Fast-Track Schools
Fast-Track Schools are meant to provide evolutive training, along the project, on scientific, research methodology and result assessment topics to Candidate and Young Researchers, providing support to their respective evolution towards Young and Leading Researchers by the end of the project. Taking SALTOpower JRA as a “test bed”, the Fast-Track Schools take place once a year and will be hosted consecutively by ENEA, DLR and UEvora.
Each edition includes MS focused Lecture and Brainstorming Sessions, organized in a alternate fashion as to address, in separate and with dedicated contents, Candidate and Young Researchers, in support of Tutoring and Mentoring activities, respectively. Lecture contents and brainstorming moderation will be assured by teams involving all the Consortium partners.
Promoting already an empowerment of Young Researchers in this process, these teams will be composed of:
- Senior Researchers for the Young Researcher School, focused on SALTOpower JRA;
- Young Researchers for the Candidate Researcher School, focused on SALTOpower PhD Thesis development.
Spin-Off Facility
In support of a ensuing entrepreneurial exploitation of SALTOpower research results, the Spin-off facility provides both Candidate and Young Researchers with guidance and support in the creation of Spin-off companies, empowering them to consider such pathway as a corollary of their current career development.
Besides due support on the definition of a business idea and model, the Spin-off facility will integrate also legal, financial and fiscal aspects. The Spin-off Facility will include training –delivered at the Fast-Track School and available throughout the ensuing project – and technical support contents – available in situ at each of the consortium partners – built in a collaborative way and including a mobility of the relevant Widening technical body.
Staff Exchange
Staff Exchange measures are transversal to SALTOpower Work Plan and regarded as a privileged tool for both know-how transfer and strengthening of the Consortium cooperation. In line with the objective of upgrading the profile of the Widening partner by means of upgraded skills at research, technical and administrative levels, Staff Exchange measures encompass: (a) Researchers Exchange in line with the development of the Joint Research activity; (b) Students Exchange in line with the Fast-Track School and PhD Thesis Facility measures; (c) Administrative staff exchange in line with the development and implementation of the Project and Cooperation Management, Gender Equality, DEC activities and Spin-off Facility.
PhD Thesis Facility
Aiming at supporting the promotion of Candidate Researchers (beholders of a relevant MSc degree) to Young Researchers, SALTOpower will establish a “PhD Thesis Facility” in support of at least two WIDENING Candidate Researchers: one already identified– the following engaged among Universities with close relation with any of the SALTOpower partners. PhD Thesis present two different profiles:
- Research Thesis: with a strong focus on activities developed in the Research Infrastructure of the consortium;
- Industrial Thesis: with a strong focus on activities developed in cooperation with an industrial partner.
Each thesis will have a co-tutorship by – depending on the Candidate provenance – the Widening or a Leading partner, and will include a mobility period in the co-tutoring partner’s RI.
Living Amenities Facility
Envisaging a comprehensive approach to the creation of attractiveness conditions by the Widening partner, the Living Amenities Facility aims at the implementation of a support structure rendering the integration of new researchers in the local context easier and welcoming. Developed in close collaboration/contact with relevant bodies and structures of the local Civil Society, the Living Amenities Facility covers the “off work” aspects of what renders attractive the Widening context: access to an Excellence Research Infrastructure developing cutting-edge research, having the conditions to feel integrated and able to self-establish with a high life quality standard.
Based on the creation of a “Mentoring initiative”, the Living Amenities Facility will provide with access to: a) volunteer mentors who will help the mentees to arrive and settle in the region (to find a house, process documents, etc.); b) organized cultural visits; c) “Round a coffee” social events; d) “Living in Alentejo”: information available on the SALTOpower website (map with marked points of interest, cultural agenda, useful contacts…).
ERC Proposal Facility
Embedded in the Career Building objectives, the ERC Proposal Facility aims at providing Young and Senior Researchers with a structured set of information backing their Application to ERC Grants. Capitalizing the Research and Strategy alignment outcomes of WPs 2 and 4 and supported by the coordination and administrative support devised in WP1, the ERC Proposal Facility will provide structured contents on: (a) New research avenues aligned with the Research Strategy and Policy goals; (b) Institutional background at both research and infrastructural levels assuring the due hosting of ensuing cutting-edge research.
The ERC Proposal Facility will support at least one application to:
– a ERC Starting Grant, aiming at the build-up of a research team in SALTOpower field of research, led by the Young Researcher involved, on the Widening institution, in the development of the Joint Research activity;
– a ERC Synergy Grant, aiming at the joint addressing, by the SALTOpower Consortium, of the ensuing research questions stemming from the results of the Joint Research activity.