EU TalentON Katowice 2024 - European Union Contest for early-career researchers

Project Information

EU TalentON

Grant agreement ID: 101146604

DOI

10.3030/101146604

Project closed

EC signature date 30 November 2023

Start date 1 December 2023

End date 30 November 2024

Funded under

• Reforming and enhancing the European R&I System

Total cost

€ 499 691,50

EU contribution

€ 499 691,50

Coordinated by

UNIWERSYTET SLASKI W KATOWICACH
Poland

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EU TalentON (EU TalentON Katowice 2024 - European Union Contest for early-career researchers)

Reporting period: 2023-12-01 to 2024-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

EU TalentON Katowice 2024 - European Union Contest for early-career researchers (EU TalentON) is the contest for early career researchers. A pilot took place for the first time in Leiden – European Capital of Science 2022. This event will challenge young talented researchers to find solutions contributing to the most pressing global issues. The four-day contest in 2024 will take place in Katowice in Poland. It will be one of the flag events during Katowice - European Capital of Science 2024 proceedings and will bring together more than 100 early career researchers from across EU and feature an extensive programme, co-created with academia, innovators and industry. Divided into small teams, talented early career researchers will receive the necessary tools (such as workshops, lectures, master classes, personal guidance and cultural experiences) to create innovative and marketable solutions to challenges, which are based on EU Missions. At the end of the event, each team will pitch their solution to a professional jury and the public. Winners will receive sponsored prizes. The EU TalentOn, directly contributes to the actions set out in the ERA Policy Agenda. Specifically, the contest helps bring science closer to citizens by inviting them to co-create solutions for our most pressing challenges.

The project's main objective is to organise and implement an event as a competition (with accompanying activities) for young scientists.
The specific objectives of the activity are:
- promotion of the professional development of young scientists - both at the university and outside it (in industry, business and popular science activities) - by organising training, workshops and thematic meetings for participants of the TalentON competition;
- promoting international and interdisciplinary cooperation in research teams - through implementing the competition formula assuming solutions development in young scientists' teams.
The second edition of the competition for young scientists called "TalentOn" will be an event that continues the ideas developed during the first edition in Leiden 2022. At the same time, it will be an original response of the University of Silesia in Katowice to the diagnosed needs of young scientists. The project was developed considering the materials provided by the competition organisers in Leiden and the suggestions and comments of the participants of the competition's first edition.
The planned event will be dedicated to young scientists from all over Europe who, in international and interdisciplinary teams, will have a chance to develop scientific solutions to defined challenges (based on broader policy priorities: the 5 EU Missions, which will become 5 Mission Arenas of the competition). The activity will be a competition; the final (and winning team selection) will take place in Katowice, Poland, in the second half of September 2024. The pool for prizes will be more than 75 thousand euros.
The event is planned as a competition carried out in the following stages:
1. The preparatory activities (preselection):
- announcement, promotion and recruitment of participant applications,
- evaluation of applications and selection (selection of participants),
- teaming up participants into teams to solve competition challenges,
- online workshop activities dedicated to the participants and designed to introduce them to the themes and objectives of the contest.

2. The final of the competition, which will include:
- teamwork on proposals for scientific solutions, challenges,
- workshop, training activities and face-to-face meetings for participants,
- public presentation of the proposals developed by the participants and selection of winners,
- final gala.

3. The evaluation and dissemination activities:
- evaluation of realised competition activities,
- promotion of the results developed by the participants.

The activity has been designed to actively promote and present the process of working out solutions during the competition finale, e.g. by running a TV/online report of the essential parts of the event, which will be available to all interested parties. In addition, an open part of the final event is planned, during which inhabitants of the city, region, and guests - will be able to get acquainted with the developed results of the competition

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

All activities undertaken during the project were aimed at preparing for and running the EU TalentON competition.
1) Activities related to the recruitment of project participants - the development of the competition rules, which included information on the idea of the competition, timeline, application process, information on how the competition will run during the final week, prizes, intellectual property rights and final provisions. A tool was developed on the competition website to allow interested parties to apply for participation. The main achievement of the action was the selection of 108 participants for the final week of the EU TalentON competition from a pool of more than 1,200 applicants.
2) Development of a substantive programme - implementing this activity was the responsibility of the Content Coordinator, who, in cooperation with selected experts, developed the main research topics to be tackled by the competition participants during the stationary event in Katowice. A workshop and mentoring programme was also developed as part of this activity and was available to participants in the competition during the final week.
3) Organisation of a stationary event - 108 participants of the contest attended the event, experts and members of the Jury, representatives of the European Commission, Buddies, journalists, representatives of the University of Silesia in Katowice and other universities which are members of the Academic Consortium – Katowice City of Science. The realisation of such an important event, during which representatives of European institutions came to Katowice, proved to be a significant logistical undertaking. Participants and invitees were guaranteed travel expenses, accommodation, and food and drink according to health requirements or individual preferences. The organisers ensured that participants not only grappled with relevant research problems but also offered relaxation, such as laughter yoga or participation in integration events during which, among other things, the Student Song and Dance Ensemble Katowice performed. Medical care was also provided for the participants. An opening ceremony was organised, after which integration and teamwork activities were provided. We organised a Public Pitches event, during which participants had the opportunity to present their projects to a wide audience. The best team was then awarded the Community Award. The Award Ceremony was held on Friday evening, during which the competition results were announced. After the official ceremony, we invited everyone to attend the final party, which was held at the 'Kingdom' club.
4) Evaluation - once the participants had returned home, we asked them to evaluate the event using an evaluation questionnaire. Analysis of the evaluation questionnaire results indicates that participants were primarily positive about our activities. The evaluations suggest we met the project objectives and provided a valuable experience. We are pleased that our work has been appreciated and, at the same time, take these results as motivation for further improvement.

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)

not applicable