Final Report Summary - CONEX (CONnecting EXcellence to UC3M)
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) is a public university founded in 1989. UC3M’s mission is to contribute to the betterment of society through the generation of advanced research results in accordance with strict international standards as well as through teaching programmes of the highest quality. The University aspires to excellence in all of its activities, striving to become one of the best universities in Europe. The University is located in south Madrid and has five centres: 2 Faculties, 1 Technical School, 1 School of Graduate Studies and 1 Doctoral School, located in 4 Campuses.
Since its foundation, UC3M has endeavoured to make research one of the fundamental pillars of its activity, both for the enhancement of its teaching and for the development of new knowledge in existing and emerging areas of knowledge. UC3M, as University, has attained a national reputation for the quality of its research output. In terms of the return obtained in the current European Union Framework Programme for R&D - Horizon 2020 - from 2014 till 2016, it is in 15th place among all research organizations in Spain, and in 7th place among Spanish universities.
CONEX – “CONnecting EXcellence to UC3M” is an incoming fellowship programme for Experienced (with more than 4 years of experience) and Very Experienced (with more than 10 years of experience) Researchers, who wish to take advantage of the opportunities in the program to undergo a significant step forward in their careers. Universidad Carlos III de Madrid offered a total of 28 fellowships in order to attract talented researchers from different fields of research by offering attractive conditions that would enable them to develop a bottom-up project of quality in their respective fields during a period of 36 months.
CONEX is also an institutional instrument that supports the objectives of UC3M Strategic Plans for 2010-2015 and 2016-2022. Both Plans aim to foster an excellent, international and interdisciplinary research activity at UC3M.
CONEX Main achievements:
An innovative and successful worldwide dissemination campaign was implemented with the aim of attracting excellent international researchers by widely disseminating both the programme and the calls for applicants. As a result, the CONEX web-site (www.uc3m.es/conex) was visited by more than 33.000 visitors, more than 1000 researchers registered in the online applications system and 413 proposals were submitted by researchers of 54 different nationalities. Both calls and schemes were very competitive, with an overall success rate of 7%.
At the beginning of 2015, the programme recruited the planned 28 fellows following the principles of “The European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers”. Fellows came from a total of 15 different countries and the percentage of female researchers was 25%.
The outcomes have shown that CONEX has accomplished its main objectives:
-Enhancing the Fellows’ career options, by providing them with opportunities to continue their careers in academia and outside academia and helping them to increase their chances of secure permanent positions due to the improvements in their experience and CVs obtained during their stay in the program.
-Promoting the mobility of scientists, as well as the attraction and concentration of international research talent at UC3M.
-Contributing to the improvement of the internationalization of the UC3M Faculty, through the access of UC3M researchers to the research networks associated with the Fellows, and through their integration in international research projects linked to these Fellowships.
Furthermore, through the CONEX programme, UC3M has been able to continue developing the transnational dimension of its research and training curriculum. CONEX has also contributed to improving the integration of the Spanish University system with the European Research Area, by promoting and expanding the intra-European mobility of researchers.
Further information is available on its website,
https://www.uc3m.es/investigacion/connecting-excellence-to-uc3m-2014
CONEX Helpdesk contact: conex@uc3m.es.
Since its foundation, UC3M has endeavoured to make research one of the fundamental pillars of its activity, both for the enhancement of its teaching and for the development of new knowledge in existing and emerging areas of knowledge. UC3M, as University, has attained a national reputation for the quality of its research output. In terms of the return obtained in the current European Union Framework Programme for R&D - Horizon 2020 - from 2014 till 2016, it is in 15th place among all research organizations in Spain, and in 7th place among Spanish universities.
CONEX – “CONnecting EXcellence to UC3M” is an incoming fellowship programme for Experienced (with more than 4 years of experience) and Very Experienced (with more than 10 years of experience) Researchers, who wish to take advantage of the opportunities in the program to undergo a significant step forward in their careers. Universidad Carlos III de Madrid offered a total of 28 fellowships in order to attract talented researchers from different fields of research by offering attractive conditions that would enable them to develop a bottom-up project of quality in their respective fields during a period of 36 months.
CONEX is also an institutional instrument that supports the objectives of UC3M Strategic Plans for 2010-2015 and 2016-2022. Both Plans aim to foster an excellent, international and interdisciplinary research activity at UC3M.
CONEX Main achievements:
An innovative and successful worldwide dissemination campaign was implemented with the aim of attracting excellent international researchers by widely disseminating both the programme and the calls for applicants. As a result, the CONEX web-site (www.uc3m.es/conex) was visited by more than 33.000 visitors, more than 1000 researchers registered in the online applications system and 413 proposals were submitted by researchers of 54 different nationalities. Both calls and schemes were very competitive, with an overall success rate of 7%.
At the beginning of 2015, the programme recruited the planned 28 fellows following the principles of “The European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers”. Fellows came from a total of 15 different countries and the percentage of female researchers was 25%.
The outcomes have shown that CONEX has accomplished its main objectives:
-Enhancing the Fellows’ career options, by providing them with opportunities to continue their careers in academia and outside academia and helping them to increase their chances of secure permanent positions due to the improvements in their experience and CVs obtained during their stay in the program.
-Promoting the mobility of scientists, as well as the attraction and concentration of international research talent at UC3M.
-Contributing to the improvement of the internationalization of the UC3M Faculty, through the access of UC3M researchers to the research networks associated with the Fellows, and through their integration in international research projects linked to these Fellowships.
Furthermore, through the CONEX programme, UC3M has been able to continue developing the transnational dimension of its research and training curriculum. CONEX has also contributed to improving the integration of the Spanish University system with the European Research Area, by promoting and expanding the intra-European mobility of researchers.
Further information is available on its website,
https://www.uc3m.es/investigacion/connecting-excellence-to-uc3m-2014
CONEX Helpdesk contact: conex@uc3m.es.