Final Report Summary - ITHACA (ITHACA)
The ITHACA project is a 55 months international mobility postdoctoral programme called Beatriu de Pinós (BP), co-funded by the European Commission under the Marie Curie COFUND action. The BP programme aims to provide highly talented researchers the opportunity to train and advance their career development in a Catalan institution for a period of 24 months. It fosters to increase the dimension of the Catalan research and innovation system by attracting the best researchers worldwide.
The BP Programme is open to all researchers, regardless of their nationality, and has a bottom-up approach both for fundamental and more applied research. Researchers freely choose a research topic and a research institution according to their individual career development needs. The selection of the fellows is merit-based, founded on peer review in an open and transparent selection procedure. Besides the scientific research training, researchers also receive additional training in complementary skills. Researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc) in Spain for more than 12 months in the 2 years immediately prior to the call deadline.
The Beatriu de Pinós Programme has been running since 2005. The Cofunding action for the 2013 and 2014 calls (COFUND ITHACA project) has strengthened the BP programme by improving the researchers’ careers conditions (living and research allowance) and increasing the number of incoming fellowships. The overall ITHACA project has granted 111 fellowship from 20 different nationalities coming from all continents.
The ITHACA project has succeeded in achieving its goals and has had a favourable impact on upgrading the quality of junior postdoctoral researchers in Catalonia. The improvements in the BP programme made through this COFUND project have allowed combating fragmentation of regional programmes by increasing the European-wide mobility possibilities for training and career development of researchers in the European Researh Area.
The programme is managed by AGAUR (the Agency for Management of University and Research grants), the Catalan Government Agency responsible for managing regional grants for universities and research, as well as, promoting research and science. The Agency manages grants amounting to over 150 million € per year and since 2005 has funded more than 1000 Catalan researchers abroad and has incorporated over 800 foreign researchers in Catalonia.
Catalonia and its R&I system provides postdoctorals researchers an attractive environment to deepen scientific skills and develop new ones in a wide range of fields. It is composed by 12 universities, 62 research centres and 9 technological centres, among others. It also comprises large facilities for the development of research and innovation using first level scientific infrastructures such as a new generation Synchrotron, the National Centre for Genomics Analysis or the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre, amongst others. Catalonia is also a pro-business environment and a dynamic, entrepreneurial and inclusive society. The region’s industrial tradition has an active and significant number of companies collaborating with the knowledge pool, which creates a positive open innovation climate for researchers . Recognising the region significant contribution in research and innovation Nature magazine coined the phrase “Catalan Scientific Power”.
Contact details:
Victoria Miquel
Passeig Lluís Companys, 23, 08010 Barcelona
Telf: 93 310 21 37; E-mail: vmiquel@gencat.cat
Web link:
http://agaur.gencat.cat/en/beques-i-ajuts/convocatories-per-temes/Ajuts-per-a-la-incorporacio-de-personal-investigador-postdoctoral-al-sistema-catala-de-ciencia-i-tecnologia-dins-del-programa-Beatriu-de-Pinos-BP-2017
The BP Programme is open to all researchers, regardless of their nationality, and has a bottom-up approach both for fundamental and more applied research. Researchers freely choose a research topic and a research institution according to their individual career development needs. The selection of the fellows is merit-based, founded on peer review in an open and transparent selection procedure. Besides the scientific research training, researchers also receive additional training in complementary skills. Researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc) in Spain for more than 12 months in the 2 years immediately prior to the call deadline.
The Beatriu de Pinós Programme has been running since 2005. The Cofunding action for the 2013 and 2014 calls (COFUND ITHACA project) has strengthened the BP programme by improving the researchers’ careers conditions (living and research allowance) and increasing the number of incoming fellowships. The overall ITHACA project has granted 111 fellowship from 20 different nationalities coming from all continents.
The ITHACA project has succeeded in achieving its goals and has had a favourable impact on upgrading the quality of junior postdoctoral researchers in Catalonia. The improvements in the BP programme made through this COFUND project have allowed combating fragmentation of regional programmes by increasing the European-wide mobility possibilities for training and career development of researchers in the European Researh Area.
The programme is managed by AGAUR (the Agency for Management of University and Research grants), the Catalan Government Agency responsible for managing regional grants for universities and research, as well as, promoting research and science. The Agency manages grants amounting to over 150 million € per year and since 2005 has funded more than 1000 Catalan researchers abroad and has incorporated over 800 foreign researchers in Catalonia.
Catalonia and its R&I system provides postdoctorals researchers an attractive environment to deepen scientific skills and develop new ones in a wide range of fields. It is composed by 12 universities, 62 research centres and 9 technological centres, among others. It also comprises large facilities for the development of research and innovation using first level scientific infrastructures such as a new generation Synchrotron, the National Centre for Genomics Analysis or the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre, amongst others. Catalonia is also a pro-business environment and a dynamic, entrepreneurial and inclusive society. The region’s industrial tradition has an active and significant number of companies collaborating with the knowledge pool, which creates a positive open innovation climate for researchers . Recognising the region significant contribution in research and innovation Nature magazine coined the phrase “Catalan Scientific Power”.
Contact details:
Victoria Miquel
Passeig Lluís Companys, 23, 08010 Barcelona
Telf: 93 310 21 37; E-mail: vmiquel@gencat.cat
Web link:
http://agaur.gencat.cat/en/beques-i-ajuts/convocatories-per-temes/Ajuts-per-a-la-incorporacio-de-personal-investigador-postdoctoral-al-sistema-catala-de-ciencia-i-tecnologia-dins-del-programa-Beatriu-de-Pinos-BP-2017
