Scientia Fellows II was a transnational fellowship programme (2019-2024) in the field of Health Life Sciences. The programme hosted 86 experienced postdoctoral researchers representing 37 nationalities and enhanced their career in excellent research environments.
Scientia Fellows II provided scientific training through research projects, chosen and shaped by the fellows in innovative, multidisciplinary and internationally recognized research teams. At the same time, the programme offered training across a broad range of transferable skills to equip the fellows with competences necessary for positions in a variety of organizations both in the private and public sector, in and out of academia.
For the past five years, University of Oslo has taken the programme into a broader European context to meet challenges presented in Horizon 2020 focusing on excellent research, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
The Scientia Fellows II programme introduced new aspects such as: strong innovation components, inter-sectoral opportunities and new training features in both research and transferable skills. The overall objectives of the programme were to provide:
• excellent research environments and infrastructure
• interaction between academia, healthcare industry and SMEs
• a training programme designed to maximize the career prospects of the researchers by the development of both research and transferable skills including, among others, entrepreneurship, dissemination and management
Consequently, the Scientia Fellows II programme was an important contribution to strengthen impactful research excellence and mobility of researchers not only across the boarders but also in collaboration across sectors and research fields. The strong innovation component also gave the researchers the knowledge and tools enabling them to take their research ideas into use, to innovate and to consider entrepreneurial activities, which can further benefit patients, healthcare systems and society.
