IDPbyNMR

Project Final Meeting

Graduate curricula: support

towards academic careers

and beyond

Ten years (four in IDPbyNMR) human

resource training at universities.

600 students per year

Castiglione della Pescaia (Florence), Italy

21-26 September 2014

Dr. Andrea Degen, MD, Eurelations AG. Providing

services for IDPbyNMR, East-NMR,

ERASMUS B-INNOVATIVE etc.

Content:

I. Definition: academic career

II. Political embedment

III. EU expectations from researchers

IV. Knowledge gap

V. Examples of graduate curricula

VI. Observations, lessons learned, future outlook

VII.The IDPbyNMR training courses

I. Definition: academic career

• Course or progress through professional life in

academia (gr. Ἀκαδήμεια1) = universities (lat.

universitas «the whole»)

• Formal education (undergraduate/postgraduate)

• Degrees

(Bachelor/Master/PhD/PostDoc/Professorship)

• Academic Freedom 2,3

• Best educated R

1. Plato's school of philosophy, 385 BC: Meet, discuss, gain wisdom. Higher public

or private learning institutions

2. «Constitutio habita», University of Bologna, 1158

3. Magna Charta Universitatum, 1988, signed by universities

II. Political embedment

• DG education and culture

• DG research

• DG innovation & industry

Balancing act: EDUCATION –

RESEARCH and INNOVATION in the globalised

research, development & technology environment 4. Jeremy Rifkin:

• 2004, The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future is Quietly

Eclipsing the American Dream, ISBN 1-58542-345-9

• 2011, The Third Industrial Revolution: How Lateral Power Is Transforming

Energy, the Economy, and the World, ISBN 978-0-230-11521-7

• 2014, The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The internet of things, the collaborative

commons, and the eclipse of capitalism, ISBN 978-1-137-27846-3

III. The role of education, research

and innovation in EU Member States

• Key drivers of social and economic prosperity and of

environmental sustainability

• Key drivers for industrial competitiveness: investment

of 3 % of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2020 in

order to attract private investment of up to 2/3 of total

investments

• Key drivers for the European Research Area (ERA):

cohesion policy, capacity-building and providing a

stairway to excellence

5. Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (Consolidated version 2012);

Art. 173, 183 and 188 paragraph 2

6. Horizon2020: Regulation 1291/2013

7. Europe2020, Innovation Union COM;2010

Ironically

the privilege to be best

educated makes the young EU

researcher the elite and

responsible for the «rest» of

society. - Find solutions to financial crisis

- create wealth & jobs

- cure diseases

- fight against nationalism as best example for

positive impact immigration

- etc. etc.

The needs for key drivers licenses:

IV. Knowledge gap

• Mobility, relations across borders8

• Specific knowledge about scientific, social,

economic benchmarks (impact)

• Specific goal (publications, patents, employment)

• Specific role (employee, team leader, spin-off entrepreneur,…)

• Specific rules or benchmarks related to

research topic (clinical research, pharmaceutical development,

sample assemblage, access an benefit sharing of natural resources,…)

8. EURAXESS - Researchers in Motion is a unique pan-European initiative

providing access to a complete range of information and support services to

researchers wishing to pursue their research careers in Europe or stay

connected to it http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/

Knowledge needed beyond

science=horizontally/complementary/transferable/soft/…Trend:

V. Example of curricula9 We knew what we know

We knew what we didn’t knew

We didn’t know what we didn’t know - Mandated by universities

- Gender units organised the first courses

- Funded by third parties

- Constantly improve quality (ECTS)

- More and more focused

- Separate courses for PhDs and PostDocs

- Courses are fully booked

- PostDocs are willing to pay

- New needs: Social Networks, Code of conduct in science,…

9. Examples of Graduate Curricula: Institutional: Graduate Schools UniZURICH

http://goo.gl/VbdgD9 , UniBASEL http://goo.gl/16cwRd , UniLUCERNE http://goo.gl/9Zvnp4

Departments: ETHZ Life science Graduate School http://www.lifesciencezurich.ch/

Thematic: Plant science http://www.plantsciences.uzh.ch/teaching.html

VI. Observations – and

immediate corrections 1. An excellent undergraduate education comes first (HR units and Pis choose staff

carefully)

2. Only a minority continues in science. As a consequence the content of the

trainings should be applicable in other professions

3. People with academic ambitions need mentors 10

4. Separate teaching of PhDs and PostDocs

5. Diversity of fellows = high quality

6. Coherent curricula and a contextual programme is much better than «ad hoc»

trainings without concept

7. The external expert is no expert. The involved parties are the experts. Fellows,

trainers, organisers (middle management)

8. Technocratic knowledge shift is no value added. «It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t

got that swing», Motivation and respect! Create a culture of innovation with

ambitious visions. «Think big», shoot towards the moon…feed self confidence of

fellows

10. Julia Richardson, Jelena Zikic, (2007) "The darker side of an international academic

career", Career Development International, Vol. 12 Iss: 2, pp.164 - 186

Lessons learned – but hard to

correct: • Agree on horizontal education needs

• Agree on catalogue, common goal and basic-,

advanced-, superior- knowledge for PhD and

PostDocs

• Leadership and guidance by senior staff and

university middle management

• Flat hierarchy

• Winning cooperation with third parties (e.g. Trainers)

• Keep longtherm connected (to IDPFellowsClub) and

commit to need to make things move together

Connect to IDPbyNMR on Facebook!!!

Future outlook:

A university culture of teaching

A university culture of constant learning

An academy and open source of permanent

innovation

VII. The IDPbyNMR CST trainings

Assessment of needs beforehand and quality check after each

training:

1. St. Moritz (CH): 7-10 February 2011

Career Planning / Presentations Techniques / Self Management /

Structuring your Thesis

2. Poggibonsi (IT): 25-28 October 2012

Paper Writing / Proposal Writing / Business Plan Writing

3. Zurich (CH): 3-6 September 2013

Entrepreneurship & NMR: From Science to Market / Meeting Nobel

Prize Winner / Industry Visit / IPR Training

4. Castiglione della Pescaia (IT): 28-31 May 2014

National & International Fundraising / Industry Cooperation / Digital Job

Hunting: Digital Fingerprint / Application Video / Social Media

Impressions: Castiglione della

Pescaia

Digital Job

Hunting Training

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www.eurelations.com / team@eurelations.com / Phone +41 44 271 33 33