EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR EDUCATION AND CULTURE
Higher education and international affairs; Erasmus+
Research careers; Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Conference speech ‘International, Intersectoral, and Interdisciplinary: the triple “i”
approach to doctoral training’, 20-21 November 2014, Padua, Italy
The mission letter of the new Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport,
Tibor Navracsics, specifically asks us to reinforce the “knowledge triangle” between
education, business and research. The Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (MSCA) of
Horizon 2020 are the main EU instrument for doctoral training based on this knowledge
triangle. The MSCA bring that trio of stakeholders together to deliver excellence in
research, trans-national mobility, and career-focused training.
Much general information on MSCA was given already at the recent Italian EU
Presidency conference on 'Empowerment of the Next Generation of Researchers' – 17-18
November in Trento. Trento also highlighted the EU Principles for Innovative Doctoral
Training and the European Charter for Researchers, both of which are at the heart of the
MSCA and will be familiar. There will be a recording on the conference website.
The MSCA framework for doctoral training is a combination of excellent and
interdisciplinary research with entrepreneurial skills, international exposure and a
reinforced involvement of future employers.
It is vital that research excellence is passed down to the following generation of
researchers. That is a real added-value of the MSCA. To give a recent example, a 2014
Nobel Laureate for Chemistry is a former MSCA grantee. But equally significantly,
Professor Stefan W. Hell later coordinated three MCA individual fellowships. Similarly,
among the Nobel Prize winners in Medicine, May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser had
previously supervised two MCA fellows.
It is a happy coincidence to meet here in Padua, as it is a place where a great achievement
in implementation of the innovative doctoral training is taking place through the
predecessor of the MSCA.
The participation of the University of Padova (Universita degli Studi di Padova) in
Innovative Training Networks (ITN) projects – our instrument designed for doctoral
training – is the highest in the whole of Italy. Within FP7 this university was involved in
17 ITN projects with the budget of more than EUR 6.4 million. It put the University of
Padova together with the big research institutes like the Consiglio Nazionale Delle
Ricerche in the first 50 participating institutions in MSCA.
One of the good examples of an ITN project involving University of Padova could be for
instance "GLACERCO" – nearly EUR 4 million project on glass and glass-based
ceramics for high technology applications, used example for lasers. The project
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consortium consists of five academic and five commercial partners from six EU
countries, all with high-level expertise in the industry. This clearly shows the triple "i"
dimension of the MSCA projects.
International mobility is important not only for doctoral candidates but also for involved
institutions. With doctoral candidates being one of, if not the, most mobile group within
universities, the strategic importance of doctoral education in successfully implementing
visions for internationalisation is very high.
Several of the speakers at this conference have been involved in an EC project funded by
the Directorate-General for Education and Culture on the internationalisation of doctoral
education (Framework for the Internationalisation of Doctoral Education – FRINDOC).
FRINDOC has partners from around the world, reflecting the fact that this is a global
issue.
Discussions on the MSCA with funding bodies in North America and Australasia have
shown that the focus on mobility and employability for doctoral candidates goes well
beyond Europe. For example, earlier this year the Global Research Council, which
includes Science Europe and the US National Science Foundation, adopted a statement of
principles on supporting the next generation of researchers. This highlights the value of
interdisciplinarity, transferable skills, and mobility.
Closer to home, it is also relevant to quote the recently published "European Research
Area Progress Report 2014" which gives an overall picture of progress made in the ERA
priorities in all EU Member States and some Horizon 2020 Associated Countries:
 (page 4) "Open recruitment enables research institutions to hire the best researchers at
all career stages, and fosters effective geographical mobility. According to the
OECD, the research impact of mobile researchers is nearly 20% higher than that of
those who never moved abroad."
 (page 29) "Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (MSCA) have also had a pronounced
structuring impact on ERA by setting standards for research training, attractive
employment conditions and open recruitment for all researchers, and by aligning
national resources as well as influencing regional or national programmes through the
co-fund mechanism."
The MSCA aims at financing 25 000 PhD candidates by 2020. The importance of the
doctoral training within MSCA is shown by an increased budget for ITN from 40% under
FP7 to 50% in Horizon 2020. On top of that there is also new possibility opened within
COFUND action to support doctoral training provided by regional, national or
international programmes. EUR 30 million has been earmarked for that in 2014 alone.
The first calls of these two actions closed earlier this autumn. However another ITN call
is open until 13 January and there is a new COFUND deadline on 2 October 2015.
Furthermore, it is foreseen that the dates of further calls will be announced next year after
the summer.
ITN addresses also different aspects of doctoral training. As a result of only the recent
call, the MSCA will support over 600 companies, including within 19 new industrial
doctorates: programmes with half of the researchers' time spent in companies. These are
sustained partnerships between businesses and higher education providers, which jointly
develop and implement higher-level skills training that meets current and prospective
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labour market needs. Leading multinational companies are participating in MSCA
European Industrial Doctorates.
There will also be 8 new joint doctorates. This is the continuation of similar scheme
previously known as Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorates. One of the successful projects
within the current ITN call is actually based on a joint doctorate programme implemented
under Erasmus Mundus.
The necessary non-academic dimension is evident in doctoral training that we have
funded over the past seven years. More than 25% of all participants in ITN represent the
non-academic sector, of which almost 20% are SMEs.
The interim evaluation of the FP7 Marie Curie actions (available online) shows how
mobility transfers technology. 65% of beneficiaries – and the evaluation focused on ITN
beneficiaries – agreed that their MCA project would lead to more interest in their
research from outside academic circles. Half of the respondents noted more attention
from industry, and around 40% of MCA research training programmes led to applications
for patents or trademarks.
However ITN is not only focused on commercialisation. Particularly relevant to the
session of this conference that will focus on doctorates in the arts is the fact that 55 ITNs
from FP7 were in the Social Sciences or Humanities, 8% of the total. The MSCA budget
is allocated on the basis of applications to the 8 thematic panels.
Finally, all MSCA encourage global cooperation. There is a strong involvement of third
countries in ITN, mostly as partner organisations (host secondments) – third countries
account for 11% of that type of participant.
In order to implement our strategic aims for doctoral training, it is essential that
universities in particular can share their experiences of making these objectives a reality.
This conference will be highly useful for that purpose.
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