This is the last of the three Winter Meeting 2024 discussion reports. It looks at what INESC needs internally to succeed structurally in EU research and innovation after 2027. Using a benchmark of leading European research and technology organisations (VTT, CEA, RISE, Tecnalia), it defines success as more than winning funding. Success also means working across TRLs, having societal impact, collaborating well, influencing policy and keeping funding sustainable. The five institutes define success very differently, from INESC Coimbra’s academic focus to INESC TEC’s corporate-style management, but all depend heavily on researchers working autonomously. For each type of activity, such as ERC grants, collaborative projects, demonstration work, policy work, commercialisation and talent development, the report asks what internal support is needed. It separates support for taking part in projects from support for setting the agenda, and it sets out the INESC Brussels HUB’s governance model and its four pillars: communication, representation, funding and capacity building, and intelligence gathering. It ends with discussion questions on how to balance autonomy with collaboration and how to improve communication between the institutes and the HUB.
