NEEDS The main purpose of the IDEAL project lies in the context of Doctoral Education in Europe: Doctoral education needs to adapt to the ongoing evolution of research careers and the increasing diversity of the society and employers’ needs. OBJECTIVES The project consists in designing and providing high-level training to address the challenges faced by European researchers: being better prepared to face the growing complexity of their jobs and increasing the economic & societal impact of their work and questioning the relevance of their research activities, while renewing the attractiveness of Doctoral Education for new generations of talents. TOPICS AND APPROACH As research work is by definition done through international collaborations and young PhD graduates who now embrace European careers. The project will firstly create an active database of existing doctoral courses oriented towards soft skills, innovation and employability in order to foster exchanges among partners, and to disseminate best practices. It will secondly consist in designing a methodology based on a tailor-made European call for proposals. Doctoral candidates will experiment teamwork through a role-playing game. That experience will reinforce their existing skills and allow the participants to acquire new professional competences: increased awareness about the impact of their research on society; team work with colleagues from other European countries/institutions having various disciplinary backgrounds; new methodology on how to write a bid to a European call for proposals, etc. The project will produce a MOOC of the course in a blended learning setting. On one hand, with society, universities and labor market becoming more and more reliant on technology, it is important for higher education institutions to explore the potential of digital resources to enhance doctoral training. On the other hand, part of the courses will also be delivered in a place where Doctoral candidates will actually meet. TARGET GROUPS AND PARTICIANTS Doctoral candidates of the partner institutions will be the first beneficiaries of the project: they will participate in and benefit from the training programmes which will be designed during the project. Academic & administrative staff and experts of the partner institutions: relevant academic staff of partner institutions will contribute to the development of the new curricula. By involving experts and representatives of doctoral schools, the project will contribute to structuring and promoting results within but also beyond the boundaries of partner institutions. Members of the IDEAL Employability Council will participate in the project activities: to express their expectations, to contribute to the continuous evaluation of the project and to contribute to designing the new training programmes. PROJECT TEAM The IDEAL project is carried out within the European network ATHENS (Advanced Technology Higher Education Network) (http://athensnetwork.eu/), whose purpose is to facilitate student, professor and researcher exchanges between major European universities of science & technology, and to take part in European programmes for training and technological development. IDEAL is a pilot project undertaken by some of the ATHENS partners willing to broaden the scope of their collaboration and address together doctoral training challenges. EXPECTED OUTCOMES Doctoral candidates will benefit from: broader offer of PhD soft skills training, international mobility for training purposes, training in another EU language, better understanding of current research-related challenges, experience of working in EU project, opportunities for developing their R&I activities with European partners. Doctoral supervisors will have more opportunities to suggest trainings; their PhD candidates will be better skilled to embrace project management in the lab and understand on-going projects. Partner institutions will benefit from: promotion and dissemination of their PhD-level training programmes, comprehensive offer of PhD training and new trainings thanks to pooling of resources. Doctoral training at the European level will be promoted, mobility of doctoral candidates, lecturers and researchers will increase, doctoral training will be more adapted to socio-economic and societal needs in Europe, and research careers will be promoted.
The objectives of the IDEAL were firstly to create an active database of existing doctoral courses oriented towards soft skills, innovation and employability, the aim was to foster exchanges among partners, and to disseminate best practices among partners and beyond. Secondly, the training sessions aimed at reinforcing the existing skills of the doctoral candidates as well as at acquiring new professional competences: increased awareness about the impact of their research on society; team work with colleagues from other European countries having various disciplinary backgrounds; new methodology on how to write a bid to a European call for proposals, etc. Thirdly, researchers from partner institutions were meant to acquire new professional skills by designing a programme (and practical case studies) for doctoral candidates. In addition, they would learn from the practices of their European colleagues. The academic and administrative staff have also been greatly involved in the organization and pedagogy of the project. It was assumed that the project would reinforce the quality of the research of the partner institutions, the quality of their doctoral programmes and the competence level of their doctoral candidates.
The main purpose of the IDEAL project (Innovative Doctoral Education via Advanced Learning) lied in the context of Doctoral Education in Europe which needs to adapt to the ongoing evolution of research careers and the increasing diversity of the society and employers’ needs. Research lies at the heart of innovation and is therefore considered as a driver for growth and competitiveness, which can help address future socio-economic and planetary challenges: job and business creation, innovative technology, etc. Therefore, research careers are gradually evolving in order to meet new economic and social priorities. Researchers are more and more assessed as a function of the socio-economic impact of their work. Postgraduate training must therefore be linked to the needs of researchers and their future employers in both public and private sectors. Researchers will be expected not only to hone skills within their subject but also to acquire hands-on knowledge of intellectual property management, technology transfer to enterprises at European scale, project funding and management, the ethics aspects of research work, and the impact of their research on the society. The IDEAL project a dress the challenges faced by European researchers.