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Future ORiEnted Skills, Innovation for Governance for Health, Technology, EneRgy, citieS and creativity

Project description

Futures thinking and skills training to address societal challenges

The complexity and uncertainty associated with long-term societal challenges demands new ways of anticipating, conceptualising and managing the future. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the FORESIGHTERS project aims to train 20 early-stage researchers (ESRs) who will work with a range of non-academic partners to develop doctoral research projects under themes of health, technology, energy, future cities and creativity. They will be supported by an innovative training programme to nurture core skills in foresight, systems thinking and futures literacy, and nurtured to develop advanced capabilities for inter-disciplinary research and sustainable research practice. The project aims to develop a cohort of highly skilled ESRs that are exceptionally placed to be future leaders in research and a range of other sectors.

Objective

The increasingly complex, unpredictable and volatile nature of major social challenge highlight the need for new ways of anticipating, conceptualizing and managing the future. This applies to every economic sector, field of public policy, academic discipline and area of human endeavour. This also calls for new approaches to knowledge generation that require new skills and more integrated, inter-disciplinary methods for problem solving. The proposed FORESIGHTERS programme of internationally-leading research and training at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) will confront such challenges by building on the University’s strong record of inter-disciplinary research, culture of recognizing diversity and institutional commitment to sustainability. FORESIGHTERS will recruit 20 international Early-Stage Researchers (ESRs) on 42-month contracts to work collaboratively with a wide range on non-academic partners to address a wide range of pressing social, environmental, cultural and economic challenges. Working across research themes of Health, Technology, Energy, Future Cities, and Creativity, the ESRs will be provided with an innovative training programme which will nurture skills for (a) understanding the future (including foresight, systems thinking, citizen engagement, innovation management, among others), (b) practices of sustainable research, (c) respecting equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) and (d) high level research capabilities. Working with inter-disciplinary supervisory teams on research projects co-designed with inter-sectoral research partners and with opportunities for research-related secondment, FORESIGHTERS will deliver high impact research and ESRs well placed to become future research leaders. Through its adoption of innovative approaches to research training, knowledge exchange and embedding of sustainability and EDI in recruitment and training processes, it will also improve future institutional performance.

Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-Cofund-D - HORIZON TMA MSCA Cofund Doctoral programme

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-COFUND-01

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Coordinator

THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 2 772 000,00
Address
UNIVERSITY ROAD LANYON BUILDING
BT7 1NN BELFAST
United Kingdom

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Region
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland Belfast
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

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Partners (23)

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