Final Activity Report Summary - PRISM (Towards knowledge-based processing systems)
The training objectives of PRISM were to broaden the scientific and technical background of early stage and experienced researchers in the area of process systems engineering and to enhance their skills in theoretical and applied research by providing them with real industrial problems. A further aim was to develop the researcher's communication and project management skills. Since a diversity of complementary scientific disciplines and applied research topics are involved in the broad area of process systems engineering, the training relied on the active participation of all industrial, SMEs and academic partners.
The training programme took advantage of the international nature of the network and the complementarily of its teams. PRISM exposed researchers to different schools of thoughts working in the same research field. Thus, for the successful implementation of PRISM the consortium employed an effective and well-structured scheme for training and interchange of information by promoting exchanges between the industrial partners, SMEs and the academic / research partners.
More than 25 exchanges took place. The exchange scheme provided the early stage and experienced researchers with the complementary information for solving their individual tasks. The network also allowed a large degree of interaction between theoretical and applied researchers, leading to a greater understanding of the challenges in computer-aided design, control and optimisation of process systems. Each academic team of the proposed network consortium allocated early stage and/or experienced researchers to achieve the specific project's objectives.
The main role of experienced researchers was twofold:
- To participate in network-wide events that enables the transfer of knowledge between the members of the research teams. Such events included joint lecture courses, summers schools, workshops, etc. Exchange of knowledge with the members of other teams was also a key activity for experienced researchers through undertaking visits and secondments.
- Mentoring of early stage researchers within PRISM in order to pass on experience and specialised knowledge. Industrial partners and engineering SMEs such as PSE and SOUK allocated mainly experienced researchers who played a key role to the transfer of research and industrial knowledge to young researchers from universities and research institutes.
The training programme took advantage of the international nature of the network and the complementarily of its teams. PRISM exposed researchers to different schools of thoughts working in the same research field. Thus, for the successful implementation of PRISM the consortium employed an effective and well-structured scheme for training and interchange of information by promoting exchanges between the industrial partners, SMEs and the academic / research partners.
More than 25 exchanges took place. The exchange scheme provided the early stage and experienced researchers with the complementary information for solving their individual tasks. The network also allowed a large degree of interaction between theoretical and applied researchers, leading to a greater understanding of the challenges in computer-aided design, control and optimisation of process systems. Each academic team of the proposed network consortium allocated early stage and/or experienced researchers to achieve the specific project's objectives.
The main role of experienced researchers was twofold:
- To participate in network-wide events that enables the transfer of knowledge between the members of the research teams. Such events included joint lecture courses, summers schools, workshops, etc. Exchange of knowledge with the members of other teams was also a key activity for experienced researchers through undertaking visits and secondments.
- Mentoring of early stage researchers within PRISM in order to pass on experience and specialised knowledge. Industrial partners and engineering SMEs such as PSE and SOUK allocated mainly experienced researchers who played a key role to the transfer of research and industrial knowledge to young researchers from universities and research institutes.