International Burch University hosted the final conference of the Project Development Facility (PDF) on March 24, 2026. The project focused on strengthening the capacities of higher education institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina for successful participation in EU-funded programmes in the fields of research, innovation, scientific cooperation, and capacity building, including frameworks such as Horizon Europe, COST, and Erasmus+. Funded by the European Union through the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) and implemented in partnership with the University of Applied Sciences Burgenland (Austria), the initiative brought together academics, project practitioners, representatives of the NCP network, and relevant governmental stakeholders.
The conference gathered participants from across these sectors and was opened by Prof. dr. Mersid Poturak, Rector of International Burch University, and Mr. Suvad Džafić, Assistant Minister at the Ministry for Civil Affairs. The event was moderated throughout by Amer Kurtović, Head of the Projects and Research Office at IBU.
The programme opened with a panel of international experts: Dr. Soeren Keil (University of Passau), Dr. Noemia Bessa Vilela (Maria Curie-Skłodowska University), Dr. Raniero Chelli (beyondEU), and Ms. Joanna Wielgo (European University Institute), reflecting on the proposal development workshops conducted throughout the project and the challenges encountered along the way. A recurring theme was the role of intrinsic motivation as the true starting point of any research endeavour. Experts stressed that genuine intellectual curiosity must come first and that the funding is a tool to scale it up, not a substitute for it.
At the same time, they were equally clear that intrinsic motivation alone is not enough to sustain a culture of competitive proposal writing. University governance structures have a responsibility to create the conditions in which that motivation can flourish and translate into action: through recognition systems that reward grant activity, promotion criteria that value international project participation, and institutional signals that make clear that engaging with European funding is not a personal ambition but a shared institutional priority.
Alongside this, panelists highlighted the critical importance of navigating the funding landscape strategically, understanding how to read a call for proposals, and recognising what different wording signals about the minimum expectations and evaluation priorities. They also underscored the importance of recognising that identical section headings in project applications can carry fundamentally different expectations across funding frameworks. The ability to decode the logic of a funding framework, panelists agreed, is a skill that can be learned, and one that institutions should actively incentivise, invest in, and treat as a professional competence rather than an individual burden.
The second panel, featuring Assoc. Prof. dr. Erna Karalija (University of Sarajevo), Assist. Prof. dr. Anđela Pepić (University of Banja Luka), and Prof. dr. Petar Gvero (University of Banja Luka), brought perspectives from ongoing projects involving partners from BiH, offering a vivid illustration of what becomes possible once institutional capacity meets opportunity. Speakers reflected on the value of networks, both formal, and informal, built through years of collaboration and trust, as indispensable infrastructure for competitive proposal writing.
Yet a thread running through all contributions was the decisive role of institutional support, both before and after a project is awarded. In the pre-award phase, researchers need more than goodwill from their institutions: they need dedicated administrative support, protected time, access to financial modelling, and clear internal procedures for submitting applications. In the post-award phase, the challenges multiply: reporting requirements, financial management, audit trails, and consortium coordination demand a level of professional infrastructure that many universities in the country are still in the process of building.
The message was practical and direct: no institution succeeds in international funding in isolation, and no individual researcher should be left to navigate that complexity alone. Strengthening the support structures around the researcher, not just the researcher themselves, is what ultimately determines whether capacity translates into results.
The conference concluded with the presentation and discussion of a policy paper developed within the project, aimed at strengthening the absorption capacities of higher education institutions in BiH. The document analyses existing barriers to participation in EU programmes and offers a concrete set of recommendations for institutional and systemic change.
The final message of the conference was unambiguous: the skills required to compete successfully for European funding are not reserved for large, well-resourced universities; they are learnable, transferable, and within reach, provided the right support structures are in place. PDF has helped lay the groundwork. The next step belongs to the institutions themselves.