The 2nd Interdisciplinary Meeting of Predoctoral Researchers has around 300 participants
Who might be interested in my research? Is it useful? What can I do after the PhD? Here are some of the questions that predoctoral researchers pose to themselves. On Thursday 6 February, the 2nd Interdisciplinary Meeting of Predoctoral Researchers (JIPI) will try to answer them. It is an initiative thought and developed by predoctoral researchers at several faculties of the University of Barcelona (UB) and research centres. The main objectives of the meeting are to inform companies and other researchers about the research they are developing, to encourage the exchange of ideas, and to promote the access to the business sector and interdisciplinarity in research.
Who might be interested in my research? Is it useful? What can I do after the PhD? Here are some of the questions that predoctoral researchers pose to themselves. On Thursday 6 February, the 2nd Interdisciplinary Meeting of Predoctoral Researchers (JIPI) will try to answer them. It is an initiative thought and developed by predoctoral researchers at several faculties of the University of Barcelona (UB) and research centres. The main objectives of the meeting are to inform companies and other researchers about the research they are developing, to encourage the exchange of ideas, and to promote the access to the business sector and interdisciplinarity in research.
Around 300 young researchers participate in this second edition. Their fields of research are diverse: Chemistry, Physics, Fine Arts, Psychology, etc. Nearly ten companies also attend the meeting that includes two sessions in which professionals who research in the private sector or set up their own business participate.
“Predoctoral researchers have high level skills. They acquire them by developing a research; it does not matter on which field they are investigating, they can add value to companies”, explain the organizers of the meeting, who are many of them finishing their PhD thesis. The group is aware of the small number of places offered in the public sector for senior researchers if we compare it with the number of predoctoral researchers; in Catalonia they are around 4,000. With this situation in mind, predoctoral researchers are changing their opinion and they consider more and more the possibility to join a company or set up their own business. However, organizers of the meeting state that “there is a knowledge gap between the aspects that predoctoral researchers can offer to companies and the ones asked by companies”. Thus, the meeting aims at bringing companies closer to predoctoral researchers.
JIPI 2014 is supported by the campus of international excellence Barcelona Knowledge Campus and its doctoral schools, as well as by all the institutions present on the campus: the University of Barcelona, the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the Centre for Mathematical Research and the Catalan Association of Research Centres (ACER). The Catalan Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics societies, affiliated with the Institute for Catalan Studies (IEC), also collaborate in the meeting.
Sessions on entrepreneurship and speed networking
The meeting includes an entrepreneurship session. Participants are Marc Almendros, from Signadyne; Xavier Guardiola, from Simpple and Ilustrum, and Miguel Vidal, from TechIDEAS. The discussion is be moderated by Xavier Ferràs, director of the Business Innovation Centre of ACC1Ó and dean of the Faculty of Business and Communication Studies at the University of Vic. Joan Antoni Cabrer, from McKinsey and Company, and Daniele Quercia, from Yahoo Labs, participate in another session on consultancy and new business models, moderated by the UB professor Josep Perelló.
The meeting also includes a speed networking session in which researchers pronounce a five-minute speech to describe their research in order to pave the way to new collaborations.
Europe is trying to bring doctoral studies closer to business. LERU has recently published an advice paper —the Doctoral School of UB collaborated in it— that describes some successful initiatives carried out at European institutions. LERU makes some recommendations not only to universities, but also to policy makers, funders and employers.
According to the document, three drivers have led many universities to introduce changes in doctoral education. First, many doctoral graduates, with high level skills, seek employment outside the academy; second, the model of the lone scholar is no longer appropriate, and third, heavy reliance on a single PhD supervisor guiding the development of the PhD candidate is not robust.
The paper includes good practice elements in doctoral training carried out at different European universities such as Oxford University, the University of Cambridge and Pierre & Marie Curie University in Paris. The document also describes three examples of good practices developed at the University of Barcelona. One of them is the bioethical training carried out at the Bioethics and Law Observatory (OBD), headquartered at the Barcelona Science Park (PCB-UB), to inform doctoral candidates and postdoctoral researchers about the ethical, legal and social implications of biotechnology and biomedicine. Another example provided is the Centre for Entrepreneurship of the Bosch i Gimpera Foundation of UB; it promotes entrepreneurship through a programme to help create new technology-based spin-offs and to provide resources. Among intersectorial initiatives, the document includes the activities organised by UB Solidarity Foundation which provide technical assistance and consultancy to the UB community and to public and government institutions concerning the defence of human rights and social action.
Link to the advice paper: How to train doctoral researchers for a diverse job market (LERU, 15 January 2014)