Final Report Summary - GROWTH (GROWTH)
Vinnova’s Mobility for Growth programme is implemented by partnerships of universities, research institutions, research infrastructures, businesses, SMEs and other socio-economic actors from different countries across Europe and beyond. Individual institutions which can provide the same enriching environment is also supported. The programme duration is from 2012 to June 2018 and there is an overall budget of EUR 35 million, of which EUR 10 million is co-funding from Marie Curie Actions (European Commission). The overall objective for the programme is to support career development for individuals through mobility. The programme has a funding mechanism for incoming and outgoing transnational mobility for experienced researchers (including
a reintegration phase for outgoing mobility), and it promotes active international collaborations between milieus.
Overall objectives of the programme:
• Intersectoral mobility – Promoting mobility between the private and public sectors.
• Transnational mobility – Promoting researcher mobility and developing attractive careers.
• Qualified future leaders in R&I - Advancing training and skills demand by enhanced human resource management in highly competitive environments.
• Equal opportunities – Advocating and promoting a better work/life and gender balance through flexible working arrangements under full employment contracts.
• Supporting mobility as a merit – A mobile career should be a strong future merit in all sectors conducting R&I.
The programme Mobility for Growth will address the increased demand of highly skilled workforce, but not only the quantity of highly qualified researchers but also the quality of their skills and their relevance to the private sector. The programme is expected to result in the presence of significantly more research-qualified individuals who can become future leaders in public and private R&I organisations.
The Mobility for Growth programme targets experienced researchers who have a doctorate or at least four years’ full-time equivalent research experience and who are interested in mobility as a career development option. Actions will be open to training and career development activities within all research and innovation domains. The programme will also promote gender equality, as noted in Vinnova's mission statement. This means the programme is open to applications from all researchers, but that the underrepresented gender may be given strategic preference in areas where there is great need to equalise gender imbalances.
The same applies in regard to the EU working life rules, which state that it is permissible to use positive action to achieve equality impacts for an underrepresented gender in the case of active recruitment. According to its official mandate, Vinnova is to promote gender equality within its fields of operation.
GROWTH has also strongly emphasized the commitment of the host milieu to engage in the recruitment of the individual researcher. Therefore, the host milieu has to commit them self financially to support part of the salary. All international actions are expected to run for three years. However, shorter actions are also common in the end of the programme due to budget limitations. Specific three months Fellowships
are offered to outgoing industrial Fellows in order to adopt the scheme even more to industrial needs and prerequisites.
The main features of GROWTH are its three different actions:
1. VINNMER Marie Curie Incoming
2. VINNMER Marie Curie Industry Outgoing
3. VINNMER Marie Curie Academy Outgoing
There are also Pre-application grants, Tutoring support for PhD's at distance, Follow-up of the career plan together with the applicant R&I milieu, networking activities for all participants under GROWTH.
GROWTH has performed eight calls resulting in 106 funding decisions for Fellowships (40% female) during the five years project time. 42% of the Fellowships are involved in private sector or research institutes during the implementation of GROWTH with 26 different nationalities represented.
The last call was closed September 13, 2016. In total we have received 231 applications (31% female).
https://www.vinnova.se/en/m/mobility-for-growth/
Contact:
Erik Litborn, Programme Director
Vinnova
Phone +46 8 473 3198
Email: erik.litborn@vinnova.se