Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BoostUrCAreer (Boosting PhD employability @UCA)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2019-11-01 al 2021-10-31
The BoostUrCAreer Doctoral Programme, co-funded by Marie Sklodowka-Curie Actions, Conseil within the framework of the European Horizon 2020 programme, by the Region Sud- Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and the Idex UCAJedi, offers 15 PhD fellowships in e-health.
Digital systems have entered our everyday lives and they will play an ever-increasing role in assisting human in all simple and automatable tasks. Within this framework, innovation and knowledge increase in the field of health is a key factor to extend the lifespan and well-being.
Université Côte d’Azur, beneficiary of the project, has a multidisciplinary research and innovation ecosystem, for which health and well-being is one of the 3 primary objectives. e-health is indeed at the heart of the Regional Strategy for Smart Specialisation and Sophia Antipolis is the European largest science park, with key actors of digital systems and biotechs.
The main goal of this COFUND programme is to train researchers with a deep knowledge and a multidisciplinary view on e-health and transferable skills, to evaluate and implement innovation made in this domain.
The overall objectives of the project are:
- Implementing a multidisciplinary, innovative and excellent doctoral research training to attract early-stage researchers with high academic and innovative potentials:
Every doctoral project in this programme associates two laboratories of the University and a foreign academic partner. BoostUrCAreer thus provides a diversified education combining the most fundamental aspects of research with the practice of transfer toward the socio-economic world. This dual expertise represents a real added value for career development and is acquired thanks to specific trainings on practical and transferable skills and a six-month mobility abroad at an international academic partner.
- Enhance employability and support doctoral candidates in the development of their career, through the implementation of the "Create your future" pathway:
A close follow-up by two academic supervisors in fundamental laboratories as well as by an academic tutor and a local non-academic mentor ensure the quality of doctoral theses and further facilitate the ESRs’ integration to the workforce. All the fellows are asked to design their Career Plan with their supervisor using the Career Development Plan form of BoostUrCAreer and the Programme Office provided support when it was needed. As part of the doctoral training towards employability and career development, fellows benefit of 28 hours training that are free to choose based on the Career Plan and of 47 hours of mandatory training.
- Create and test a set of procedures and best practices aimed at attracting talented and promising young international researchers to Université Côte D'Azur and to the French Riviera: several procedures implemented for the recruitment of BoostUrCAreer fellows has already been shared with interested UCA services. Other best practices will be shared during the lifetime of the project.
- Support interdisciplinary research efforts to address societal challenges and issues experienced by our territory and beyond: Several collaborations with companies in Sophia Antipolis Technopole are ongoing. The Region SUD, co-funder of the project, supports the project and the collaboration with partners presents on the territory.
Digital systems have entered our everyday lives and they will play an ever-increasing role in assisting human in all simple and automatable tasks. Within this framework, innovation and knowledge increase in the field of health is a key factor to extend the lifespan and well-being.
Université Côte d’Azur, beneficiary of the project, has a multidisciplinary research and innovation ecosystem, for which health and well-being is one of the 3 primary objectives. e-health is indeed at the heart of the Regional Strategy for Smart Specialisation and Sophia Antipolis is the European largest science park, with key actors of digital systems and biotechs.
The main goal of this COFUND programme is to train researchers with a deep knowledge and a multidisciplinary view on e-health and transferable skills, to evaluate and implement innovation made in this domain.
The overall objectives of the project are:
- Implementing a multidisciplinary, innovative and excellent doctoral research training to attract early-stage researchers with high academic and innovative potentials:
Every doctoral project in this programme associates two laboratories of the University and a foreign academic partner. BoostUrCAreer thus provides a diversified education combining the most fundamental aspects of research with the practice of transfer toward the socio-economic world. This dual expertise represents a real added value for career development and is acquired thanks to specific trainings on practical and transferable skills and a six-month mobility abroad at an international academic partner.
- Enhance employability and support doctoral candidates in the development of their career, through the implementation of the "Create your future" pathway:
A close follow-up by two academic supervisors in fundamental laboratories as well as by an academic tutor and a local non-academic mentor ensure the quality of doctoral theses and further facilitate the ESRs’ integration to the workforce. All the fellows are asked to design their Career Plan with their supervisor using the Career Development Plan form of BoostUrCAreer and the Programme Office provided support when it was needed. As part of the doctoral training towards employability and career development, fellows benefit of 28 hours training that are free to choose based on the Career Plan and of 47 hours of mandatory training.
- Create and test a set of procedures and best practices aimed at attracting talented and promising young international researchers to Université Côte D'Azur and to the French Riviera: several procedures implemented for the recruitment of BoostUrCAreer fellows has already been shared with interested UCA services. Other best practices will be shared during the lifetime of the project.
- Support interdisciplinary research efforts to address societal challenges and issues experienced by our territory and beyond: Several collaborations with companies in Sophia Antipolis Technopole are ongoing. The Region SUD, co-funder of the project, supports the project and the collaboration with partners presents on the territory.
The first period of the programme (01/11/2019 – 31/10/2021), has been mainly dedicated to the following activities:
- Communication and dissemination of the calls for the recruitment of the PhD candidates, development of the necessary tools to launch the recruitment campaigns (guide for applicants, forms, online application platform, evaluation grids, flyer etc), development of the website: https://univ-cotedazur.eu/boosturcareer
- Evaluation and selection of the PhD candidates: settlement of the recruitment committee; the development of the tools to support the evaluators in their tasks (guide, evaluation grids, declaration of conflict of interest, NDA, etc.
- Welcoming of the PhD selected candidates and implementation of the doctoral projects: recruitment of the 2 cohorts of ESRs relying on PHD topics submitted by UCA researchers and their international partners.
Université Côte d'Azur launched 2 international calls and a call bis for proposal campaigns: the first one in May 2019, the second one in January 2020 and the third one in February 2021 to attract high potential applicants. Prior to the launch of the call for proposal campaigns, an internal call for PhD topics was launched among the researchers working for Université Côte d'Azur or one of its members. After a rigorous selection, the university has selected 32 PhD topics from which the applicants had to choose from. Now that the ESRs have been selected, they have 42 months to complete their PhD including the six-month mobility abroad.
- Communication and dissemination of the calls for the recruitment of the PhD candidates, development of the necessary tools to launch the recruitment campaigns (guide for applicants, forms, online application platform, evaluation grids, flyer etc), development of the website: https://univ-cotedazur.eu/boosturcareer
- Evaluation and selection of the PhD candidates: settlement of the recruitment committee; the development of the tools to support the evaluators in their tasks (guide, evaluation grids, declaration of conflict of interest, NDA, etc.
- Welcoming of the PhD selected candidates and implementation of the doctoral projects: recruitment of the 2 cohorts of ESRs relying on PHD topics submitted by UCA researchers and their international partners.
Université Côte d'Azur launched 2 international calls and a call bis for proposal campaigns: the first one in May 2019, the second one in January 2020 and the third one in February 2021 to attract high potential applicants. Prior to the launch of the call for proposal campaigns, an internal call for PhD topics was launched among the researchers working for Université Côte d'Azur or one of its members. After a rigorous selection, the university has selected 32 PhD topics from which the applicants had to choose from. Now that the ESRs have been selected, they have 42 months to complete their PhD including the six-month mobility abroad.
The proposed programme will foster 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.
First cohort of fellows has now started their third year of their doctoral project and second cohort of fellows started its second year. Un article has been published, two preprints are ready and several papers and poster have been presented during conferences and workshops. One of the fellows (1st cohort) won the first prize at the MSCA Falling Lab 2021.
The project boosted the sharing of procedure and best practices aimed at attracting talented and promising young international researchers to Université Côte d'Azur and to the French Riviera. It also contributes at larger scale to improve doctoral training, as well as practices which facilitate and optimize career development of the ESRs of the university.
First cohort of fellows has now started their third year of their doctoral project and second cohort of fellows started its second year. Un article has been published, two preprints are ready and several papers and poster have been presented during conferences and workshops. One of the fellows (1st cohort) won the first prize at the MSCA Falling Lab 2021.
The project boosted the sharing of procedure and best practices aimed at attracting talented and promising young international researchers to Université Côte d'Azur and to the French Riviera. It also contributes at larger scale to improve doctoral training, as well as practices which facilitate and optimize career development of the ESRs of the university.