Focus in the project was put especially on the young recruited researchers (ESRs). First of all, they were integrated in the research groups at the host institution, in order to improve their ability to work in a team, to interact with other people, working in research and answering to daily challenges in a work place in academia (teaching, supervising bachelor or master students, etc.) or in industry (contact with customers, attending meetings, supervising interns, etc.). All the organized training events were structured to offer two scientific and technical modules meant to bring all the ESRs at the same level of knowledge. One module of each training event was designed for adding complementary skills as integrity and ethics in research, personal development and team working and Scientific and research writing and presentation.
Beside the ESRs, training events were opened to other researchers from the beneficiary institutions, increasing the scientific level of the teams. The presence of the ESRs in the research groups, their work with bachelor and master students, either as research assistant in academia or as supervisor of interns, increases the attractiveness of a research career in the host institutions for the young graduates. For the academic institutions, INTERACT provides the opportunity to align the doctoral studies and the research activity to the industry trend, given and followed by the industrial beneficiaries of the project. For the industrial beneficiaries, the project gives the possibility to update and/or develop their portfolio with new products (ICPE and BROSE) or extend their work to new domains (SISW). New research topics (SMC in electrical machines, NVH and EMI interdependences in EMD, new electrified automotive applications) were opened (at ICPE and Brose), new test benches were developed (UTCN) or existing ones were updated (at ULB), new tools were tested and/or developed (at SISW).
Through all its activities, INTERACT strengthens the already existing collaboration between the beneficiaries, both academia and industry. The implementation of INTERACT has a significant impact in the field of the next generation of high-performance sustainable automotive electric actuators (SAEAs), both at the level of technology and tools, as both BROSE and SISW are important actors in the automotive industry. New applications, technologies (soft magnetic materials, fault tolerant systems) and tools (for analysing specific phenomena like NVH, EMI, losses, etc.) analysed and developed in INTERACT are opening opportunities for new collaborations with other universities/research institutions (common research topics were opened by UTCN with TU of Eindhoven, University of Lille, University of Naples, University of Vaasa, Politechnical University Valencia) and by ULB with KU Leuven and TU Tampere, and with companies (common research projects were proposed by UTCN with Siemens Industry Software Romania, Renault Technologie Roumanie, AROBS, E-motors, Hoganas, Arcelor Mital, PSG ). The INTERACT experience was presented to other Romanian universities (University Politehnica Bucharest, University of Craiova, University Politehnica Timisoara, Technical University of Iasi ) at EV 2019 and at EPE 2020, to Polish, Czech, Portuguese and Swiss universities in the frame of two workshops organized in Krakow and Brno, to University of Artois France and to Typhoon Serbia in the frame of short visits.
