SCIENTIA-FELLOWS · International Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme

Periodic Report Summary 1 - SCIENTIA-FELLOWS (SCIENTIA-FELLOWS: International Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme)

The overall objective of SCIENTIA-FELLOWS is to stimulate and promote the career development for experienced researchers who show promise to be Europe’s future scientific leaders, through a comprehensive programme of trans-national mobility in the area of Health Sciences. To achieve our goal we will: i) establish a post-doctoral programme consisting of incoming and outgoing fellowships worldwide; ii) provide trans-national exchange/interaction between academia and health technology industry/clusters with SMEs; iii) design the training to maximize the career prospects of the researchers by the development of translational, multidisciplinary research skills along with transferable skills including entrepreneurship, dissemination and management. The Project which has a budget of 16.7 million € and an EU grant of 6.7 million € with a total of 180 man years, runs from the 1st May 2014 for a period of 5 years. The incoming fellowships (12-24 months) are open to fellows from all over the world willing to conduct their research work at the University of Oslo, Norway (UiO). Outgoing fellowships (12-24 months) are open to fellows who apply to work as a seconded/visiting researcher in a host organisation outside Norway and to continue with a reintegration phase (12 months) at the UiO. All fellows have a contract of employment with the UiO. Two calls have already been organized and a total of 46 fellows have been selected for the programme consisting of 7 for the outgoing and 39 for the incoming fellowships. The results of a third and final call are in the process of being finalized in July 2016. We see SCIENTIA-FELLOWS as an opportunity to develop new and innovative ways to extend the trans-national mobility of researchers in the scientific areas of health. This will generate a high quality collaborative platform between academia, hospitals and health technology industry/clusters with SMEs that will enable rapid movement from laboratory discovery to patient benefit, fostering new therapeutics and healthcare innovations. This will support the development of the ERA to a truly pan-European, international and intersectoral cooperation among scientists both in academia, in university hospitals and in industry. SCIENTIA-FELLOWS has in its first two years laid solid foundations for a trans-national career development programme. There are already a number of positive indications that the Project is on track. The management structures and bodies have been created. Through focused evaluation and selection procedures, excellent candidates are recruited to excellent research and innovative environments. The total number of applications for the fellowships spread over the three calls has been around 200. The programme has achieved an international dimension, where the first two calls representing 23 nationalities (28 fellows are from the EU, 12 are from Asia, 3 from Africa and 3 from the Americas). The fellows are offered participation in our Postdoctoral programme (https://www.med.uio.no/english/research/postdoctoral-programme/). Courses offered span from Grant Writing for H2020 to Interdisciplinarity, Innovation, Research Ethics, Leadership and Research Management and Leadership and Career Development. The impact of SCIENTIA-FELLOWS will be strengthened career paths of Europe’s future scientific leaders and on the further development and translation of scientific excellence to commercial outputs, where academic research in health sciences is close to health technology industry/clusters with SMEs.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union