Periodic Reporting for period 2 - DOC-FAM (DOCtoral training programme in Functional Advanced Materials)
Reporting period: 2019-09-01 to 2023-02-28
ICMAB is one the 22 research centres in Spain awarded with the “Severo Ochoa” label of excellence for the development of “Smart Functional Materials for Social Grand Challenges” (FUNMAT, 2016-2020). ICMAB is located in the Bellaterra Campus of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), the best University in Spain according to several international rankings (ARWU, CWUR), providing an excellent environment for the development of the doctoral programme.
All the participating organizations in the programme have an outstanding track-record in terms of recruitment and training of doctoral researchers, and they are all endorsed to the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers, ensuring the best possible conditions to enhance the potential and future career perspectives for the recruited researchers.
During the 60 months of duration of the programme, two calls were launched for the recruitment of 22 Marie-Skłodowska-Curie Early-Stage Researchers (ESRs) during 36 months each. A dedicated interdisciplinary, intersectorial and international training programme was offered to the recruited fellows combining a full range of activities including complementary training courses, workshops, schools and secondments to other research centres or Universities. Recruited fellows were offered 3-year employment contracts in a multidisciplinary, multicultural and stimulating research training environment, with access to state-of-the-art equipment and facilities for personal and professional career development. An attractive salary of 33,600 €/year (including living plus mobility allowances); in addition to research, training and networking costs (6,000 €/year) and PhD tuition fees (600 €/year).
In terms of training, A Welcome day was organized for the fellows from both calls. Moreover, one of the main training activities organized by DOC-FAM was the 1-week summer school. EMERGING2021 (https://docfam.icmab.es/oa/emerging-2021). It counted with plenary lectures of International experts in the field of advanced materials to give young researchers and students a worldwide view of the diferent and emerging applications in electronics, energy and nanomedicine. Beyond the plenary lectures, the school included technical talks, direct interactions with the lecturers, talks from the DOC-FAM fellows and poster presentations. DOC-FAM fellows enjoyed training organised by the partner organisations, including a high variety of weekly seminars, transversal skills workshops, annual meeting with the University Committee, yearly workshops, open access seminars... In addition, a Scientific Meeting of PhD students is orgnanised yearly by the DOC-FAM partners, in which 2020 and 2021 editions had DOC-FAM fellows as organisers. All fellows have also performed a secondment of at least 1 month, either in academic institutions or companies, building up the intedsiciplinarity and intersectoriality of the training programme.
DOC-FAM also counts with different supervision arrengements that allowed to have a follow-up on the progression of the PhD: a Career Development Plan (updated yearly by the fellows), a Fellow Progress Report and a Supervisor Progress Report.
During DOC-FAM period, 52 scientific papers have been published by DOC-FAM fellows . Apart from that, fellows have participated in 198 training activities and have presented their work in 73 international conferences. DOC-FAM fellows have been part of Communication activities, including the Researcher’s Night organized by the European Commission, among others.
DOC-FAM has contributed to enhance Europe competitiveness in the field of advanced functional materials, increasing the critical mass in a demanding sector of our current society. The programme has brought a huge impact on the recruited fellows and on the beneficiary and the participating organizations on several levels:
- Creation of novel synergies and collaborations and enhancing those already established between all the Partner Organisations.
- Quality education: providing the fellows with appropriate working conditions, suitable guidance &training, and the possibility to develop a future independent research career.
- Enhanced competitiveness: by aligning our practices with the principles of this innovative doctoral training, and fulfilling the principles of the Charter & Code, the beneficiary and participating organizations have increased their profile as an excellence reference research centres in the field of Material Science.