Research innovation needs & skills training in PhD programmes

A broad package of Open Science and entrepreneurship skills-related training, integration and intelligence for researchers and scientists in all career stages should to be developed. In 2020, the focus should be on open science and open innovation practices and the training should be integrated into existing PhD programmes.

Projects need to be organised by (or in cooperation with) experienced projects, which already developed and implemented joint PhD curricula, for example under Erasmus+ or ITN. . In all cases, partners should be able to demonstrate proof of concept and initial impact of the PhD training and reasoning for improving and formally integrating skills training. Initial postgraduate tracking exercises have to be integrated in the proposal, to demonstrate ability to trace postgraduates during employment (including sex-disaggregated data). Counselling initiatives of PhD candidates and PhD graduates into focussed careers in and outside academia should be provided.

In 2019, the Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 0.75 million and 1.00 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

In 2020, the Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 0.20 million and 0.30 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Within the New Skills Agenda (adopted in June 2016)[[http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1223]] and in the Modernisation Agenda (adopted in May 2017)[[https://ec.europa.eu/education/sites/education/files/he-com-2017-247_en.pdf]] specifications on innovative employment-oriented curricula recommendations are described. The Open Science Agenda incorporates activities which makes it crucial for Higher Education Institutions including for European Universities to integrate new or existing Open Science and entrepreneurship skills courses into PhD programmes and to train data stewards for example. Especially the formal integration of skills courses developed with and by non-academic actors and provided in non-academic surroundings into curricula, will be a specific challenge.

Impact is expected on post-graduate candidates and early stage researchers' careers, in closing the Open Science and entrepreneurship skills gap between research employment in academia and beyond academia. Expected impact also on the improvement of the innovation potential of future PhD candidates, by joint design of skills training courses and curricula of consortium partners into modernised PhD programmes. Expected impact on the joint collaboration between academia and stakeholders in the regions (hubs) by improving skills intelligence, skills visibility and comparability for better career choices; learning about future Open Science and entrepreneurship skills needs and employment potential of scientists in various (interdisciplinary/intersectoral) fields. Expected impact on the interdisciplinary and international mobility of researchers working under Open Science and entrepreneurship practices, also in line with the Innovative Doctoral Training Principles (IDTP).[[https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/belgium/jobs-funding/doctoral-training-principles]]