The core part of the project, namely the Polish Mobility and Career Days were organised from 10th till 26th October 2017 in 6 Polish cities: Warszawa, Krakow, Poznan, Gliwice/ Katowice and Lodz, under a leading slogan “Scientist - sounds good!”. Their purpose was to help young researchers better plan their professional paths and show various opportunities and tools they can use for free to boost their career development. Each events lasted 3 days and each day addressed different themes and included varied forms of knowledge transfer – from presentations to workshops and face-to-face discussions with experts from different fields and sectors. All events attracted almost 1000 students interested in pursuing a research path, PhD candidates and PhD holders from all over the country. The number of experts helping young researchers to shape their career path reached almost 150.
The first days “Scientist - sounds good! included discussions in small groups focused on different career-related topics such as research funding, job recruitment, effective publishing, building scientific networks or science popularisation. The participants had the possibility to seek advice from experienced Polish researchers who implemented various grants which helped them to shape successful professional paths. The second days organized under ‘Step out of the box – from academia to private sector’ motto focused on collaboration with non-academic sector and included speeches or debates with its representatives who were talking about needs and expectations of the sector towards scientists as well as about working conditions offered. This part was followed by small interactive workshops with topics such as research commercialisation, planning cooperation with companies, intellectual property rights, CV writing. The trainers came mainly from the private companies, business and administration. The third days included whole-day career building workshops devoted to practical skills useful for research careers such as self-presentation, public speaking, project management, presenting research results.
A national seminar for 55 Polish institutions (universities, research institute) awarded with the European “HR Excellence in Research” logo was organised in Warsaw in December 2017. It enabled exchange of best practices and ideas related to implementing European HR strategy in and to encourage these institutions to create even more attractive working conditions, recruitment procedures and career prospects for researchers in Poland.
Another important element fitting the whole project idea was a survey carried out among young researchers and career experts in Poland with an objective of collecting their opinions on the challenges they face as scientists and solutions that could be introduced to facilitate research effectiveness of young people. Based on the results provided by 477 respondents a report has been prepared and made available to policy makers and stakeholders.
In parallel to the above events, a national large-scale communication campaign was carried out with an aim of encouraging young researchers to take up scientific careers and reaching the general public with a message about the significance of the research profession. The campaign lasted 2 months and involved appearances of project coordinator, partners and event Ambassadors – 5 successful scientists chosen to present their stories to inspire young researchers. It resulted in 5 TV and 25 radio broadcasts, 5 press and nearly 40 on-line publications and about 200 posts in social media. It reached over, 50 000 researchers and 500 journalists. The value of the Advertising Value Equivalent (AVE) is about 60 000 euro.
The partners created 5 websites of the regional events and 1 main webpage for the whole initiative. One of their elements was a list of various online career supporting materials: 4 guides to career planning; 3 infographics about EURAXESS portal, MSC grants offer for PhD students and HR award. A video clip promoting career planning and EURAXESS was well received by journalists and researchers.
As a part of the communication campaign a unique and innovative mobile game based on gamification principles was designed for mobile phones and tablets. The users of the application “Play.projectscientist” could get familiar with the EURAXESS initiative and at the end participate in a competition to win a prize. A snappy banner and posters with QR code were developed for the promotional purpose and easier access during the project events.
