Communication managers in EU projects, Arnau Jordà and Marta Martín, explained how to successfully manage projects in Europe with multiple partners
On June 17, the 13th ‘Trobada de Gestors/es de Recerca’ (‘Catalan Research-Managers Forum’), titled ‘The Value of Research Management’, convened over 300 specialists to the Universitat de Barcelona for a day of sharing practices and debating on European funding. During the first parallel session of the morning, Arnau Jordà (Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia, ICIQ) and Marta Martín (Institute of Photonic Sciences, ICFO) presented the spotlight session, ‘Preparació i gestió de projectes complexos‘ (‘Preparation and management of complex projects’), which focused on practical approaches to coordinating EU projects with large numbers of partners.
Representing the EIC ‘CO₂ & Nitrogen Management & Valorization’ Portfolio, including SUPERVAL, ICONIC, and CONFETI, Jordà and Martín began with a summary of the 2023 call that formed the consortium. Their core message was that complex does not have to mean chaotic.
A shared digital backbone and clear management in the EIC Portfolio
Jordà and Martín argued that the portfolio’s success depends on having a simple but well-defined governance layer. Each project chooses a Portfolio Manager, Innovation Manager, and Communications Manager. The three people make up a management team that can efficiently manage all eight projects. They said that this structure makes sure that important decisions, planning for how to use the data, and messages to the public are all done in a way that makes sense, but without making things too hard for the researchers.
The speakers illustrated how everyday collaboration is anchored in Microsoft Teams and SharePoint workspaces. This ‘virtual office’ is where work-package groups meet, documents are stored and version-controlled, and spending is tracked transparently. Externally, the portfolio maintains a single window for the public and policymakers: eic.co2nitrogen.eu. Its website offers interactive tools, videos, and a newsletter that comes out every three months. The newsletter shares interesting scientific facts and stories about how these facts are used. According to Jordà, this unified storytelling “multiplies visibility while letting individual projects keep their own identities”.
Looking ahead, working groups have already scheduled meetings through 2025, including a common symposium at major conferences and a hybrid annual meeting to keep things going strong. The session ended with a call for other Horizon consortia to use a similar approach. This means treating communication and management not as overheads but as strategic assets that can accelerate Europe’s green-transition agenda.
