SDGine for Healthy People and Cities

Project Information

SDGine

Grant agreement ID: 945139

DOI

10.3030/945139

EC signature date 24 March 2020

Start date 1 October 2020

End date 31 August 2026

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 1 952 640,00

EU contribution

€ 976 320,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSIDAD POLITECNICA DE MADRID
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SDGine (SDGine for Healthy People and Cities)

Reporting period: 2022-10-01 to 2024-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

SDGine: a programme at UPM to attract outstanding talent to achieve the SDGs

“SDGine for Healthy People and Cities” aims to devise technologies and tools that contribute to accelerate the compliance of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by tackling climate change and contributing to the needed social transformations in urban contexts. Through a world-class education and research programme, this European funded action grants 12 Early-Stage Researchers (ESRs) the opportunity to complete Industrial and International Doctorates at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM).
This programme seeks to train a high- skilled and versatile future generation of researchers to become successful, responsible and sustainable leaders in their fields. This action will provide them with the knowledge and skills to be able to embark on careers both in academia and in the private sector as well as become venture creators, while contributing to align policies and corporate strategies with the SDGs.
SDGine is a 69-month H2020 COFUND project funded by the European Union under a Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement. The action, with an overall budget of 1,952,640.00€, will run from 1st October 2020 to 30rd June 2026. Half of these funds are provided by the European Union while the other half comes from the industrial partners who have joined this initiative. These partners are Iberdrola, Repsol, Telefonica I+D and Ecoembes. In addition to these collaborators, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) will host participants during secondments and short visits.
This action enhances mobility between countries, disciplines and sectors, as it involves industries. Trained ESRs will become highly employable for future research positions in academia and non-academia worldwide, while our industrial partners will have a pool of industry-savvy, innovative researchers to shape new research fields. The whole program will also have an institutional impact on gender equality. Moreover, SDGine will have an overall high societal impact through the SDGs, especially those related to “Healthy People and Cities”.

The researchers will have the chance to complete a PhD degree with a 36-month employment contract which will be co-supervised by a UPM professor and a representative from one of the companies that are participating in this project.
As the main Spanish technical university and a key source of high impact knowledge, UPM connects the participants with an innovation platform and a systemic approach, aligned with major international research programs in which UPM participates, such as different EIT projects and Horizon Europe Missions.
SDGine follows the Seven EU principles on Doctoral Training, contemplating the Triple-“i” dimension through: i) International secondments; ii) Inter-sectoral collaboration agreements with industry; and iii) Interdisciplinary PhD supervision.
The action is also aligned with the "Charter & Code" policies for researchers recruitment as UPM has received the HR Excellence in Research award. Moreover, the programme will provide excellent training in research, complementary and transferable skills (cross-cutting disciplinary seminars, summer schools, writing days...).

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

SDGine is a 69-month COFUND project run by the UPM Vice-Rectorate for Research, Innovation and Doctoral Studies partially funded by the European Union under a Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSCA) grant agreement and UPM's industrial financial partners. The partner organizations that have joined this initiative are Iberdrola, Repsol, Telefónica I+D, Ecoembes, Optiva Media, and Fundación Tatiana Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno.
SDGine project is financing 36-month contracts for twelve ESRs who will carry out PhD theses that will be awarded "International" and "Industrial" mentions. During the contract period, ESRs will spend part of their time in the partner organizations to ensure the Industrial Mention. They will also complete an international stay (minimum three months) outside Spain, leading to the International Mention.


The milestones achieved within the SDGine Project during its first 42 months included:
• 1. Recruitment of SDGine Project Managers, Dr Susana Negrete and Mr Gabriel Cerrada
• 2. Selection of 22 potential PhD Thesis Directors with 22 potential PhD Thesis Projects within UPM though the launching of an internal open call.
• 3. All 22 potential PhD Thesis projects underwent a process to detect any ethical issues. All 22 projects were proven to be free of ethical issues.
• 4. Signature of collaboration agreements with each of the six industrial partners that participate in the SDGine Project.
• 5. Production of an SDGine purpose built webpage (https://sdgine.eu/)
• 6. Launching of a helpdesk which can be reached via the SDGine website and a specific e-mail address ([e-mail]).
• 7. Launching of two International SDGine Calls to select candidates.
• 8. Dissemination of both International SDGine Calls.
• 9. Two OPEN DAYs for Industrial Partners, potential UPM SDGine Thesis Directors and potential ESRs.
• 10. One formal Updating Meeting with Industrial Partners and UPM Thesis Directors.
• 11. Selection of the twelve (12) SDGine ESRs.
• 12. Twelve (12) work contracts signed (pre-contracts in the case of the four non-european ESRs selected in the Second International Call).
• 13. Signature of four (4) amendments with the European Commission.
• 15. Two live working documents were produced and are being kept to date as the project progresses, a Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation of Results (PDER) and a Data Management Plan (DMP).
• 16. A successful and productive one-day Midterm Review Meeting took place on the 20th of October 2022 at the UPM central Offices in Madrid, Spain. The participants were the Project Officer, the UPM SDGine Team and the SDGine fellows
• 17. Two summer courses: 1) “SDGine Summer School 2023: Sustainable Development Goals in SDGine”, held on 20th, 21st and 22nd of June 2023; and 2) “SDGine Summer School 2024: Social Aspects in Engineering Research”, held on 18th of June 2024.
• 18. 21 open access research papers and participation in 142 trainings, workshops, conferences and symposia conferences.
• 19. Four (4) completed secondments and five (5) ongoing ones.

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)

"SDGine for Healthy People and Cities" aims to devise technologies and tools that contribute to accelerate the compliance of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by tackling climate change and contributing to the needed social transformations in urban contexts. Through a world-class education and research programme, this European funded action grants 12 ESRs the opportunity to complete Industrial and International Doctorates at UPM.

This programme seeks to train a high- skilled and versatile future generation of researchers to become successful, responsible and sustainable leaders in their fields. This action will provide them with the knowledge and skills to be able to embark on careers both in academia and in the private sector as well as become venture creators, while contributing to align policies and corporate strategies with the SDGs.

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