The SEED programme launched two application rounds to recruit doctoral candidates. Each qualified application was reviewed by multiple independent experts through a two-stage evaluation process. All evaluation activities were conducted remotely. In total, 10 out of 13 doctoral positions were successfully filled.
To ensure transparency, fairness, and compliance with the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers, particular attention was paid to quality assurance throughout the evaluation and selection process. In practice, each application was independently assessed by multiple experts to ensure transparency and objectivity. In both calls, the evaluation followed the same structured and balanced approach.
After having all doctoral candidates on board, we organised the kick-off meeting. The kick-off meeting was held in hybrid mode. The SEED programme was introduced during the meeting by the scientific manager. Then, doctoral researchers and their supervisors were introduced, and the supervisory board was formed. This provided a good networking opportunity for everyone to become familiar with each other, their research fields, and topics, which could enhance future collaboration among the research team. Additionally, essential initial information and guidelines regarding the programme and next steps were shared. After the kick-off meeting, the first SEED scholar event and training school on Ethics was organized. All in all, the kick-off event and the first SEED scholar event enhanced shared understanding of the programme’s goals and expectations, and provided an opportunity for early networking and collaboration among all doctoral candidates and supervisors.
All doctoral candidates of SEED have developed a personal career development plan (PCDP) to provide an overview of both short-term and long-term professional and personal objectives, along with the strategies to achieve them. It outlines the skills and knowledge they consider necessary to reach these goals — including research techniques, technical expertise, management abilities, dissemination and communication skills, networking, and other relevant competencies. Additionally, it specifies the means and tools for acquiring these skills, such as training, research activities, and dissemination efforts, while identifying key milestones and outputs (e.g. research results and publications) to monitor their progress and demonstrate impact.
Regarding the doctoral courses, most of the DCs have completed the majority of their credits. As the project progresses and DCs advance their research and projects, some results are gradually becoming ready; therefore, some DCs have already developed publications that have been accepted or published. Additionally, other papers are in progress.
The aim is that each DC will have two secondment periods in their project, 10-12 months in academic partner organization and 4-6 months in non-academic partner organization. The academic and industry secondments offer a very unique training platform for the DCs. The secondments are considered as an important part of the training by research, offering experience on interdisciplinary and intersectoral environments. Many of the academic and company secondments are now in progress.
