CALL LAUNCH, EVALUATION AND SELECTION
The INVITE project call was published on Euraxess, University of Verona, Italian Ministry of University and Research and INVITE websites, as well as with an intensive campaign on academic journals, portals and social networks. We received 955 applications in total, from all over the world: almost half of applications from Asia, one quarter from Europe and one quarter from Africa. The 14 INVITE ESRs selected have then been enrolled in their PhD programme.
TRAINING AND RESEARCH PROGRAMME
INVITE has included a meta-disciplinary training programme aimed to provide INVITE ESRs with a comprehensive set of transferrable skills appropriate with their needs of researchers. The training included a wide range of courses, such as WordPress, open data and data management, gender dimension in research, IPR, Horizon Europe, dissemination in EU projects, project writing. In addition, INVITE ESRs had the opportunity to participate in the annual training courses on research projects offered by the University of Verona to all Professors. Finally, a three-year customised Coaching, counselling and vocational guidance programme was carried out with the aim to help INVITE ESRs reflect on their own professional profile and resources in order to successfully approach the labour market. Indeed, 10 out of 14 INVITE ESRs have obtained a job position just after the end of their INVITE experience.
DISSEMINATION AND EXPLOITATION OF RESULTS
INVITE has been promoted through a specific INVITE website (more the 65,000 visitors), a newsletter (22 issues for about 650 subscribers), published articles and through UNIVR LinkedIn and Facebook. To share the experiences and lessons learned, INVITE included three Seminars for professionals and institutions in charge of defining policies in PhD programmes: “The innovative doctoral programmes: features and news”, “Human Resources Strategy for Researchers” and "The experience of INVITE ESRs at the University of Verona". Two videos were produced to promote INVITE project and its results, both available on YouTube. In addition, the project coordinator, Prof Pezzotti, was invited to the MSCA Presidency Conference 2019 in Bucharest to present INVITE project. INVITE ESRs attended many national and international conferences, during which they had the opportunity to disseminate their research. Their research results were published, in open access, in international journals. Though no exploitable research results emerged from INVITE project INVITE ESRs received an adequate training on IPR aspects.
