Sister‑Project Collaboration for Better Research Careers

Collaboration among sister projects is one of the most powerful mechanisms the European Commission uses to accelerate learning, avoid duplication, and build shared policy momentum across Horizon Europe initiatives. When multiple projects are funded under the same call, they form a portfolio with complementary expertise, overlapping objectives, and a common policy audience. Working together allows them to compare findings, align methodologies, and jointly amplify their impact—something especially important in areas like research careers, where systemic change requires coordinated action across countries, institutions, and sectors.

At its core, sister‑project collaboration creates a structured environment for knowledge exchange. Projects share early insights, test assumptions, and identify recurring patterns that appear across regions. This dialogue ensures that evidence does not remain siloed and that policy recommendations reflect the broader European landscape rather than the experience of a single consortium.

The Talent Ecosystems Portfolio

For NextTechTalents, collaboration is not an add‑on—it is a central part of how the project operates. The initiative is one of ten projects funded under the Talent Ecosystems call (HORIZON‑WIDERA‑2024‑ERA‑02‑03), alongside ARCOE, AttractAdria, BREATH, CROSS, DeepTechSeeds, ECROS, INSIGHT, SECURE2, and SMART Researchers. The portfolio is coordinated by the European Research Executive Agency (REA) in cooperation with the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD), creating a shared governance structure that supports alignment across all projects. NextTechTalents contributes to this shared effort through regular networking activities, thematic knowledge‑sharing sessions, and joint discussions on policy implementation.

How Collaboration Works in Practice

The collaboration unfolds through a well‑defined sequence of events and working groups. It begins with introductory meetings and co‑creation workshops, where projects jointly explore frameworks such as ResearchComp and the European Charter for Researchers. Subsequent phases involve synergy detection, standardisation of implementation criteria, and coordinated preparation for major portfolio events. The timeline shows recurring cross‑project meetings, ERA working groups, and joint design sessions leading up to the Brussels Clustering Event on 29 September 2026, where all ten projects will present shared policy recommendations and highlight portfolio‑wide synergies. This coordinated event structure helps ensure that each project’s findings feed into a coherent, collective policy message.

NextTechTalents’ Role and Contributions

NextTechTalents contributes actively to this ecosystem. It shares its policy mapping results, interview findings, and training system architecture with sister projects, and it also leads specific joint outputs—such as coordinating the production of the shared promotional video, “The ERA Talent Ecosystem Story.”

The project’s Implementation Handbook and Training System feed into cross‑project discussions on mentoring, mobility, and competence development, helping shape the collective evidence base that will inform future ERA policy cycles.

Ultimately, collaboration with sister projects strengthens the legitimacy, visibility, and policy relevance of each individual initiative. By working together, the Talent Ecosystems portfolio can speak with a unified voice, demonstrating to policymakers that the challenges faced by early‑stage researchers are systemic across Europe—and that the solutions must be systemic too. Through its active engagement, NextTechTalents ensures that its contributions resonate beyond its own consortium and support a shared European effort to build more stable, competitive, and future‑ready research careers.