Info Day on career opportunities for researchers and business participation in Innovative Training Networks

The National Documentation Centre (EKT), National Contact Point for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), Horizon 2020, is organising an Info Day on career opportunities, establishing links between researchers and leading R&D organisations, and the potential participation of business and research organisations in Innovative Training Networks. The event will be held on Thursday 7 November (09:30-14:30) at the National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF), Athens.

As part of the event, there will be a presentation of funding opportunities for doctoral and postdoctoral scientists, research and academic institutions and businesses in Greece.

Early-stage researchers will be briefed on how to get funding through European programmes and national grants, develop professional skills and network with leading researchers from around the world. In addition, businesses, universities and research centres will be updated on the benefits of participating in Innovative Training Networks, MSCA-ITN, how they can interface with top R&D organisations in Europe and transform knowledge and ideas into innovative products and services with economic and social benefits.

National research grant actions will be presented by experts from the State Scholarships Foundation (SSF) and the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI). Also speaking, will be representatives from EKT and the National Hellenic Research Foundation.

The key speaker will be Dr Audrey Arfi from the European Commission’s Research Executive Agency (REA) and co-ordinator for the Innovative Training Networks (ITN) under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme. Grantees and organisations receiving funding will present the benefits of the specific actions and tips for preparing and submitting competitive proposals. During a closed meeting for beneficiaries of projects financed by the ITN action, from 12:45 to 14:00, Dr Audrey Arfi will talk with technical and administrative personnel from funded organisations about the most effective way to implement projects.

MSCA actions, with a budget of about 6 billion euro (2014-2020), support the mobility of researchers in Europe and beyond, knowledge transfer, incentives to attract or even repatriate the best researchers from other countries in Europe. Statistics on Greek participation in MSCA calls for the period 2014-2018 are presented in a recent EKT study (https://metrics.ekt.gr/publications/347).

As National Contact Point for Horizon 2020 (http://innovation.ekt.gr/horizon2020) and coordinator of the Enterprise Europe Network-Hellas, EKT provides a range of integrated services for the Greek research and business community. EKT personnel help researchers and Research and Development organisations to draw up proposals and claim funding and continues to support them in the implementation of the research project. Additionally, EKT implements the 2017 national initiative ‘Knowledge and Partnership Bridges’ which was created to facilitate the networking of Greek academics, researchers and entrepreneurs wherever they may be.

The Info Day workshop is being organised by EKT in co-operation with the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT) and the European Commission (Research Executive Agency). More information about the conference is available on the event website at: http://www.ekt.gr/el/events/23486.