On 23 May 2025, the final day of the BALTIC-FIT Summer School 2025 featured a focused workshop on how successful EU research projects are actually built and managed. Yrsa Cronhjort, Lead for EU Programmes, and Kaisa Vehmas, Senior Specialist for EU Projects, from the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland – one of Europe’s most successful organisations in Horizon Europe funding – brought their real-world experience directly to participants in a hands-on session on EU research management and administration, hosted at TalTech Estonian Maritime Academy.
The workshop was designed to strengthen the practical skills of the Summer School participants. It was built around three essential themes:
Understanding the EU Funding Landscape – how Horizon Europe is structured, what its Pillars and Clusters mean in practice, and why strategic alignment matters.
From Call to Grant – the nuts and bolts of project types (RIA, IA, CSA), evaluation criteria, funding instruments, and what it actually takes to move a proposal past the threshold.
Practical Project Leadership – from building consortia and drafting budgets to coordinating work packages and navigating post-award obligations.
The workshop also introduced key success factors for project coordination, drawing on the latest findings from VTT – led research on Horizon Europe practices. This hands-on session contribute directly to building institutional capacity at TalTech for stronger research support, competitive proposal development, and effective EU project delivery – all in line with the objectives of the BALTIC-FIT project.
