Survey of members to support the development of the new METREX Research Portal
At our conference last year in Stuttgart it was announced that we intend to setup a METREX Research Portal. The main objective is to develop a better view on existing scientific research that can support our members in their work.
In addressing the complicated issues that our members deal with it can be more than helpful, and often necessary, to have the best research results on specific topics, already done by the universities and institutes in our European Metropolitan regions. The portal should also allow members to easily identify researchers for new questions that arise and to find new partners for projects and research grant applications, for example for the new round of EU Horizon projects.
The METREX Research Portal will be set up with the help of Dr. Claudia Murray from Reading University in the UK. She will ensure that the methodology used to develop the portal is replicable and sustainable in the long term and meets the conditions required for an application later on for EU funding to maintain the Portal.
An example of how the Portal can help your region
In November last year, the European Parliament declared a climate emergency. This means the EU should cut emissions by 55% by 2030 and become climate neutral by 2050. The High-Level Panel of the European decarbonisation pathways initiative, acknowledges that the challenge is huge, and highlights that a very ambitious research and innovation (R&I) programme is one of the necessary means to achieve this goal. The evidence on climate change is already available through the various publications of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), particularly its Special Report on 1.5°C. What is needed now is research on actions and evidence of impactful interventions that can be shared across European regions.
Initial Survey
In order to meet your needs, we have set up an initial survey to understand the current situation amongst our member organisations.
The aims of the survey are twofold:
- To identify the research capacity of METREX members, including work carried out in partnership or commissioned to universities and research centres. This will help METREX create a network of experts that can be relied upon for future research projects and EU Horizon project applications.
- Uncover the research evidence needs of METREX members in order to achieve urban targets by 2030 and 2050 in the metropolitan regions of Europe. The collected information would be stored in METREX’s portal as an online library, while the uncovering of research needs will help to draft a common research agenda in order to fill those gaps.
The anonymised survey results will be shared with all members during a follow up workshop. The workshop will help METREX regions to agree on a common research agenda by sharing and agreeing on the most pressing challenges affecting EU regions in order to achieve the 2030 and 2050 targets.
The survey would be implemented in the week commencing 13/04/2020. Your metropolitan region’s contribution and response is invaluable and we therefore kindly request that, upon receiving the survey, a representative of your region is able to answer the questions by the due date on 13/05/2020.
If you have further questions, please contact stephen.gallagher@eurometrex.org.
