Gathering more than twenty colleagues from across the CIVICA alliance, the event served to inform members about the activities in store in this work package led by the EUI.
"We decided from the very beginning to invest a lot of energy in the work of CIVICA," said EUI President Renaud Dehousse when opening the event. "We want to make a strong contribution to all work packages, but this one is very important to us as it coincides with the first pillar of our activities - the training of early stage researchers."
The CIVICA alliance was formed through European Universities Initiative and completed the three-year pilot phase in October 2022. It is now in the process of launching its new activities, with each of the ten alliance members taking the lead on specific actions tailored to their key strengths.
"We are now entering the second phase of CIVICA and the EUI aims, not only at consolidating the achievements made during the pilot phase, such as the CIVICA course catalogue and summer schools, but also at making the most of this truly European experience," explained Martijn Hesselink, EUI Professor of Transnational Law and Theory and Academic Coordinator of the EUI-led CIVICA work package. "We are going to expand opportunities for PhD and post-doctoral researchers through increased mobility, teacher-training, a post-doctoral fellowship programme, and awareness of equality and diversity issues in research."
The work package led by the EUI, covers both doctoral and postdoctoral research and aims to organise and promote activities that:
- create closer connections between early-stage researchers and faculty and increase the mobility across the alliance;
- improve training opportunities for early-stage researchers and increase the number of related activities across the alliance;
- empower early-stage researchers to participate in CIVICA's efforts to provide service to society by embracing inclusivity and attaining the highest academic standards.
"The EUI is continuing on a successful journey towards establishing a common European space for early-stage researchers by facilitating the sharing of resources and expertise across the CIVICA alliance," said Zeineb Mazouz, EUI CIVICA Coordinator. "We are well on the way to creating a sustainable social sciences and humanities hub for doctoral and post-doctoral researchers in Europe."
"PhD researchers who benefited from the CIVICA courses and summer schools had very positive feedback about the quality of the offers and the great opportunities to network with fellow PhD researchers," said event participant Enora Palaric, CIVICA Manager at the Hertie School. "I am glad that we are now starting a new path towards consolidating our achievements and further increasing opportunities for early-stage researchers."
The launch of "CIVICA for Early-Stage Researchers" is part of alliance-wide efforts towards implementing a joint long-term strategy of building a sustainable European university over the next four years. The alliance, which began with eight members, has recently welcomed two new members, IE University (Spain) and SGH Warsaw School of Economics (Poland). The EUI is working closely with them to support their successful integration in "CIVICA for Early-Stage Researchers" activities and in the broader alliance.
About CIVICA
CIVICA brings together ten leading European higher education institutions in the social sciences, humanities, business management and public policy, with a total of 72,000 students and 13,000 faculty members. Together, they build on an ever-stronger combination of teaching, research and innovation to mobilise and share knowledge as a public good and to facilitate civic responsibility in Europe and beyond.
CIVICA's members are: