RTU Organizes EUt+ Financial Management Staff Wee

During April 17th – 21st, Riga Technical University (RTU) successfully organized very first European University of Technology (EUt+) Themed Staff Week, Financial Management Staff week. The workshops were joined by 5 of the EUt+ partners, namely, University of Technology of Troyes (UTT) in France, Technical University of Cartagena (UPCT) in Spain, Technological University Dublin (TU-Dublin) in Ireland, Hochschule Darmstadt University of Applied Science (h_da) in Germany, and Technical University of Sofia (TUS) in Bulgaria along with the RTU staff members. During the week, workshops on topics such as financial and project management in cooperation, scientific and mobility projects were discussed.

On Tuesday, the opening day of the event, Artūrs Zeps, Vice-Rector for Strategic Development and Finance as well as the Deputy Rector for International Academic Cooperation and Studies, Igors Tipāns, gave an opening speech to welcome our guests as well as to kick-off the topic of financial management. The session was followed by a Keynote on Data Analysis from Ingars Eriņš of the Department of Artifical Intelligence and Systems Engineering. Following the opening session, a presentation from Liene Auziņa from Project Financial Management Unit was given on the RTU’s structure and financial management, followed by presentation on the EUt+ given by Kārlis Valtiņš, Head of the International Projects Unit, as well as about Capacity Building (CBHE) projects by Timo-Juhani Turunen and his team.

On Wednesday, financial management in scientific projects were discussed and we were joined by members from Latvian Science Council, who gave a throughout presentations on projects such as Postdoctoral Fellowships, Doctoral Networks, Staff Exchange, COFUND and MSCA and Citizens. We finished the working sessions with an Escape Room game that allowed our guests to practice some of the data analysis and finance skills in a fun, collaborative way.

Lastly, on Thursday RTU had invited member from Latvian National Agency to present on the mobility projects and financial management within those (KA131 & 171), as well as a workshop was conducted by the International Projects Mobility Unit on the challenges faced in the KA171 projects as they pertain to financial management.

Along the workshops on these projects, our guests had a chance to explore Riga during city tour, get familiar with our campus during the campus tour, as well as to socialize during the dinner hosted by RTU.