Innovating the training of doctoral candidates

The fourth transnational meeting of the project IDEAL – European Soft Skills for PhD: enhancing transversal skills through innovative doctoral courses – takes place on September 20 2021. This Erasmus+ project brings together the IDEAL consortium, which is constituted of four European Universities of Science and Technology and six French Engineering Schools including four ParisTech schools, who are also members of the prestigious ATHENS network.

The aim of the transnational meeting is on the one hand to provide an overview of the work already accomplished: The creation of an online training catalogue of the IDEAL partners, the design of courses, and the methodology for acquiring transversal skills. Another focus lies on the conduct of the first training course about Creative Thinking: Techniques and Tools for Success, hold by ITU in May and June 2021. On the other hand, the consortium will discuss about the organization of the next two training sessions as well as the realization of the MOOC and the course pilot. The training sessions and the MOOC cover the same topic as the first training course and involve different techniques of creative thinking, in a large sense.

Another focus of the transnational meeting is the organization of two dissemination events, which aim at putting a spotlight on the importance of soft skills for PhD candidates. They will gather PhD candidates, teaching and academic staff as well as the Advisory Employability Council and external experts. The discussions will focus on a multitude of topics linked to doctoral studies and the training of doctoral researchers and transversal skills, with a special spotlight on the international context. Two different IDEAL members will host these events that will take place before the second half of 2022.

The IDEAL consortium is optimistic about the pandemic situation and expects the upcoming training sessions as well as the dissemination events to take place face-to-face. They are in the starting blocks for the third and last year of this ambitious project, and are eager to participate in the improvement of the training of doctoral candidates in an international context.

European partners: UPM (Spain), POLIMI (Italy), University of Lisbon/IST (Portugal), ITU (Turkey),

ParisTech partners: AgroParisTech, Arts et Métiers, Chimie ParisTech, ENSTA Paris, Mines ParisTech and Télécom Paris

Project period: 1^st September of 2019 to 31^st of August 2022

For more information on the IDEAL project please visit our website

For more information on the ATHENS network please visit our website