Ülle Napa

Who are you?

Ülle Napa has worked for the Research Council of Horizon 2020 for over six years advising potential applicants on training and programme opportunities. She has an environmental background and her PhD researched the effect of pollution on forests.

The opportunity for the Pioneers programme seemed interesting for her, but it was only after speaking to a Pioneers Local Manager at Climate-KIC that she realised how she could participate and that the experience would be beneficial to her work.

What did you do?

Although Ülle initially wanted to gain experience by working in a small or medium-sized enterprise, her interest in nature-based solutions meant she was excited to be offered a placement at Warsaw City Council which matched her previous training.

During her placement within the Department of Infrastructure, she assisted the municipality in identifying activities that it could develop and where it could participate in international co-operation programmes. Her first task was to map capabilities and opportunities and she also worked with the Architecture Department to trial nature-based solutions based on key issues identified. Although Warsaw City Council has been involved in many international projects, this was the first time that the municipality had focussed on nature-based solutions to tackle environmental issues. Ülle also helped in the development of a new consortium of international cities from the Netherlands, Italy and the UK.

The Pioneers programme gave me a lot of inspiration to what I could do and provided me with many new contacts that have proved beneficial for my work.

What did you achieve?

As part of her placement she worked on two proposals for the City Council, helping to connect the authority with universities, research organisations and key contacts who could provide the necessary scientific and environmental expertise required for the project activities. Ülle represented the municipality at a workshop in Brussels as part of a Climate-KIC call for proposals and identified new co-operation opportunities and key contacts for the City Council and other partners.

Ülle used her expertise and knowledge of existing support and programmes to signpost her host organisation, and other parties, to new opportunities for internal co-operation and also potential research and development opportunities for small businesses.

Ülle advises future Pioneers to go to organisations that are different to their own as you can learn a lot about how other organisations operate.

What happens next?

As a result of the support and advice provided through her placement, Warsaw City Council plans to apply for Horizon 2020 funding in 2019.

Ülle has applied the systems innovation training provided at the Pioneer workshops to her work at the Research Council, as she finds this a useful and very different way of thinking about processes and how to solve problems.