Training program

Following the EU Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training, our consortium will train 10 doctoral candidates (DCs) fostering research excellence, international, inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary approaches. The training program will be set-up as a Doctoral School, and it will offer specific training goals for each DC. All partners will be actively involved in the coordination of activities designed to ensure that the DCs receive the comprehensive background knowledge necessary for success in their research plans and to enhance their employability and career prospects.

During the training, frequents interactions will take place between DCs via secondments in the same place and organised weekly virtual coffee breaks.

Each DC will have assigned two main training supervisors from two different beneficiary partners. These beneficiaries will also host the DC along the three years, being responsible for monitoring and securing the progress of the candidate over the course of the doctorate. The supervisors will have weekly meetings with the candidate to discuss planning, research quality, problems and other issues. The joint-supervision offers the DCs the opportunity of a multicentral research experience with different backgrounds, and another scientific and cultural environment.

Additionally to the training supervision, the DCs will have secondments (normally two secondments per candidate), thus being connected to non-academic partners (industry or clinical centers).

During their secondments, the DCs will be daily-mentored by experienced professionals of the non-academic sector, while still maintaining bi-weekly meetings with their training supervisors. Through this structure, the DCs will gain relevant experience into clinical practice, knowledge-utilisation and end users, thus stimulating knowledge transfer to society.

Through this structure, the DCs will gain relevant experience into clinical practice, knowledge-utilisation and end users, thus stimulating knowledge transfer to society.

Moreover, they will meet at the same place with other DCs, so the synergistic contribution of all beneficiaries is ensured throughout the whole project, adding to the consortium meetings and Summer/Winter schools proposed where their progression and goals will be discussed with all participants.

In order to have smooth coordination in the DCs’ multifaceted training programme, several mechanisms will be put in place to optimize the DCs supervision between the academic and industrial supervisors and mentors:

1) A personal career development plan for each DC, which will be prepared at the beginning of the training programme and revised over the training;
2) Regular meetings between the DC and the supervisors/mentors;
3) Frequent Supervisory Board meetings, both in person and online as videoconferences to minimize the carbon footprint of the project, in which the progress of all DCs will be discussed; and
4) Progress reports for all DC to be submitted every 2 months, which will be shared with all participants of the consortium using the private section of the TAILOR website.