading existing ones) and purchasing state-of-art equipment, which would provide technological advantage to the new centers and attract additional highly skilled scientific personnel. The funding invested by the Governments was at least equal to the Horizon 2020 grants, and in many cases much more than that (Table 1). Overall, the governmental funding was 2-fold higher that the funding obtained from Horizon 2020.

However, there are a number of issues regarding the national co-funding. In most cases, large part of it comes through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The co-funding grants with ERDF were not coordinated with the corresponding Teaming calls. Whereas the Horizon 2020 projects can run until 2026, the ERDF funding can be used only until the end of 2023. Most of the Teaming projects experienced delays in the co-funding, in some cases delays with more than two years. As the complementary funding usually covers infrastructure and equipment costs, its delay results in delays in the construction of the new research premises and acquisition of state-of-the-art equipment: key factors in attracting good researchers. This was the case with the first Teaming projects, where 80% of them experienced delays in receiving complementary funding, and is especially alerting for the second group of the Teaming projects, due to the much shorter time window for spending the complementary funding.

The local authorities in the cities/the regions where the new centers were established have provided additional support in form of e.g. land for construction of the new research complexes, and logistics as well as administrative support in some cases. Indeed, the newly formed centers were of paramount importance for the local scientific development and bio-based economy. In several cases, the coordinating institutions themselves have invested from their own budgets or donated buildings to speed up the developments of the new centers.

Contribution to the Scientific and Socio-Economic Development of the Regions

The new research centers in biology and medicine are already making a deep impact on both scientific and socio-economic development of their respective regions. This is particularly evident for the two centers of excellence with research focus on plant biology: The BioSense Institute and the Center of Plant Systems Biology and Biotechnology.

The BioSence institute, established through the project ANTARES, is performing groundbreaking research in agriculture and digital technologies, delivering state-of-art technological solutions to research organizations, companies, and farmers in Serbia and Europe (https://biosens.rs/en). BioSence is participating in 30 national and more than 50 international projects. The research performed at BioSence is directly linked to societal challenges. For example, its AgroSense digital platform enables farmers and extension services to monitor crops for free and plan activities using computers and mobile phones, based on the data collected from satellite images, drones, robots, various sensors, and meteorological stations. More than 15,000 registered users are an indicator of successful digital transformation. Due to the partnership with the European Space Agency, BioSense is the only distributor of Sentinel satellite imagery in Serbia. Also, the impact is spread globally through other collaborations with FAO, EBRD, World Bank and UNICEF. Currently, BioSence is employing more than 120 people

(https://biosens.rs/en/employees).

The Center of Plant Systems Biology and Biotechnology (www.cpsbb.eu), founded with the support of the project PlantaSYST, has quickly established itself as the leading plant science research institute in Bulgaria [12]. Currently, it is the most productive Bulgarian plant science center in terms of number of research articles in peer reviewed journals and collaborative projects [11]. CPSBB has on-going projects with more than 100 universities, research organizations, and companies throughout the world. Major rsearch areas are molecular stress physiology, plant cell biotechnology, crop quantitative genetics, plant metabolomics (including research on metabolites with applications in medicine and pharmacy) and vegetable breeding [11]. In addition, CPSBB is providing services in bioinformatics and metabolomics, as well as digital solutions to farmers/farmer organizations in Bulgaria and Europe, thus contributing to the development of the agricultural economy in the region. CPSBB is member and as such is actively contributing to EURAXESS, EU SAGE (European Sustainable Agriculture through Genome Editing), and the International Seed Federation. Through EU SAGE, for example, the potential for genome editing is advocated and the European Commission is advised on the regulatory proposal for plants obtained by new genomic techniques. Overall, the new centers are rapidly changing the research landscapes of their countries, increasing the R&I output, consolidating the academia, business, and other stakeholders in the region, and creating new jobs by either direct employment or indirectly promoting the development of the partnership organizations in the region (Table 4).

  

    
Impact
    
Examples
  
  

    
Changing the research landscapes of the    widening countries
    
HCEMM is a new type of research organization is    catalyzing deep changes in the Hungarian research ecosystem. It is structured    as non-profit company that uses the EMBL research model.

      CPSBB is the first fully independent plant    science institute in Bulgaria, that is not part of the Bulgarian Academy of    Sciences or the Agricultural Academy. Its structure and research model,    resembling the Max Planck institutes in Germany, is changing the research    ecosystem in Bulgaria. 
  
  

    
Raising the scientific and innovation output
    
All research centers are among the most    productive scientific institutions in their countries, in terms of research    articles in impact factor journals and collaborative research projects.    Positive examples include the BioSense institute in Serbia, CPSBB in    Bulgaria, and HCEMM in Hungary.
  
  

    
Creating new jobs and development    opportunities for young people
    
The new centers of excellence have employed    more than 900 people and created at least ten times more job opportunities in    their partner organizations, as a result of the collaborative research    projects and the positive business environment.
  
  

    
Consolidating academia, business, and other    stakeholders in the region.
    
The new centers are partnering with all major    universities and research institutes in their regions, as well as with    non-governmental associations in various areas of biology, including plant    sciences, and medicine.
  

Table 4: Impact of the new Teaming centers on the scientific and socio-economic development in the Widening countries.