Periodic Reporting for period 2 - IberusTalent (International Doctoral Programme for Talent Attraction to the Campus of International Excellence of the Ebro Valley)
Período documentado: 2020-09-01 hasta 2024-08-31
The IberusTalent Doctoral Programme for Talent Attraction to the Campus of International Excellence of the Ebro Valley aimed at boosting highly skilled human resources and R&I capacity of the four public universities in the consortium of Campus Iberus. The IberusTalent programme’s first goal was to attract 36 talented researchers at early stages of their careers to develop their PhD projects at any of the Campus Iberus four universities: University of Zaragoza, Public University of Navarre, University of Lleida and University of La Rioja.
The ultimate goal was to enhance the excellence and international dimension of the research community in the Ebro Valley. Thanks to this MSCA Cofund programme a significant number of PhDs candidates became scientists and that was happening in the Ebro Valley regions of Campus Iberus, connected by a river, well-known internationally, and now becoming a driving force for science and knowledge in Agrofood and Nutrition and in Health Technologies.
To definitely make an impact on the society, the programme specific objectives were the following:
- To attract talented researchers to the Ebro Valley regions to become PhDs and future scientists that will shape the progress of the R&I ecosystem.
- To build an interconnected, multicultural and international researchers’ community working on interdisciplinary projects of excellence in Agrofood and Nutrition and Health Technologies.
- To support the career development of the recruited researchers by being trained and exposed to as many collaborators as possible from different sectors and countries.
- To reinforce the international visibility of Campus Iberus as the International Campus of Excellence of the Ebro Valle.
- To challenge and modernise the current institutional structures and services to manage an expanding and long lasting international research community growing at the Universities of Campus Iberus.
- To disseminate science and become active social actors and role models to others to promote a knowledge based society.
The ultimate goal was to enhance the excellence and international dimension of the research community in the Ebro Valley. Thanks to this MSCA Cofund programme a significant number of PhDs candidates became scientists and that was happening in the Ebro Valley regions of Campus Iberus, connected by a river, well-known internationally, and now becoming a driving force for science and knowledge in Agrofood and Nutrition and in Health Technologies.
To definitely make an impact on the society, the programme specific objectives were the following:
- To attract talented researchers to the Ebro Valley regions to become PhDs and future scientists that will shape the progress of the R&I ecosystem.
- To build an interconnected, multicultural and international researchers’ community working on interdisciplinary projects of excellence in Agrofood and Nutrition and Health Technologies.
- To support the career development of the recruited researchers by being trained and exposed to as many collaborators as possible from different sectors and countries.
- To reinforce the international visibility of Campus Iberus as the International Campus of Excellence of the Ebro Valle.
- To challenge and modernise the current institutional structures and services to manage an expanding and long lasting international research community growing at the Universities of Campus Iberus.
- To disseminate science and become active social actors and role models to others to promote a knowledge based society.
From the beginning of the IberusTalent programme in September 2018, the first 24-month period has been committed to the recruitment of talented early stage researchers to the Ebro Valley. To that end, two calls were launched in 2018 and 2019 respectively, which were open for 3 months to candidates applying for any of the research lines offered in the fields of Agrofood and Nutrition and Health Technologies. In order to increase the applicant’s choices, candidates were given the opportunity to apply for multiple research lines and to participate in more than one selection process.
In total numbers, over 600 applications were received counting the first and second call results by applicants coming from 61 different countries worldwide. The selection process involved more than 200 experts, some from renowned international organisations across the world. Eventually, the selected candidates come from 21 different nationalities and were in perfect gender balance. All in all, the recruitment of these early stage researchers has made a substantial impact on the international PhD community of the Campus Iberus universities.
Work has been carried out on different activities contributing to enhance the researcher’s career opportunities and their impact on the scientific community and the overall society. Most of the researchers recruited in the first call (14 out of 16) have defended their PhD, with 20 PhD theses being defended until now, with some of them still ongoing.
ESRs have been trained in both research and transferable skills and had either an industrial mentor or a working collaboration with non-academic R&I actors to ensure a relevant exposure to other sectors. Most were part of the Campus Iberus Research Clusters, which are interdisciplinary teams of researchers from the four universities interconnected with regional R&I drivers to work collaboratively on strategic areas. Secondments and short stays were carried out at the facilities of key regional collaborators in the Ebro Valley and/or at the national or international level, even the preliminary restrictions due to COVID-19.
Multiple scientific outputs were generated from the programme. The Iberus Talent researchers took part in national and international conferences, workshops or gatherings. Additionally, some have participated in outreach events to communicate their projects to the society. Furthermore, the programme’s website www.iberustalent.com was redesigned to show their public profiles, including biosketches connected to their professional networks, and their PhD projects and results in brief.
In total numbers, over 600 applications were received counting the first and second call results by applicants coming from 61 different countries worldwide. The selection process involved more than 200 experts, some from renowned international organisations across the world. Eventually, the selected candidates come from 21 different nationalities and were in perfect gender balance. All in all, the recruitment of these early stage researchers has made a substantial impact on the international PhD community of the Campus Iberus universities.
Work has been carried out on different activities contributing to enhance the researcher’s career opportunities and their impact on the scientific community and the overall society. Most of the researchers recruited in the first call (14 out of 16) have defended their PhD, with 20 PhD theses being defended until now, with some of them still ongoing.
ESRs have been trained in both research and transferable skills and had either an industrial mentor or a working collaboration with non-academic R&I actors to ensure a relevant exposure to other sectors. Most were part of the Campus Iberus Research Clusters, which are interdisciplinary teams of researchers from the four universities interconnected with regional R&I drivers to work collaboratively on strategic areas. Secondments and short stays were carried out at the facilities of key regional collaborators in the Ebro Valley and/or at the national or international level, even the preliminary restrictions due to COVID-19.
Multiple scientific outputs were generated from the programme. The Iberus Talent researchers took part in national and international conferences, workshops or gatherings. Additionally, some have participated in outreach events to communicate their projects to the society. Furthermore, the programme’s website www.iberustalent.com was redesigned to show their public profiles, including biosketches connected to their professional networks, and their PhD projects and results in brief.
The Iberus Talent Programme implied the international recruitment of 36 talented researchers to progress research on two strategic areas for Campus Iberus and the R&I ecosystem of the Ebro Valley regions: Agrofood and Nutrition and Health Technologies. Research and Innovation on these areas is in line with the RIS3 economic development priorities of the four regions involved: Aragon, Navarre, Catalonia and La Rioja.
The Iberus Talent Programme has been based on the scientific and technological capabilities of the four public universities located in those regions, which are aggregated under the consortium of Campus Iberus to make the best use of their research resources. The programme had an undeniable impact on building highly skilled professionals, which delivered outstanding results to progress the state of the art in the specific research fields of the programme. The interdisciplinary and intersectorial approach to research has been supported by a wide network of collaborators: international universities, research centers and other non-academic R&I drivers (spin-offs, start-ups, industry, research centres, hospitals...). They brougth expertise in different angles to research and offer career enhancing opportunities, such as hosting the PhDs for secondments, short stays and trainings. All in all, the IberusTalent Programme guaranteed an attractive ecosystem for the incoming researchers and their exposure to other relevant actors beyond academia, including the society at large. Nurturing this knowledge-based ecosystem is the key for the sustainable economic growth of the modern societies.
Additionally, and increasingly, the perception of science and the expectation from citizens is that it should be the producer of truths. That has been considered to be the most important socio-economic impact of the programme. Iberus Talent fellows have developed research and transferable skills and ethical principles to become truthful scientists as well as responsible involved citizens. They exercised the open access publication and production of unbiased scientific results following international methods and standards. But also researchers were encouraged to exploit their creativity to transform knowledge into products and solutions and to disseminate and communicate them broadly.
The Iberus Talent Programme has been based on the scientific and technological capabilities of the four public universities located in those regions, which are aggregated under the consortium of Campus Iberus to make the best use of their research resources. The programme had an undeniable impact on building highly skilled professionals, which delivered outstanding results to progress the state of the art in the specific research fields of the programme. The interdisciplinary and intersectorial approach to research has been supported by a wide network of collaborators: international universities, research centers and other non-academic R&I drivers (spin-offs, start-ups, industry, research centres, hospitals...). They brougth expertise in different angles to research and offer career enhancing opportunities, such as hosting the PhDs for secondments, short stays and trainings. All in all, the IberusTalent Programme guaranteed an attractive ecosystem for the incoming researchers and their exposure to other relevant actors beyond academia, including the society at large. Nurturing this knowledge-based ecosystem is the key for the sustainable economic growth of the modern societies.
Additionally, and increasingly, the perception of science and the expectation from citizens is that it should be the producer of truths. That has been considered to be the most important socio-economic impact of the programme. Iberus Talent fellows have developed research and transferable skills and ethical principles to become truthful scientists as well as responsible involved citizens. They exercised the open access publication and production of unbiased scientific results following international methods and standards. But also researchers were encouraged to exploit their creativity to transform knowledge into products and solutions and to disseminate and communicate them broadly.