Boosting PhD employability @UCA

Project Information

BoostUrCAreer

Grant agreement ID: 847581

DOI

10.3030/847581

Project closed

EC signature date 8 April 2019

Start date 1 November 2019

End date 31 October 2024

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 2 847 600,00

EU contribution

€ 1 423 800,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITE COTE D'AZUR
France

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - BoostUrCAreer (Boosting PhD employability @UCA)

Reporting period: 2021-11-01 to 2024-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The BoostUrCAreer Doctoral Programme, co-funded by Marie Sklodowka-Curie Actions, the Region Sud- Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and the Idex UCAJedi, fostered interdisciplinary, intersectoral and international experiences with the objective of contributing to creating a new generation of PhDs equipped for both academic and non-academic careers in e-health and inclined to the great research and innovation challenges of tomorrow.

The project achieved the following objectives:

• Implementing a multidisciplinary, innovative and excellent doctoral research training to attract early-stage researchers with high academic and innovative potentials
• Enhance employability and support doctoral candidates in the development of their career, through the implementation of the "Create your future" pathway
• Create and test a set of procedures and best practices, in coherence with the HRS4R label, aimed at attracting talented and promising young international researchers to Université Côte D'Azur and to the French Riviera
• Support interdisciplinary research efforts to address societal challenges and issues experienced by our territory and beyond

The project provided 14 talented and promising young international researchers the opportunity to receive a unique doctoral training in e-health at Université Côte d'Azur. It also contributed at larger scale to improve doctoral training and boosted the sharing of procedure and best practices which facilitate and optimize career development of the ESRs of the university.

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

Université Côte d'Azur launched 2 international calls and a call bis for proposal campaigns to attract high potential applicants.

The recruited PhD candidates had 42 months, and on request some additional months, to complete their PhD including a compulsory six-months mobility abroad.

The first period of the Doctoral Programme was mainly dedicated to the development and the implementation of the communication and dissemination strategy. It included the design of different tools, including the dedicated website, to launch the recruitment campaigns. This first stage also included the evaluation and selection of the PhD candidates and the welcoming of the PhD selected candidates and implementation of the doctoral projects.

The following 36 months were more focused on the implementation of the academic international mobilities and non-academic short mobilities and on the follow-up of the doctoral fellows/projects.

All the PhD candidates received a unique doctoral training (135 hours of training divided in disciplinary, transdisciplinary and employability and career development training) and performed a 6 months international mobility.

The BoostUrCAreer Doctoral programme reached all the milestones and the deliverables indicated in the grant agreement without significant deviations.

It counts more than 30 works published (articles in journals, chapters in a book, publications in conference proceedings etc.) The fellows attended international conferences and seminars where they also presented their doctoral projects results. One fellow (1st cohort) won the first prize at the MSCA Falling Lab 2021.

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)

The BoostUrCAreer Doctoral Programme enabled fourteen interdisciplinary projects, involving local non-academic partners, to be developed, and provided the fellows the unique opportunity to engage with diverse working environments and methodologies, a real asset for their career development in both academic and non-academic sectors.

Nine out of the fourteen fellows involved in the BoostUrCAreer Doctoral programme obtained their first job ( in France, USA or Country of origin) from 1 to 8 months from the end of their PhD doctoral contract. Five of them remained in the Region Sud working in academic and non-academic sectors.

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BoostUrCAreer Website

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