BETTER Life

Bringing Excellence to Transformative Engaged Research in Life Sciences through Integrated Digital Centres

Name of the project: Bringing Excellence to Transformative Engaged Research in Life Sciences through Integrated Digital Centres

Acronym: BETTER Life

Grant provider: European Commission

Programme: Horizon Europe

Duration: 2022 – 2025

The general objective of the project “Bringing Excellence to Transformative Engaged Research in Life Sciences through Integrated Digital Centres” — short BETTER Life — is to establish the EU Digital Centre of Excellence for Socially Engaged Research in Life Sciences (hereinafter EU BETTER Life Centre). The Centre will be an inter-institutional support structure for developing capacities of early career researchers (PhD students and researchers not yet fully independent) (hereinafter ECR) aiming to foster socially engaged research (SER) to tackle societal challenges in their surrounding ecosystems while consolidating the EU BETTER Life Centre as a world reference in planning, supporting, and implementing SER in life sciences.

EU BETTER Life Centre addresses the issue of research engagement and collaboration as a key element to generate wide impact in the surrounding ecosystems and diverse stakeholders. Recent studies agree that there is a growing need for collaborative and interdisciplinary research in addressing global challenges and that ECRs play a key role in challenging the existing academic barriers and consolidating the field. In Europe, this claim is supported by the MORE4 Report that shows that only 32% of researchers collaborate with non-academic sectors or receive any transferable skills training and only 24% of researchers have moved to other sectors during the research career (a decreasing number compared with previous reports). This phenomenon is similar in the universities that are a part of this consortium – there is a need to establish support structures for early carrier researcher to upgrade soft skills, developing tools, and find the connections with the surrounding ecosystem to socially engage their research. Our consortium is committed to address this challenge in life sciences, which is the key field of strength across the institutions, by engaging the partners in creating the support structures to build individual, intra-institutional, and inter-institutional capacities, engaging with the surrounding ecosystem, and constructing in international framing guidelines.

Latest updates

  • BETTER Life Project Held Annual Meeting in Italy

    BETTER Life Project Held Annual Meeting in Italy

    Ascoli Piceno, Italy – The BETTER Life project recently held its annual meeting in Italy. The event took place from May 29 to May 31, 2023, at the Scuola di Ateneo di Architettura e Design in Ascoli Piceno. The meeting brought together experts, stakeholders, and project partners to discuss the progress made so far and […]

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  • Presenting the Debut of BETTER Life E-Zine: May, 2023 Issue #1

    Presenting the Debut of BETTER Life E-Zine: May, 2023 Issue #1

    We are pleased to announce the release of the inaugural issue of the BETTER Life E-Zine: May, 2023 Issue #1. This publication provides a detailed look into our mission and objectives, delivering crucial information on topics ranging from the strategic planning and governance of the EU BETTER Life Centre to a well-defined framework for Socially […]

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  • May 2023: BETTER Life Holds Second Workshop on Design Standards for Socially Engaged Research in Life Sciences

    May 2023: BETTER Life Holds Second Workshop on Design Standards for Socially Engaged Research in Life Sciences

    In May 17, the BETTER Life project, a consortium of research institutions dedicated to promoting socially engaged research (SER) in life sciences (LS), conducted its second online workshop. The purpose of this workshop was to further discuss the development of design standards for socially engaged research in the field. This workshop served as a continuation […]

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  • BETTER Life applied in The Falling Walls Global Call

    BETTER Life applied in The Falling Walls Global Call

    Falling Walls representatives nominated the BETTER Life project to apply to the Global Call. The Falling Walls Global Call is an international competition format that brings together science enthusiasts from diverse backgrounds. Falling Walls fosters discussion on research and innovation and promotes the latest scientific findings among a broad audience from all parts of society. The results of the application should be announced by the end […]

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  • April 2023: BETTER Life: Workshop on Design Standards for Socially Engaged Research in Life Sciences

    April 2023: BETTER Life: Workshop on Design Standards for Socially Engaged Research in Life Sciences

    The BETTER Life project, a consortium of research institutions committed to advancing socially engaged research (SER) in life sciences (LS), recently organized another online workshop to discuss the development of design standards for this area of research. The workshop brought together consortium members from various fields to share their insights and experiences, with the goal […]

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  • March 2023: BETTER Life Project Hosts Workshops on Socially Engaged Research in Life Sciences

    March 2023: BETTER Life Project Hosts Workshops on Socially Engaged Research in Life Sciences

    The BETTER Life project organized two online workshops focusing on social engaged research in life sciences and the co-creation of the strategy for the EU BETTER Life Centre in March 2023. The workshops aimed to design a framework for social engaged research in the field of life sciences and to identify key strategies and approaches […]

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  • February 2023: BETTER Life Project Showcases Progress at EEI Seminar and Engages Stakeholders in Consultation Sessions

    February 2023: BETTER Life Project Showcases Progress at EEI Seminar and Engages Stakeholders in Consultation Sessions

    Last month, our CZU representatives were excited to present the BETTER Life project at a seminar focused on the European Excellence Initiative (EEI) 2023. The event aimed to provide valuable insights into the preparation of project proposals for the EEI 2023 call under the new Widening instrument in Horizon Europe […]

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  • Interview in a Czech magazine about the BETTER life project

    Interview in a Czech magazine about the BETTER life project

    Prof. Lošťák talks about the BETTER Life project in a popular Czech magazine called Vesmír (the Universe) in the context of the interaction of the life sciences with other social sciences (Czech language only).

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