Palestine Academy for Science and Technology organized the first round of H2020/ICT Awareness and Training Event in Ramallah from 20-21 May 2014, as part of Med-dialogue activities, under the Auspices of Minister of Telecommunication and Information Technology, in cooperation with the Ministry of Telecommunication and Information Technology, Ministry of Education and Higher Education, The Palestine Information and Communications Technology Incubator (PICTI), and the Palestinian MOSAIC partner, Dr. Mustafa Jarar from Birzeit University. Two European partner in the project (Thies Wittig from IT Consult in Germany and Karen Valin from Sigma Orionis Company in France) were presented all materials related to the aim of this awareness and training event. Nearly 55 participants were attended the event.
The event consisted of two different sessions, one technology and scientific oriented, focusing on the ICT-related topics across H2020, and one for the general training on proposal writing and finding partners. EU funding opportunities (understanding of the EU research funding landscape and the opportunities available, how to find the way through the information and documents related to each call, how to read the documents and quickly find the information of interest, understanding the main characteristics of each of the H2020 ICT funding mechanisms) from the scientific idea to the project (how to find a matching call, where to find information on past and active projects and state of the art; what are the important steps to ensure the idea is eligible and has potential to be funded etc), Practical application writing workshop (CORDIS database searches, consortium building and networking techniques; key techniques for proposal writing, project cycle management approach, etc.)
The participants express their interest and how the content of all presentations was very useful for them, especially the event were engaged with practical information and fruitful discussions on H2020.
The afternoon session of the second day was reserved to discuss proposal ideas brought forward by the participants. Four ideas were briefly presented and then discussed in detail, focusing on
- New generation of traffic simulators, by Dr. Amjad Rattroot from Arab American University Jenin
- Intelligent Traffic Light System for Multi-cross Intersections, by Suhail Odeh from Bethlehem University
- Experimentally-driven research on the development of Energy and Spectrally Efficient Techniques for Future Internet, by Ali Jamoos from Al Quds University
- Guaranteed real-time 'mashed networks' via home-based ad-hoc wireless, by Hanal Abuzant from An Najah University
