Talent and Extended Mobility in the European Innovation Union

Project Information

TANDEM

Grant agreement ID: 324285

Closed project

Start date 1 October 2012

End date 30 September 2014

Funded under

• Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Total cost € 337 591,78

EU contribution € 278 628,00

Coordinated by

EIDGENOESSISCHE TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE ZUERICH
Switzerland

Final Report Summary - TANDEM (Talent and Extended Mobility in the European Innovation Union)

Executive Summary:
From Talent Scouting To Real Talents Support
The TANDEM project aimed at understanding current trends and best practices associated with issues related to Dual Career and Integration Services (DCIS) offered to mobile researchers and using and proving this knowledge in the development of new ways to optimize the support for mobile researchers throughout Europe thus facilitating the implementation of the Innovations Union’s commitment and supporting the EU in its efforts to become a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy.
The main objective of the TANDEM project consist in analyzing the mobility obstacles of researchers and their respective partners and family members and in showing various strategic institutional ways of minimizing them. With a tandem of activities between the Dual Career Advise and Integration Services (ETH Zurich, Faculty Office and University of Copenhagen, IMS) and the Euraxess Service Centers (in Bratislava, Tartu, Thessaloniki and Zurich) we pooled the experiences of supporting researchers talents and their families. The talents support is absolutely crucial for postdoctoral researchers. It provides a powerful instrument for keeping women researchers in their academic careers. The project will pool the activities of DCIS and the Euraxess Network and thus multiply their efforts.
The more specific objectives included
- an analysis of the current DCIS and how they can be adapted to the researchers on their different career steps and thus their varying needs,
- a creation of a modular system adaptable to different institutions and their characteristics,
- a focus on member states with a trend to brain drain with a study of how DCIS could strengthen a brain circulation.
Because
• it is one thing to recruit the best brains but another to integrate them and to make them stay and contribute.
• the attractiveness of an organization is no longer defined just by an excellent research environment, but by additional practical integration factors and most of all career prospects of all partners.
In work package 1, the modularisation of Dual Career and Integration Initiatives DCIS, we analysed the obstacles that mobile, international researchers face focusing also on the partner's and family's Integration. The analysis was very fruitful and concluded From Talent Scouting To Real Talents Support
The TANDEM project aimed at understanding current trends and best practices associated with issues related to Dual Career and Integration Services (DCIS) offered to mobile researchers and using and proving this knowledge in the development of new ways to optimize the support for mobile researchers throughout Europe thus facilitating the implementation of the Innovations Union’s commitment and supporting the EU in its efforts to become a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy.
The main objective of the TANDEM project consist in analyzing the mobility obstacles of researchers and their respective partners and family members and in showing various strategic institutional ways of minimizing them. With a tandem of activities between the Dual Career Advise and Integration Services (ETH Zurich, Faculty Office and University of Copenhagen, IMS) and the Euraxess Service Centers (in Bratislava, Tartu, Thessaloniki and Zurich) we pooled the experiences of supporting researchers talents and their families. The talents support is absolutely crucial for postdoctoral researchers. It provides a powerful instrument for keeping women researchers in their academic careers. The project combined activities of DCIS and the Euraxess Network and thus was able to multiply efforts.
The output is:
- an analysis of the current DCIS and how they can be adapted to the researchers on their different career steps and thus their varying needs,
- a creation of a modular system adaptable to different institutions and their characteristics,
- a focus on member states with a trend to brain drain with a study of how DCIS could strengthen a brain circulation.

Because
it is one thing to recruit the best brains but another to integrate them and to make them stay and contribute.
the attractiveness of an organization is no longer defined just by an excellent research environment, but by additional practical integration factors and most of all career prospects of all partners.
Results are all made available on www.euraxess-tandem.eu

Overview of activities:
In work package 1 - “the modularisation of Dual Career and Integration Initiatives DCIS”- we analysed the obstacles that mobile, international researchers face focusing also on the partner's and family's Integration. The analysis was very fruitful and concluded in a summary in national reports that are published on www.euraxess-tandem.eu.

Additionally in work package 1, we drafted our modules (which service helps the Researcher and Partner/Family in which setting), defined them and wrote recommendations (D1.3)
In Work package 2, the national mobility trends per Country were analyzed and brought to a synthesis. Understanding these trends are crucial for the understanding of the services needed.
In work package 3, we organized the seminars, the twinnings and the working meetings in Zurich, Thessaloniki and Bratislava. They were all successfully organized and brought us to the reports and conclusions. Project management, coordination and supervision - the last work package 4 – went smoothly and the consortium worked together very well. Communication and dissemination is organized and secured via www.euraxess-tandem.eu


Project activities:
WP 1 activities

Experience shows that young researchers choose countries and institutions, which offer a smooth transition with the least friction loss and a longer-term perspective for both their career and their private life. Thus, institutions need not only to offer an excellent and intellectually stimulating research experience and environment but also need to address the social and cultural context and situation of the individual researcher. Despite social and cultural changes over the last decades, it is still mainly female researchers who face a dilemma building their career and being mobile while considering when and if they have children. Hence, there is a strong need to integrate high quality services with a wide range of co- as well as extra-curricular opportunities such as dual career services, child care options and recognitions of schooling approaches across countries if a country or an institution wishes to be attractive for the best researchers.
As mobility always requires an adaptation period to cope with culture shock, integration and orientation issues, dual career and integration services (DCIS) are one means to allow researchers to successfully continue their work despite the geo-graphical move, as those services take care not only of the mobility obstacles but also help establish a satisfying work life balance. Therefore, the specific objectives of the present project include 1) an analysis of the current DCIS and how they can be adapted to the different career steps and therefore to the varying needs of the re-searchers, 2) a creation of a modular system adaptable to different institutions and their characteristics, and 3) a focus on the countries in the Tandem-research consortium (namely the above mentioned Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Slovakia and Switzer-land) with a trend to brain drain by studying how DCIS could influence positively and support brain circulation.
In a very first step, under the guidance of ETH Zurich, a survey was conducted in the five participating countries (DK, EE, GR, SV and CH), and additionally in the following European countries: Austria, Germany, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The reason for the latter selection was that Denmark maintains good relations (with a relatively high number of researchers moving right across the border for career purposes) to the Northern countries and Switzerland maintains good relations to its neighboring countries Austria and Germany also due to language reasons. We therefore reached a higher response rate and a broader picture with little effort.
Although the introduction of DCIS is an answer to the changing situation that requires from the researchers to be mobile, there is not much data about the obstacles and needs of mobile researchers (and their partners & families). The analysis of this situation within the individual countries and the comparison between them should show in which countries and of which institutions DCIS are offered and/or how DCIS ideally should be designed so that the needs of mobile researchers are adequately met. Furthermore, we wanted to learn from the people concerned, which DCI initiative they consider to be the most important and which measure in their eyes would be most efficient and be the most needed and best accepted.

Methods
Initially, information was collected about the current state of DCIS, mainly in Switzerland and Germany, as both are regarded as highly advanced concerning DCIS. Based on this material, an interview guideline was created and semi-structured inter-views were conducted with several people from various backgrounds mainly in Switzerland but also in Germany and the UK (N = 11). The people asked represented the most important target groups and key players such as service providers from the university and the private industry, postdoctoral researchers, and people on an assistant as well as full professor level as well as their spouse/partner (where applicable). The aim of the qualitative interviews was to gather material for the subsequent surveys.
Based on the interview material, a first survey draft was presented at the kick-off meeting of the TANDEM project in Zurich in October 2012. The aim was to have feedback from the very diverse member countries in order to adapt the survey in a way that each country is satisfied with the result. After the meeting, the member countries performed their own interviews in order to get a clearer picture about the situation of their own country. A final version of the survey including all the feedback of the member countries was developed. However, each country still had the possibility to add individual questions to their own country version to allow for specific national aspects and questions to be included.
Each country used its own distribution systems to reach as many researchers as possible who would fill in the survey and would likely send it further to their partner if applicable. The survey was programmed using an online tool (QuestBack Unipark), so it was not only more convenient to distribute the survey by using e-mail with a direct link that would guide people to the respective page, but also easier for the data collection, as no further equipment was needed to read in the data. A disadvantage of the used method was that we would never know how many people have been reached in the end, as most of the partner countries had to ask their colleagues from other universities to distribute the survey within their institution. Thus, we will never be sure whether the survey reached all researchers at all universities within a country. This has to be taken into consideration when looking at and interpreting the data, as the sample might not be as random as one might have wished it would be. However, the error should be non-systematic, thus, we expect the results to be representative.
In order to have a common ground for all people within all countries answering and working with the survey, we defined the most important terms at the very beginning of the survey. The definitions were as follows:

Dual Career Couple
A couple where both partners pursue a career and aim to have a gainful employ-ment. They may work either in academia or outside.

Integration Initiatives
Integration initiatives are related to the questions after an international move which are relevant for the well-being and settling of the new hires and their families in the new place.

Mobility
Mobility relates to geographical and intersectoral mobility, not to social mobility.

In addition to the survey for the researchers and their partners, a survey for the service providers was developed and distributed in the member countries. Unfortunately, we did not reach enough service providers within each country and thus, data analysis could not be based on a big enough sample to be able to make any general statements. The aim of the provider survey was to also get an idea of the offers with-in the private industry apart from the universities and research institutions, as dual career services would be definitely useful to extend to the private industry, since a dual career couple in our definition does not exclusively consist of two scientists or researchers working in academia or a research institution. Furthermore, we also wanted to find out to what extend employers currently are responsive to dual career and integration aspects and how far they go in their support of their new hires. We wanted to find out if service providers in the private sector offer more generous DCI packages than universities.

Results
In total, more than 3000 researchers and their partners mainly from Europe but also from other continents have answered the survey. Through the Euraxess network, we could also gather enough data for analysing the situations in the following countries next to our ten target countries: France, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom and United States. Although Italy did slightly not reach a large enough sample size, we still included the results in the attachment, as Italy is an important partner country for many of the other investigated countries. Thus, the present results provide a very deep and broad insight into the opportunities and challenges of today’s highly mobile re-searchers.
In the following, when speaking about researchers, we mean researchers and their partners if not indicated differently. The majority of the samples consist of doctoral and postdoctoral researchers, which were also the target audience, most of which are first hires and not second hires. When speaking about countries, not specifically mentioning which, it refers to a general statement that is true for all countries that had the minimum amount of people to make a statement. Thus, we only state results about the countries that have enough participants within a single calculation. Which countries those are for each single calculation can be withdrawn from the attachment
The attachment includes results of three of the open questions, given as pie charts, that have been categorised based on a qualitative analysis of the data. For the interpretation of the results of the open questions It is important to know that only the first obstacle, challenge or positive aspect, respectively, have been categorised.
In the attachment, the results are always given for five countries as a comparison. The first reason is that initially, only the results for the member countries were calculated (DK, EE, GR, SV and CH) for the second meeting in June 2013 in Thessaloniki. Then, the results for the five additional countries that had a separate country link were calculated (AT, FI, DE, NO and SE). And last, we analysed data for the following countries: FR, ES, IT, UK and US. Those were the ones that had enough participants to make general statements, mainly gathered through the Euraxess-network link. However, the results for the US are not incorporated in the present paper, as this is a purely European perception. Another reason why we did not com-bine the results for all countries into one document is that it would have become too confusing for the reader.
The majority of the researchers are on a doctoral and postdoctoral level, and most have lived in two to three countries since they started their higher education (e.g. Bachelor studies), except for AT, SE, ES, and SV. In those countries also many researchers have never been mobile since they started their higher education.
Those researchers in CH that have indicated to have never been mobile since starting with their higher education said to 50% that they like to live in CH. Additionally, a third each indicated that they find it difficult to match mobility with their private life and their partner’s career plan. A similar result can be found for SE where also 52% indicated that they simply like to live in their country, 41% stated that they find it difficult to match it with their partner’s career plan, and 39% stated that they never saw the necessity to go abroad.
In most countries except FR at least 40% up to 60% moved with a partner. About 30% in most countries have children (ES: 45%), except for FR and FI where this number is much lower (9% and 18%, respectively).
Most of the researchers in all countries have a European nationality and a Master degree from Europe. It is DK and FI that have more non-European research-ers compared to the other countries, even though 63% and 62%, respectively, still are Europeans. However, only about 60% have previously lived in another European country. This number is even lower for Sweden (47%). Those who did not move from a European country have mostly moved from the United States.
Researchers in all countries indicated that being mobile highly affects their private life plan. Researchers also clearly indicated that they went abroad because it was important for their career and not due to the fact that there were no opportunities in their own country. Researchers also indicated that they are not strongly pro-fessionally connected to their home country. For all countries researchers indicated that their professional integration is better than their private integration, except for ES where this number is about equal. However, there is much room for improvement for both aspects in all countries.

When researchers were asked as an open question what the biggest obstacles were within the first three months after arriving in their current country, for most countries it is language and culture they struggle most with. In NO and SE it is also administrative/bureaucratic issues that are stated as a big obstacle. In the UK it is clearly administrative/bureaucratic issues that are the biggest obstacle, which might be explained by UK being an English-speaking country thus not adding the language barrier to the complex transition phase of the international hires. When asked to state the most challenging aspects about mobility in general, researchers clearly indicate social aspects as the most challenging. This means that it is difficult to establish new friendships, but it is also difficult to maintain old friendships. Moreover, researchers miss their family and friends, also as a support network. Asked what the most positive aspects of mobility are in general, researchers rather gave a diverse picture whereby the possibility to have new experiences, the chance to discover new cultures, one’s personal and social enrichment, and occupational advantages were stated about equally. Still, when asked to weigh the positive and negative aspects about mobility against each other, researchers rated mobility as rather more positive than negative in general.

Project Context and Objectives:
The TANDEM project aimed at understanding current trends and best practices associated with issues related to Dual Career and Integration Services (DCIS) offered to mobile researchers and using and proving this knowledge in the development of new ways to optimize the support for mobile researchers throughout Europe thus facilitating the implementation of the Innovations Union’s commitment and supporting the EU in its efforts to become a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy.
The main objective of the TANDEM project consist in analyzing the mobility obstacles of researchers and their respective partners and family members and in showing various strategic institutional ways of minimizing them. With a tandem of activities between the Dual Career Advise and Integration Services (ETH Zurich, Faculty Office and University of Copenhagen, IMS) and the Euraxess Service Centers (in Bratislava, Tartu, Thessaloniki and Zurich) we pooled the experiences of supporting researchers talents and their families. The talents support is absolutely crucial for postdoctoral researchers. It provides a powerful instrument for keeping women researchers in their academic careers. The project will pool the activities of DCIS and the Euraxess Network and thus multiply their efforts.
The more specific objectives included
- an analysis of the current DCIS and how they can be adapted to the researchers on their different career steps and thus their varying needs,
- a creation of a modular system adaptable to different institutions and their characteristics,
- a focus on member states with a trend to brain drain with a study of how DCIS could strengthen a brain circulation.
Because
• it is one thing to recruit the best brains but another to integrate them and to make them stay and contribute.
• the attractiveness of an organization is no longer defined just by an excellent research environment, but by additional practical integration factors and most of all career prospects of all partners.
In work package 1, the modularisation of Dual Career and Integration Initiatives DCIS, we analysed the obstacles that mobile, international researchers face focusing also on the partner's and family's Integration. The analysis was very fruitful and concluded in a summary in national reports that are published on www.euraxess-tandem.eu
Additionally in work package 1, we drafted our modules (which service helps the Researcher and Partner/Family in which setting), definded them and wrote recommendations (D1.3)
In Work package 2, the national mobility trends per Country were analyzed and brought to a synthesis. Understanding these trends is crucial for the understanding of the services needed.
In Work Package 3, we organized the seminars, the twinnings and the working meetings in Zurich, Thessaloniki and Bratislava. They were all successfully organised and brought us to the reports and conclusions. Project management, coordination and supervision - the last work package 4 – went smoothly.

Project Results:
Within four Work packages, we achieved interesting, valuable results:

WP1 Modularisation of Dual Career and Integration Initiatives (DCIS)
In WP1, we learned more about the concrete mobility obstacles by way of a survey (tasks 1.1 and 1.2) analysed the answers and developed a modular system with Dual Career and Integration measures which helped to overcome or minimize these obstacles. In order to adapt the modular system to the existing environment, we carry out a SWOT-analysis (task 1.3). This will then allow to define the individual modules of Dual Career and Integration measures (task 1.4) and finally to formulate recommendations (task 1.5) on why and how, by whom, to whom and under which boundary conditions these individual modules should be applied so that they are most effective and sustainable.
2.1 Analysis of DCIS with a newly created template (task 1.1)
In a very first step, under the guidance of ETH Zurich, a survey was conducted in the five participating countries (DK, EE, GR, SV and CH), and additionally in the following European countries: Austria, Germany, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The reason for the latter selection was that Denmark and Switzerland which both have a relatively high number of foreign researchers in the country, have strong mobility-related ties with neighbouring countries which are within the same cultural cluster. We thus reached a higher response rate and a broader picture with little additional effort.

Based on material collected over the internet about existing dual career and integration offices and relevant literature about dual career aspects, mobility and integration, an interview template was created and semi-structured interviews were conducted with several people from various backgrounds mainly in Switzerland but also in Germany and the UK (N = 11). The people asked represented the most important target groups and key players such as service providers from the university and the private industry, postdoctoral researchers, and people on an assistant as well as full professor level and their spouse/partner (where applicable). The aim of the qualitative interviews was to gather material for the subsequent surveys and were carried out during the first few months of the project, i.e. mainly in October/November 2012.

2.2 Mapping of institutional conditions in countries not having integrated DCIS services (task 1.2)
Based on the interview material, a first survey draft was presented at the kick-off meeting of the TANDEM project in Zurich in October 2012. The aim was to have feedback from the very diverse member countries in order to adapt the survey in a way applicable in all countries. After the meeting, the member countries performed their own interviews based on the created template in order to get a clearer picture about the situation of their own country. A final version of the survey including all the feedback of the member countries was developed. However, each country still had the possibility to add individual questions to their own country version to allow for specific national aspects and questions to be included.

The development of the final survey took longer than expected and was only finished in February 2013 when it was sent out to researchers. The delay is mainly explained by the holiday season and the complexity of the survey structure. We decided to invest enough time to develop the survey in order to be sure to gain results which can be analysed without ambiguities and to include all the various combinations with first and second hires both as a science couple and couple were only one partner pursues a scientific career, spouses/partners with the intention of finding work outside of academia, spouses/partners focusing on family duties, mobile researchers without partners and also including gender aspects and younger vs. more advanced researchers. We decided that we can better handle a delay in the project work than gaining results which are not satisfying. The outcome shows that this was a good decision.
In February/March 2013, we sent out the link to the online survey and each country used its own distribution systems to reach as many researchers as possible who would fill in the survey and would send it further to their partner if applicable. The survey was programmed using an online tool (QuestBack Unipark), which allowed easy distribution and analysis of the results. A disadvantage of the used method was that we would never know how many people have been reached in the end, as most of the partner countries had to ask their colleagues from other universities to distribute the survey within their institution. Thus, we will never be sure whether the survey reached all researchers at all universities within a country. This has to be taken into consideration when looking at and interpreting the data, as the sample might not be as random as one might have wished it would be. However, the error should be non-systematic, thus, we declare the results to be representative. In total, more than 3000 researchers and their partners mainly from Europe but also from other continents have answered the survey. Through wide-stretching networks like the Euraxess network, we could also gather enough data for analysing the situation in France, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom and United States which were not specifically targeted.


2.3 Evaluation of the results of the analysis and their efficiency in a given setting and for a specific career step (SWOT analysis) (task 1.3)
During the second twinning activity in Thessaloniki in June 2013, we presented the results of the survey and – bearing in mind the national boundary conditions and special conditions in which each country finds itself, we asked all the participating partners to develop a SWOT analysis. This was very helpful for the development of the modular system as it set the ground for what is needed (based on the survey), what is possible, can be done and needs to be done (based on the SWOT). The well-structured survey into which we invested a lot of time now showed its merits as the results can be very well calculated and interpreted.

2.4 Definition of the basic modules of DCIS (task 1.4)
Still in Thessaloniki in June, we developed a first version of the modular system. Then, we not only gave names to the individual module but we also developed a system which characterises the module. The characteristics of the module are very important an relevant as they are key to the recommendations.

2.5 Recommendation on which module works best in which setting
After the twinning exercise in June, we further developed the modules and their characteristics so that the national modules of each partner country could be presented as an applied example during the second twinning exercise in Bratislava in November 2013. During the summer months, we also formulated the recommendations. At the workshop in November, we decided to give these recommendations the form of package insert which contains all the relevant information on how to use the module, by whom it is best offered and to whom, at what time in the transition phase of the mobile researchers it should be offered, how much resources are needed to implement and run the modules (both in money, people power, time) and what needs to be considered when it is applied.

1. Summary
All tasks are successfully completed and the results are very positive and valuable. This is also due to the very active and thorough participation of all members of the consortium.

WP2: An alternative DCIS strategy: Brain Circulation: Turning temporary brain drain into long term brain gain.

WP2 activities throughout the first reporting period focused on providing the contextual frameworks for the national modular systems and understanding the brain circulation and migration movements in the project countries and the effect these movements have on national hiring and employment efforts and general framework. This framework was summarised in the Review on research mobility patterns and their determining factors in TANDEM project countries that was finalised at the beginning of the second reporting period.
Activities carried out within the WP2 during the second half of the project, used this framework to adapt general modular system developed in WP1 to the specific needs of countries that cannot (or simply do not want to) rely on their high attractiveness for international researchers only and want to use Dual Careers and Integration Services (DCIS) to attract their own researchers back. In order to initiate the discussion about how to achieve this, short brainstorming workshop was carried out during the project meeting held in November 2013 in Bratislava. Workshop enabled project partners to discuss questions such as whether this strategy would be necessary and useful in their contexts, what should be possible components of the strategy but also who are the stakeholders which should be involved in its delivery and what is the place of national EURAXESS network in it. Ideas and conclusions generated during the brainstorming session were used to draft initial outline of the alternative approach of DCIS use.
Throughout the following months SAIA used this initial outline to select the set of the DCIS modules from the general modular structure, complemented it by additional sub-modules and combined into the comprehensive alternative DCIS strategy. Strategy provides set of modules focusing on both increasing institutional (but also regional and national) ability to attract the researchers back and developing assistance services supporting their reintegration. Strong emphasis is on the development of local networks and collaborations which seem to be crucial for the success of the strategy. In order to make this strategy easier to adapt in various national and institutional contexts minimum standard of the services provision that should allow also the institutions with very limited resources to adopt majority of the modules was defined for each measure. And as the alternative strategy primarily targets the institutions with little experience in the provision of DCIS services, practical examples of good practices were collected (via desktop research) for each of the modules and included in the strategy. In order to promote alternative strategy and DCIS as an effective tool for encouraging the brain circulation short policy paper was drafted presenting the main arguments for why DCIS can be an effective tool for encouraging the brain circulation.
While policy paper was focusing on the promotion of DCIS modular system towards local and institutional decision makers, national brochures targeted the broader audience. Their main aim was to introduce the basic principles of how do the TANDEM modules work and how they could be used in a daily work of those working with international or returning researchers. Using the common graphic and content template drafted by ETH and UCPH, each project partner prepared the country specific brochure including the information on the key issues that should be addressed in their country (based on the survey and data reviews) and country specific recommendations for how to do this with the use of DCIS modules. All brochures are available in English language; brochures in national languages were prepared in Greece, Estonia and Slovakia. Brochures were distributed to the various groups of stakeholders during the national seminars held in every project country. They are also available at the project web page for a download. http://www.euraxess-tandem.eu/publications/
Besides promoting the DCIS modules and their alternative use for encouraging the brain circulation to the external stakeholders, pilot implementation of DCIS strategy at the project institutions was also an important part of WP2. This activity was planned within the last six months of the project duration. However, as it showed up, all institutions involved in the project started to evaluate, rethink, update and extend their DCIS services even earlier – mostly as soon as the very first draft of the modular structure was still under development. Modules (and process of their creation) helped them to improve existing and plan new services, to mobilise and better use their own resources and to develop collaborations with partners within and outside their institutions. These were some of the main conclusions of the pilot implementation report that was compiled by SAIA at the end of the project. Report was based on the answers provided via standardised evaluation templates filled in by all project partners. Report summarises the modules implementation in each of the project countries and presents the data in graphic form enabling the comparison between the countries. The results show that implementation process differed considerably across countries and was strongly influenced by existing capacities and limits in each of the project countries. At the same time it shows that modular approach enabling each institution to create its own mix of services respecting those limits proved to be a successful approach and modular system developed within the TANDEM project is an effective tool applicable both within the EURAXESS network and outside it.


WP3 Twinning, Promoting and Disseminating Integration Services

Work package 3 included twinning exercises and meetings, the promotion and dissemination of Dual Career and Integration Services – internal and external promotion and dissemination. In order to promote the results and insights of the project, the consortium partners with the support of stakeholders and external experts help to raise the attention of interested academic and research institutions in Europe and beyond. Twinning exercises and meetings within the consortium facilitate the exchange of knowledge and of successful practices, of known theoretical insights and share the final results with a broader public and relevant stakeholders.

TASK 3.1: Kick-off and first working meeting on topics relevant to WP1 issues

We had a very productive kick-off and first working meeting on 29 and 30th of October 2012 (minutes the meeting D4.1). We discussed and brainstormed on issues relevant to the creation of the successful practices template (T1.1) and the definition of the DCIS modules (T1.4). During the exchange and discussions, the partners shared successful practices and more generally speaking, their experience on working with mobile researchers so as to contribute to the creation of the template and the definition of the basic DCIS modules. Specific topics will be selected for the partners to discuss (information about services offered to mobile researchers, participation in relevant networks, national legal framework relevant to employment, researchers status etc.) so as to collect information and give feedback to the tasks of WP1.

Task 3.2 Twinning exercise in Thessaloniki to present the modular system and discuss its strengths in different contexts and for different target groups
One major result of the overall project will be the creation of the modular DCIS system. In this second workshop, the participants explored the modular system and evaluated the module for applying it in different settings and, thus, formulated recommendations which are at the same time as specific in a certain context and for a certain target group and as broad and adaptable as possible.

Task 3.3 Twinning exercise in Bratislava to discuss the impact that the modular DCIS system has on brain circulation
This workshop was held in Bratislava in order to discuss how DCIS may impact brain circulation, which is a major and recurring theme for the whole ERA, and how they are used to motivate researchers to return. The workshop was dedicated to deepen the discussion. The already existing EURAXESS-Network will present an excellent platform for the new European DCIS Network as it allows to expand on existing contacts, structures and an already well-established and recognised vehicle. This workshop was opened to an external audience, such as university representatives/officials, so as to promote the results and the use of the modular DCIS idea with organisations outside the consortium.


T 3.4 National seminars promoting the Dual Career and Integration Services approach and disseminate first project results
The results from the analysis, the set-up of the modular system and the twinning exercises will be promoted and disseminated within the national EURAXESS and Dual Career and Integrations Services network. In this task, we will therefore test the prototype we developed in the consortium. The national events took place between M20 and M24.


On June 5-6 2014, the international conference in Zurich was organized together with the celebration of the 15 years anniversary of the ETH Dual Career Advice Office, the first of its kind in Europe on June 5th and 6th 2013. This mix of meetings, workshops and public conferences – of theory and practise - allowed not only the partners to profit from the results and the collaboration with each other but included also external stakeholders and influenced institutional discussions around mobility and services to be provided for mobile researchers throughout Europe.

The Euraxess Website is the main channel to disseminate all our activities and reports.

Our website www.euraxess-tandem.eu on its main page




 

Potential Impact:

TANDEM is a project developed for the benefit of the entire EURAXESS network. All the activities planned within the project have the ultimate aim of enhancing the performance and capacity of EURAXESS as a key player in international and inter-sectorial mobility of researchers. With this idea, TANDEM can be seen as a pilot project to further develop EURAXESS and we put a lot of emphasis and work on our project website www.euraxess.tandem.eu

Together with the different project meetings detailed in the previous section, the coordinator and the Management Board members have also participated in other relevant events, either to present and give visibility to TANDEM, or to have input for future project developments. In all cases, if possible synergies were identified, this is communicated to the necessary partner of the consortium.

In particular, EURAXESS TOP II has been officially presented in the following events/meetings:
• 21st EURAXESS BHO meeting (Brussels, 22-23 November 2011): A general overview of the project was presented to all BHOs.
• Voice of Researchers Conference
• National conference in Lucerne on September 5, 2013
• Study visit – reversed. September 6, 2013
• Group study visit in December 2011
• Group study visit in December 2012


It is also worth noting that different partners of TANDEM are also involved in the consortiums of the of the FP7 EURAXESS TOPII project so synergies are also ensured.

As it is explained in the first paragraph, TANDEM works for the benefit of the EURAXESS network. This makes EURAXESS the main beneficiary and stakeholder of the project and obliges TANDEM to keep a fluent communication with the entire network. Apart from the direct

presentations provided in the events mentioned above, there is a continuous connection using the existing tools of EURAXESS, namely the European EURAXESS portal, the EURAXESS Extranet (including the Wall, and Emailer tool). Until now, the available tools have proved to be enough for a successful implementation of the project.

List of Websites:
www.euraxess-tandem.eu

Switzerland
Sibylle Hodel Guthrie
Euraxess Zurich
International Research Programmes
University of Zurich | ETH Zurich
Seilergraben 49 | 8001 Zürich | Switzerland
Tel.: [phone]
[e-mail]
www.grantsaccess.ch

Greece
Dimitris Sanopoulus
National Coordinator of the Greek Euraxess Service Network
NCP-PEOPLE for Northern Greece
CENTRE FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY
HELLAS (CERTH)
6th km Harilaou-Thermi Rd
P.O.Box 60361, GR-57001
Thermi Thessaloniki
Tel.: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
[e-mail]

Slovakia
Katarina Kostalova
Executive Director
SAIA, n. o.
Namestie slobody 23
812 20 Bratislava 1
Tel.: +421 2 / 5930 4716
[e-mail]
www.saia.sk
www.euraxess.sk

Estonia
Kristi Tenno
Head of Office
University of Tartu
Personnel Office
Tel.: [phone]
[e-mail]
www.ut.ee

Denmark
VIVIAN TOS LINDGAARD
Senior Executive Consultant
University of Copenhagen
HR & Organization
Personnel Department
International Staff Mobility
Noerregade 10
P.O. Box 2177
DK-1017 Copenhagen K
Tel.: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
[e-mail]
www.ism.ku.dk

Related documents

• final1-publishable-summary-tandem.pdf