European Doctoral programme on ENergy and Environment

Project Information

EDENE

Grant agreement ID: 945416

DOI

10.3030/945416

EC signature date 17 April 2020

Start date 1 September 2021

End date 28 February 2027

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 4 881 600,00

EU contribution

€ 2 440 800,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITE DE PAU ET DES PAYS DE L'ADOUR
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EDENE (European Doctoral programme on ENergy and Environment)

Reporting period: 2021-09-01 to 2023-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Energy and the Environment are two subjects linked to the two major European societal challenges, namely societal challenges N°3 “Safe, clean and efficient energy” and N°5 “Action for the climate, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials”. In this context, the European doctoral programme in Energy and Environment EDENE is an ambitious multidisciplinary, intersectoral and international project over a period of 5 years offering quality training to a total of 30 international and highly-qualified doctoral students in these fields. Its ambition is to develop a working dynamic around innovative subjects on these topics in all disciplines covered by the Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour (UPPA). Based on the obtention in 2017 of the competitive I-Site Label (Science / Innovation / Territories / Economy Initiative by the French Programme ‘Investissements d'Avenir’) for its project Energy & Environment Solutions (E2S) and renewed in 2022, the UPPA's priorities are indeed to attract new talents, to develop international collaborations with targeted universities and to develop the international training offer, mainly in the fields of energy and the environment. This collaborative project also aims to strengthen links with local socio-economic players and cross-border university players, namely the University of Zaragoza, Enedis, Naldeo, Terega, TotalEnergies, the Avenia competitive cluster and the SATT Aquitaine Sciences Transfert. EDENE aims to respond to these two major European societal challenges by enabling promising early-career researchers to carry out excellent research applied to the fields of energy and the environment in mathematics, engineering, geosciences, aquatic environments, computer science, land-use planning or physical chemistry...Through the 3 calls for projects, EDENE enables 30 excellent international researchers to develop their talent beyond the Master's level, via a project of their choice, while being integrated into the best teams at UPPA and potential partners, so that they can develop fruitful cooperation in terms of research, excellence and career development.

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

The work accomplished so far is in relation to the objectives described in Annex 1 of the EDENE Grant Agreement N°945416. 30 highly qualified PhD students have been selected according the European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers and the evaluation procedures set out by MSCA. The 4 major commitments of EDENE have been achieved:
- The recruitment of the 3 cohorts was managed in a transparent and fair manner, based on the excellence of the project and the candidate and on a wide dissemination of the 3 calls with the management of ethics and conflicts of interest, taking particular care to ensure equal opportunities for men and women and the outsourced evaluation of applications by experienced scientific experts.
- The quality of supervision is based on: 1/ scientific supervision, with thesis supervisors who hold an "Ability to conduct researches", co-supervision encouraged and annual scientific monitoring committees organized, 2/ industrial "MENTOR" set up for each doctoral student whose role is to advise the ESR at every stage of his/her research project and give him/her a vision of the post-doctoral period; 3/ A special welcome and regular follow-up meetings for ESRs organised by the EDENE project management team. Particular attention is paid to the Personal Career Development Plan (PCDP) and meetings which enable PhD students to meet every 6 months to review the progress of their thesis, their needs and their career prospects.
- Quality of the training based on the 3 "I" based on the SEA doctoral school's training program, in English, enriched by specific courses to ensure a "basic culture" in the fields of energy and the environment
- Pay attention to future professional integration: with the Personal Career Development Plan (PCDP) regularly updated and an industrial MENTOR for each ESR, participation in specific professional training is also widely encouraged. Secondment to an external organization encouraged, visits to industrial sites and laboratories…
The ESRs have published and disseminated the results of their research in leading scientific journals, in Open Science, on the EDENE website and in social media and have participated in international conferences (3 papers published, 7 submitted, 18 in preparation, 22 presentations to international and national conferences, 5 oral presentations with proceedings)

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 impacts of the EDENE project fall into 3 areas :
1/IMPROVING THE CAREER PROSPECTS AND EMPLOYABILITY OF RESEARCHERS, BY CONTRIBUTING TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THEIR SKILLS: One of EDENE's missions is to focus on the employability of EDENE ESRs by implementing the principle of the 3 “I's”. With their Personal Career Development Plan (PCDP), benefiting from training in various complementary fields, being supported by industrial mentors and having worked in organizations outside the UPPA during their secondment, the ESRs will be provided with a set of highly relevant scientific tools and transdisciplinary skills that together will enrich their career prospects.
2/ALIGNING PRACTICIES OF PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONS WITH THE PRINCIPLES SET OUT BY THE EUROPEAN UNION FOR HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT IN RESEARCH AND INNOVATION:
The EDENE program is in line with the European Charter and the Code of recruitment of a researcher proposed by the European Commission (Open Transparent Merit-based Recruitment) and the principles of ethics and deontology for human resources development established by the European Union to improve the working and employment conditions of researchers in Europe at all levels of their career, starting from the PhD level , in order to align practices and policies in the context of the EU Human Resources Strategy for Researchers (HRS4R). EDENE is therefore aligned with the recruitment policy followed by the doctoral schools of the UPPA and more broadly by the institution itself and where, according to the same ethical principles, it is committed to implement an open, transparent and merit-based recruitment policy for all teacher-researchers and researchers
3/TRANSPARENCY AND NON-DISCRIMINATION IN THE SELECTION PROCESS:
The selection and implementation processes of the program have been consistent with the eligibility and selection criteria required by the MSCA principles and based on merit, equality and gender balance, offered maximum transparency. The selected candidates have all proposed their own project research topic, found a supervisor and an associated laboratory at the UPPA. Employment conditions are aligned with the required conditions of MSCA Cofund and national regulations and provisions: the PhDs have signed a 36 months PhD contract with the UPPA and all the corresponding benefits.
EDENE is an important tool for UPPA to improve the range of doctoral training courses in English and to disseminate good practice in terms of recruitment, selection, monitoring, training and support for doctoral students, as well as their employability. EDENE also contributes to increasing the attention paid to the well-being of doctoral students, from their admission to the progress of their thesis, including training opportunities, promotion of their research results, help with networking, their stay in an organisation and their integration into the world of work

image-edene.jpg