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TARG will be the coordinator for the first HORIZON 2020 research grant won by University of South-Eastern Norway. HORIZON 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme. It promises breakthroughs, discoveries and world-firsts by taking great ideas from the lab to the market.Norwegian government consider it as the most important area of competition within research. 

This leadership by the ‘TARG Team’ has already been considered as one of the greatest achievements of the university.

“This is a milestone for the new universityand a concrete proof that we are internationally competitive. Dr.Salman Nazir and his internationally oriented research group is an excellent expression of our ambitions to carry out world-class research within strategic priority areas”, says USN rector Petter Aasen.

The newly sanctioned project ENHANCE (Enhancing Human Performance in Complex Socio-Technical Systems: Developing and Implementing New Training and Assessment Solutions for Improved Safety) involves ten partners from seven countries around the world. It has a budget of around 1 million Euros and will last 4 years.

“We are honoured to receive the award, it admires that we have the right competencies to coordinate cross-national and cross-industrial development of new training and assessment packages. This grant will foster more collaboration and contributions for improving safety and efficiency in maritime and process industries”, says Anne Kari Botnmark, who heads the Department of Maritime Operations at USN.

“Success in winning grant applications like this is never a one-person effort. It was all the hard work of the team with support from the leaders. I would like to thank my colleagues: Amit Sharma, Steven Mallam, Tae-Eun Kim, Jørgen Ernstsen, the leaders at IMA and USN EU team: Thomas Slagsvold and Mary Anderson-Glenna for their unwavering support during the application development. In ENHANCE, in addition, the knowledge sharing among academics (7 partners) and practitioners (3 partners) will potentially result in solutions that can be implemented into the industry directly”, says Dr.Nazir.

The TARG team will be continuously involved in this large 4-year project while hosting researchers from all around the world.