EU-CONEXUS First PhD Week dedicated to our PhD Students!

Between 16-22 of March we hosted online the sessions of the 1^st edition of the EU-CONEXUS PhD Week dedicated to our doctoral students! This was a great opportunity for our PhD community to find out valuable info regarding our new research and academic opportunities meant to broaden their expertise and career perspectives. In total we had approximately 100 students and academic staff who joined us online.

During these sessions, they met the members of the EU-CONEXUS Doctoral Studies Working Group, EU-CONEXUS Research for Society Project members, EU-CONEXUS Management Board and academic staff and were informed about:

1. EU-CONEXUS mission, aims and activities for PhD students presented by Isabella Baer-Eiselt – EU-CONEXUS Executive Director and EU-CONEXUS co-tutelle framework & opportunities for Phd Students presented by prof. Loretta Batali – co-leader of EU-CONEXUS PhD Level Joint Actions. With this occasion the official launch of the registration in the EU-CONEXUS Open courses for PhD students was announced, and we had invited professors to give input on the open courses they facilitate and respond to different questions: Leticia Morales (UCV), Ana Badea (UTCB), Elena Ketteni (Fredrick), Sinead O’Halloran (SETU), Agnès Michelot (LRUniv). In total in this 2 similar sessions we had 50 participants from all over EU-CONEXUS universities;
2. Summer Schools for PhD students in the alliance – 3^rd EU-CONEXUS Summer School presentation on the thematic of ‘’Professional development and Leadership’’ presented by prof. Ilinca Nastase – co-leader of EU-CONEXUS PhD Level Joint Actions, details about the host university and the location in Waterford, SETU, Ireland presented by Mike Kinsella – EU-CONEXUS Institutional coordinator in SETU, perspective and views on the first 2 EU-CONEXUS PhD Summer School presented by Costin Popa, UTCB PhD student and presentation about Research Summer Camp “Vulnerable Coastal Ecosystems“ 2023 organized by UROS, presented by Elisabeth Reich from International Welcome Center, more details here; In this session we had 20 participants;
3. EU-CONEXUS Gender Equality Plan and Research Integrity Guidelines – two main outcomes of EU-CONEXUS Research for Society Project and working groups, that can guide present and future research activities of the PhD students, with presentations from prof. Eleni Miliou, Anca Margineanu – EU-Conexus Institutional Coordinator in UTCB, assis. prof. Petroula Mavrikiou (FredU), assis. prof. Sofia Mavrikou (AUA), asst. prof. Jelena Ombla (UNIZD). In this session we had 30 participants;
4. EU-CONEXUS Research for Society Project aims and main results with presentation from the project manager Edita Lenkauskaite (KU), Open Science outcome and EU-CONEXUS perspective in the project presented by PhD Gabriela Vidic and Zdenko Dundovic, (UNIZD) and more information about Research Mobility Opportunities for PhD students in our alliance presented by Marta Talens – RFS Institutional Coordinator in UCV and Mawuena Martens – EU-CONEXUS Institutional Coordinator in UROS. In this session we had 20 participants;

Our Alliance is constantly trying to provide tools and skills to support researchers’ careers and offer our student community a broader expertise through transferable skills. One of the ways in which we aim to do that is through our launch of the EU-CONEXUS PhD Courses, a topic tackled with the students in the 1^st day of the online PhD Week sessions. More information about this initiative can be found at this link.

We hope that in the future even more students will choose to be a part of the EU-CONEXUS PhD week as this event offers them the perfect platform to get informed and up to date info regarding the opportunities our Alliance offers them at this cycle of studies.

The dedicated website page for our activities aimed at increasing the international networking in the Alliance of PhD students can be accessed at this link.