International Fellowship Programme for Talent Attraction to the Campus of International Excellence Campus Iberus

Project Information

IberusExperience

Grant agreement ID: 101034288

DOI

10.3030/101034288

EC signature date 13 March 2021

Start date 1 July 2021

End date 30 June 2027

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 2 427 480,00

EU contribution

€ 1 213 740,00

Coordinated by

CONSORCIO CAMPUS IBERUS
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - IberusExperience (International Fellowship Programme for Talent Attraction to the Campus of International Excellence Campus Iberus)

Reporting period: 2021-07-01 to 2023-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The IberusExperience Postdoctoral Programme for Talent Attraction to the Campus of International Excellence of the Ebro Valley aims at boosting highly skilled human resources and R&I capacity of the four public universities in the consortium of Campus Iberus. The IberusExperience programme’s first goal is to attract 11 talented experienced researchers to develop their research projects at any of the Campus Iberus four universities: University of Zaragoza, Public University of Navarre, University of Lleida and University of La Rioja.

The ultimate goal is to enhance the excellence and international dimension of the research community in the Ebro Valley. Thanks to this MSCA Cofund programme a significant number of outstanding researchers will join the scientific community in the Ebro Valley regions of Campus Iberus, connected by a river, well-known internationally, and now becoming a driving force for science and knowledge in Agrofood and Nutrition, Energy and Sustainability, Social and Territorial Development, Cicular Bio-economy and in Health Technologies.

To definitely make an impact on the society, the programme expects to reach the following specific objectives:
- To attract 11 talented researchers to the Ebro Valley regions that will shape the progress of the R&I ecosystem.
- To build an interconnected, multicultural and international researchers’ community working on interdisciplinary projects of excellence in the strategic areas of knowledge of Campus Iberus.
- To support the career development of the recruited researchers by being trained and exposed to as many collaborators as possible from different sectors and countries.
- To reinforce the international visibility of Campus Iberus as the International Campus of Excellence of the Ebro Valley.
- To challenge and modernise the current institutional structures and services to manage an expanding and long lasting international research community growing at the Universities of Campus Iberus.
- To disseminate science and become active social actors and role models to others to promote a knowledge based society.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

From the beginning of the IberusExperience programme in July 2021, the first 24-month period has been committed to the recruitment of talented researchers to the Ebro Valley. To that end, one calls was launched in November 2021, which were open for 3 months to candidates applying for any of the research lines offered in the fields of Agrofood and Nutrition, Energy and Sustainability, Social and Territorial Development, Cicular Bio-economy, and Health Technologies.

In order to increase the applicant’s choices, candidates were given the opportunity to apply for multiple available research groups and to participate in more than one selection process (up to 3).
In total numbers, 115 eligible applications were received by applicants coming from 34 different countries worldwide. The selection process involved 74 experts, some from renowned international organisations across the world. Eventually, the selected candidates come from 9 different nationalities and are in perfect gender balance. All in all, the recruitment of these researchers has made a substantial impact on the international community of the Campus Iberus universities.

Work in progress is on different activities contributing to enhance the researcher’s career opportunities and their impact on the scientific community and the overall society.
Researchers recruited in the first call are in the first months of their projects.

ERs are being trained in both research and transferable skills and have either an industrial mentor or a working collaboration with non-academic R&I actors to ensure a relevant exposure to other sectors.

Most are part of the Campus Iberus Research Clusters, which are interdisciplinary teams of researchers from the four universities interconnected with regional R&I drivers to work collaboratively on strategic areas. Secondments and short stays are planned to be carried out at the facilities of key regional collaborators in the Ebro Valley and/or at the national or international level.

Scientific outputs are being increased as the programme runs in time. Most researchers have already took part in national and international conferences, workshops or gatherings. Additionally, some have participated in outreach events to communicate their projects to the society.

Furthermore, the programme’s website www.iberusexperience.com has been redesigned to show their public profiles, including biosketches connected to their professional networks, and their research projects and results in brief.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The IberusExperience Programme implies the international recruitment of 11 talented researchers to progress research on the strategic areas for Campus Iberus and the R&I ecosystem of the Ebro Valley regions: Agrofood and Nutrition, Energy and Sustainability, Social and Territorial Development, Cicular Bio-economy, and Health Technologies. Research and Innovation on these areas is in line with the RIS3 economic development priorities of the four regions involved: Aragon, Navarre, Lleida (Catalonia) and La Rioja.

The IberusExperience Programme is based on the scientific and technological capabilities of the four public universities located in those regions, which are aggregated under the consortium of Campus Iberus to make the best use of their research resources. The programme has an undeniable impact on building highly skilled professionals, which will deliver outstanding results to progress the state of the art in the specific research fields of the programme. The interdisciplinary and intersectorial approach to research is supported by a wide network of collaborators: international universities, research centers and other non-academic R&I drivers (spin-offs, start-ups, industry, research centres, hospitals...). They bring expertise in different angles to research and offer career enhancing opportunities, such as hosting the researchers for secondments, short stays and trainings.

All in all, the IberusExperience Programme guarantees an attractive ecosystem for the incoming researchers and their exposure to other relevant actors beyond academia, including the society at large. Nurturing this knowledge-based ecosystem is the key for the sustainable economic growth of the modern societies.

Additionally, and increasingly, the perception of science and the expectation from citizens is that it should be the producer of truths. That is considered to be the most important socio-economic impact of the programme. IberusExperience researchers will develop research and transferable skills and ethical principles to become truthful scientists as well as responsible involved citizens. They will exercise the open access publication and production of unbiased scientific results following international methods and standards. But also researchers will be encouraged to exploit their creativity to transform knowledge into products and solutions or to disseminate and communicate them broadly.

Iberus Experience