Pre-award Research Support Centre

The Pre-award Research Support Centre (in Croatian: CPP) at the University Centre for Research and Innovation was established to strengthen the participation of University of Rijeka scientists in competitive scientific projects.

The Centre’s primary focus is on supporting researchers’ applications to the Horizon Europe programme, Europe’s largest transnational programme for research and innovation, and national research projects of the Croatian Science Foundation.

What we do

Pre-award research support procedure includes individual counseling of scientists in the entire process of preparing project proposals, which includes:

• Providing information about funding opportunities within the Horizon Europe programme and the Croatian Science Foundation,
• Advising on filling out project forms,
• Assistance and consultation in the preparation of parts of the application that are not specifically related to the scientific component of the project proposal,
• Providing assistance and guidance in the preparation of the project budget,
• Pre-screening of the entire project application and consultation on possible improvements,
• Providing support in the use of application systems and online tools.

The Centre organizes:

• Informative events about relevant calls and application conditions for open tenders,
• Workshops and consultations where you can acquire useful knowledge and skills for the preparation of a project proposal.

By participating in our events, you will receive crucial information, instructions, and clarifications that will help you decide whether a certain tender is the most suitable for your research idea. In this way, you will get help and support in planning the project proposal and save time in finding a suitable tender for your project idea.

Contact the Centre on time to give us enough time to review and make possible improvements to the project documentation.

The Project Reading Room

Project Reading Room is a CPP activity organized at the UNIRI Rectorate (Trg braće Mažuranića 10). All UNIRI researchers are welcome to read project proposals accepted for financing by the Croatian Science Foundation’s programmes Research Projects and Installation Research Projects, from all scientific fields. The CPP will ensure that there are project proposals from all scientific areas available so that all UNIRI researchers can use this opportunity, no matter which faculty or research area they come from.

The goal of the Project Reading Room is to help researchers prepare their own project proposals for future Croatian Science Foundation Calls. Furthermore, it aims at motivating researchers for submitting their own project proposals as well as at providing an insight into what potentially makes them successful.

The Project Reading Room Concept:

Project proposals will be made available in a specific time slot of researchers’ choosing, between 9:00 and 14:30 h. Researchers will have 90 min at their disposal for reading the project proposals available. One time slot may include up to 5 researchers. Support by the CPP team members will be provided to all users during the Project Reading Room open hours.

The Project Reading Room Rules:

Project proposals must not be photographed, copied or in any way and manner distributed outside the premises.
Available project proposals were written following the regulations proposed by the Call they were submitted to. Future calls may not follow the same regulations and may therefore be changed; hence the available project proposals should be treated as case studies.
The authors (PIs) of available project proposals have willingly given them for reading for the purposes described above. Please treat them respectfully.

Scientific project writing Tutors

Researchers who were awarded UNIRI Research Fellows as PIs of competitive scientific projects, and researchers with relevant experience in preparing and conducting projects, are available as advisors to all potential applicants to Horizon Europe and Croatian Science Foundation Calls.

The support in writing research project proposals offers a unique opportunity for potential applicants to connect with experienced PIs. It was established with the goal of strengthening the participation of UNIRI researchers in competitive research project calls.

This unique cooperation between a tutor and an applicant provides a framework of support with a potential to improve project proposal quality based on constructive commentary and helpful suggestions.

Participation in this specific activity is completely voluntary. We advise all applicants to prepare the proposal and contact the tutors in due course. Please find the list of researchers – tutors here .