CONcentrating EXcellence in UC3M - Postdoc Programme

Project Information

CONEX-Plus

Grant agreement ID: 801538

DOI

10.3030/801538

Project closed

EC signature date 26 April 2018

Start date 1 March 2019

End date 31 August 2025

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 6 372 000,00

EU contribution

€ 3 186 000,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSIDAD CARLOS III DE MADRID
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - CONEX-Plus (CONcentrating EXcellence in UC3M - Postdoc Programme)

Reporting period: 2023-03-01 to 2025-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

CONEX-Plus is a training and incoming mobility programme that aims to accelerate the career development of a cohort of international Experienced Researchers (ERs) at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M).
Building on the excellence of UC3M, the CONEX-Plus programme has trained the next generation of research leaders in their respective areas, whilst at the same time supporting the Strategic Plan 2016 – 2022 from UC3M and contributing to the Spanish research and innovation landscape.

CONEX-Plus offered 30 fellowships to ERs with up to six years of postdoctoral experience by means of two international public calls. Fellows undertook a three-year project freely chosen by them within the objectives and subjects outlined in the Research and Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialisation (RIS3) of the Community of Madrid. These areas were underpinned by an area of strength of UC3M, the strategic research area of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) and its application to the areas of the RIS3 strategy. The link of the programme with the priorities of the RIS3, extended both to Spanish and European priorities, has improved the fellow’s employability and career prospects both in and outside academia.

Projects were implemented in one of the 27 departments at the UC3M and through a compulsory secondment in a high-level non-academic organization. Each fellow had 2 supervisors (i.e. one from UC3M and another from the secondment organization) to support their career development and set up a Career Development Plan (CDP) that guided the fellows to achieve their scientific and career development objectives.

The CONEX-Plus training and career development programme is based on the so-called triple ‘i’ dimension: International aspects, intersectoral exposure and interdisciplinarity. All fellows have benefited through the training programme with dedicated modules on
relevant transferable skills and Industry Training Blocks. UC3M holds the European Commission’s HR Excellence in Research award. This recognises the University’s commitment to supporting the personal, professional and career development of its researchers and acknowledges its full alignment with the principles of the European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct, which have applied to their recruitment, including CONEX-Plus selection processes and project execution.
CONEX-Plus is funded by UC3M, the European Commission through the Marie-Sklodowska Curie COFUND Action (H2020-MSCA-COFUND-2017- GA 801538).

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

On March, 1st, 2019, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) launched a new incoming fellowship programme called CONEX-Plus - CONcentrating EXcellence in UC3M - Postdoc Programme, built on the CONEX COFUND programme previously implemented at UC3M (2013-2019). Since then, a continuous follow-up with the Project Officer was held to keep her updated of the status of the project and main milestones reached.
This programme, being held for five years (2019-2024), provides researchers with the opportunity of boosting their career development as it's built on the triple 'i' concept: interdisciplinarity, internationalization and intersectorality.
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid offered a total of 30 fellowships to researchers with 0-6 years of research experience to implement their research projects in one of the 27 departments of the UC3M in areas outlined in the Research and Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialisation (RIS3) Strategy of the Madrid Autonomous Region for 3 years. Fellows were selected following the principles of Excellence, Transparency, Fairness and Impartiality in the selection procedure, based on international peer review and interviews.

CONEX-PLUS Main Achievements:

In September 2020 the programme started recruiting fellows from the Fisrt Call following the principles of "The European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers". Awardees of 1st Call came from a total of 10 different countries and awardees of 2nd Call, published in December, came from a total of 6 different countries.

-The website for CONEX-Plus (www.uc3m.es/research/conex) was designed to provide not only data of the programme and its calls but information of fellows and their projects on research outcomes and events. Researchers' profile are being prepared to be included in the site. In addition, researchers are preparing their own sites, being some of them launched by researchers and given visibility through UC3M Linkedin.
Supporting this website, an onboarding site (www.uc3m.es/hr/onboarding) was also designed in order to keep-up-to-date researchers in sections such as Training Blocks (to help them among other issues, with the dissemination and exploitation of results).

-Researchers started to be provided with outstanding scientific, transferable skills to communicate across different sectors and their Career Development Plans (CDPs) began to be developed with the support of their supervisors in order to strengthen their career opportunities in academia and/or outside academia. A core element of CONEX-Plus is a compulsory secondment to a non-academic organisation.

The CONEX-Plus Programme is supporting the Strategic Plan 2016-2022 from UC3M and contributing to the Spanish research and innovation landscape. The strategic Plan prioritises international and interdisciplinary research of excellence, covering the three strategic axes of research, education and relationship with society, underpinned by responsible governance which has a positive effect on UC3M.

Further information is available on the following emails:
CONEX-Plus Helpdesk contact: [e-mail]
Onboarding contact: [e-mail]

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

CONEX-Plus has ensured the support of the programme to the MSCA-COFUND objectives concerning the career development of researchers as well as the objectives of the UC3M Strategic Plan for the period 2016-2022 during the whole project lifecycle.
The substantial number of research results produced by CONEX-Plus researchers in order to benefit society and to generate further impact are closely linked to their engagement to the dissemination and exploitation of multiple actions to different targets – Scientific Community, Industry, Civil Society, General Public, Policy Makers, Media, Investors and Customers, amongst others – by means of availability to their outcomes. Dissemination and exploitation are at the core of their projects and the programme itself so that Knowledge could be disseminated, the generated impact of their research could be proved and the uptake of their research and innovation project results could be increased.
Therefore, and in line with the recommendations in the Charter and Code, each fellow has contributed to the dissemination and exploitation strategy defined by the Programme which has intended to enable the concrete use of results of fellow’s projects for scientific, social and economic purposes. All dissemination activities coming from this strategy should have adhered to UC3M’S policy on Open Access (OA:) to publication, being this policy implemented by the Library in cooperation with the Research Service.

European Commission Emblem and Legend

European Commissión Flag

UC3M-CONEX-Plus Logo

CONEX-Plus Logo