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Research and Grants Office: Interview with Dr Romain Cartoni

What is the role and functioning of the department you head?

The RGO is a department attached to the Rectorate, but above all it is close to and at the service of researchers from all faculties and centers, from post-doctorate onwards. Our aim is simple: to enable them to concentrate on their research. The RGO therefore helps scientists to obtain appropriate funding and lighten their administrative burden.  It is therefore very important for us to maintain a strong link with all faculties, in order to respond specifically to their needs. In my opinion, the RGO must play a key role in harmonizing the dialogue between the administration and scientists, which is often difficult. I've experienced these communication difficulties in all the institutions I've worked with in my research career, both in Switzerland and in the United States. Our job is to help researchers understand administrative procedures, but also to help administrations understand the way they work, particularly in the competitive context of research. The department is fortunate to be able to call on 17 people, almost as many men as women, highly specialized in the design, management and support of research projects.

Under your leadership, the RGO has been reorganized. Why was this?

Following a satisfaction survey carried out in 2022, it became clear that our information, advice and support activities needed to be more in tune with the needs of researchers. The RGO is now organized into five units: individual projects, collaborative projects, infrastructure, innovation and research observatory.

The "Individual" unit supports funding tools involving a single individual, often in charge of a research group, such as career development; the "Collaborative" unit concerns projects involving Swiss or foreign partners that form research consortia, large or small. The "Infrastructures" unit deals with everything relating with the development and funding of research infrastructures involving the UNIGE, such as scientific platforms or technology centers shared by several institutions. The "Innovation" unit promotes innovation among researchers, and forges links with private research partners such as SMEs. As the regional office of Euresearch, this unit also supports the canton's economic ecosystem (companies and associations) in their research activities and funding applications.

Finally, the "Observatoire de la Recherche" informs and advises scientists on new approaches to evaluate research, such as narrative CVs, the diversification of criteria taken into account when evaluating candidates, and scientific advisory boards (SABs) for research entities. In addition, the observatory optimizes research management at the institutional level by providing faculties, interfaculty centers and the rectorate with data on research funding over the years, notably by developing high-performance digital tools.

In concrete terms, how does the RGO help researchers?

RGO provides conceptual, administrative and procedural support to researchers at all stages of a project. From the very outset of a project, we work with the scientist to explore the best funding tool, depending on the project's characteristics and career stage. Further down the line, many scientists contact us once the project has been accepted, and here the procedures for accepting the grant often require administrative support. In addition, we organize coaching sessions for candidates selected for interviews under career support instruments such as Ambizione, ERC/SNSF starting, consolidator or advanced grants.

Regarding the Horizon Europe program, which remains open to Swiss researchers for many types of collaborative projects, the department is heavily involved in the negotiation phase, right up to the signing of contracts and partnership agreements. It is also the case for projects supported by private entities (foundations). Once the contracts have been signed and the project launched, we are solicited on a more occasional basis, to draw up administrative and scientific reports with the scientists, or to make any changes to the contracts.

We advise researchers to contact us as early as possible when applying for a competitive fund. Indeed, the administrative burden can discourage researchers and prevent them from concentrating on their main task, which is to build the most competitive research project possible. Our aim is therefore to relieve them of this burden by ensuring that their application meets all the criteria of both the funding body and the UNIGE. What's more, it's always easier to correct any errors early in the process and when the department is familiar with the project. To find the right funding scheme, a new tool, Pivot-RP, has recently been made available on the RGO website. Pivot-RP is an innovative platform that gives access to a multitude of calls for projects and sends out recommendations filtered according to the profile and interests of each researcher.

More specifically, what support is there for research at the Faculty of Science?

The UNIGE's Faculty of Science is distinguished by its structure, with seven independent sections specializing in various fields. It is a major provider of funds, thanks to its top-level researchers and its remarkable dynamism. For example, it is home of highly innovative NCCRs such as Swissmap and PlanetS, as well as NCCR-perpetuating structures such as the Advanced Technology Laboratory (LTA), the Sciencescopes, the iGe3 center and the ACCESS platform. Its scientists play a crucial role in major national and international consortia (the Swiss Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Western Switzerland (ISPSO), the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO), the Square Kilometer Array Observatory (SKA), the Graphene Flagship and Quantum Flagship, the SWEET program... etc), as well as state-of-the-art infrastructures (SwissSIMS, Dubochet Center for Imaging...etc).

We offer a wide range of services to its scientists, from career development support and post-retirement activities to the administrative support needed to transfer research funds to a new recruit. The RGO has long been perceived as a very elitist department, mainly concerned with setting up complex research projects involving large sums of money. I'd like to stress that this is absolutely not the case: we deal with all kinds of issues and are at the service of all researchers, whatever their concerns or questions. The RGO is there to streamline processes and to listen to the needs of the next generation of academics. Don't hesitate to contact us