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In April 2023, the GeoZS Project Office, together with its project partners, the Agricultural Institute of Slovenia (project coordinator), the Slovenian Forestry Institute and the Institute of Education, launched the activities of the project Cooperation for Strengthening the Performance of Project Offices - SKUPP. The project will run until the end of June 2026. The project is funded by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) mechanism and co-financed by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation of the Republic of Slovenia. The aim of the SKUPP consortium is to strengthen the support environment for project offices in public research institutions and to improve the performance of centralised EU programmes in the application, implementation and reporting phases.

The field of scientific research is becoming increasingly complex and requires innovative approaches, efficient reallocation of resources and strategic thinking. The project will therefore train administrative and research staff to meet the challenges of the future, while improving the performance of the institutes in centralised EU programmes - from application to implementation and reporting. The consortium hopes that the improved staff capacities in the project offices and in project implementation will contribute to a greater reputation and visibility of the SKUPP members in the national and international environment.

The members of the SKUPP consortium are public research organisations that complement each other in their activities in relation to the project offices. All partners of the consortium have extensive experience in applying for centralised and other European and national tenders, we are active in applied and basic research and support the state by providing public services and professional support.

The project will organise at least 35 events, workshops and networking between partners and external stakeholders through new recruitments in project offices and units and strengthen the supportive environment for R&D projects together with other consortia. We are planning various training courses with national and international speakers (from better scientific writing and communication to financial management of projects), counselling in areas such as intellectual property and transfer of practises, various international information events and networking with national contact points and other consortia.

The strengthening of the support environment will be carried out at three levels. The first level is the internal transfer of knowledge and ideas within the partners to the staff, the second level is networking and joint training within the consortium for managers, project leaders, coordinators, administrators to strengthen content and organisational competences, and on the third level we will organise events for the interested public through information and networking with other consortia. A publicly accessible repository will be used to disseminate and transfer the acquired knowledge.

All partners will learn new skills to strengthen the competences and skills of their employees and optimise their tasks. The increased involvement of administrators and researchers in an international environment will ultimately help research institutions and the sector, as well as the region as a whole, as successful institutions with new knowledge will enable much-needed societal development. We will bring in qualified experts from home and abroad to provide the missing knowledge for more successful applications and consequently for Slovenia's rise on the European Innovation scoreboard.