Work Package 1: Management. Over the course of the project (2016-2021), the management team has 1) drawn up and implemented the Consortium Agreement, 2) overseen the recruitment of the ESRs, 3) liaised with the Supervisory Board, 4) co-ordinated activities to ensure that cooperation and communication are as open and efficient as possible, 5) covered employment status of the recruited researchers, IPR and the supervision arrangements, including qualifications of the supervisors and 6) interfaced with the European Commission and the hosts’ EU offices, taking responsibility for the administrative, legal, financial and accounting management. For the last two years the main focus for the Management Team has been on implementing the two amendments to the grant agreement and n mitigating the impact of the COVID pandemic, and we are happy to report on the flexibility of the respective institutes to revise their regulations on the examination process in the light of Covid-19, but which resulted in a much smaller carbon footprint than was originally envisaged.
Work Package 2: Research. The research was the main focus of the EJD and the primary means through which training was delivered. Focusing primarily on the archaeology of Northern Europe and the Circumpolar World and the application of cutting-edge techniques in biomolecular archaeology, the research was carried out at the four host institutions and during secondments at collaborating institutions. The ESR’s individual research projects spanned across different subfields and employed various methodologies and approaches in biomolecular archaeology, including ancient genomics, palaeoproteomics, stable isotope analyses, radiocarbon dating, and residue analyses. More information on each of the research projects can be found on the project website at archsci2020.eu.
Work Package 3: Training. In addition to the research-based training we delivered bespoke training sessions focusing on transferable skills, such as project management, writing and communication skills, public engagement, policy development, grant writing and career development. The training was delivered through 6 workshops, which were held in Copenhagen, Groningen, Brussels, and Stockholm, respectively. As part of the regular 6 monthly TAP (Thesis Advisory Panel) meetings ESRs were encouraged to reflect on their previous six months of training and consider what additional training is required for the next 6 months. More information on the individual training workshops can be found on the project website at archsci2020.eu. The success of the training element is most clearly demonstrated by the award of PhDs: All students who submitted their thesis passed successfully at both institutions and all of them have taken up postdoc positions or found employment outside of academia, e.g. in the third sector.
Work Package 4: Impact. The “Impact” work package dealt primarily with the publication and wider dissemination of the network’s training, research, and public engagement activities. Results were primarily disseminated through 1) the project website, 2) peer-reviewed publications (see list of publications), 3) conference presentations, 4) media interviews and, 5) social media (e.g. Twitter). In addition, we produced 6) a series of short videos featuring each of the ESRs and their research, which are available on youtube and our project website. In total, the ESRs published over 40 peer-reviewed publications during the project period and we expect more to follow after the end of the project. Several of the publications were published in high-impact journals and were widely shared in social media. For example, a publication on the genomics of ancient mastics from Scandinavia (Jensen et al. 2019) has been accessed over 90k times since publication and ranks in the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric.
