SCIENT PROJECT IS UP AND RUNNING - 2ND PROJECT COORDINATION MEETING

The Erasmus+ SCIENT project held its second coordination meeting at the University of Gloucestershire in Cheltenham, United Kingdom, on 15 July 2015. The project aims to launch an innovative entrepreneurship programme for PhD STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) students and graduates that will focus on the development of their transversal skills and provide them with a new professional path. The meeting was attended by members of the SCIENT consortium, comprising 15 partners from 8 countries.

All 24 meeting participants were given the opportunity to discuss the progress made in the first six months of the project, identify problems, explore ideas and create the project’s roadmap for the coming months. More specifically:

• Project partners presented key findings from the project’s training needs assessment phase that included an extensive literature review and study visits at local, national and European level. Some key points:
  • There is a strong need to change the mindset of PhD students/graduates. The online student questionnaire developed by the University of Gloucestershire is an attitude indicator; according to the results so far, 42% of the respondents noted that they are not interested in starting their own business.
  • Soft skills and commercial awareness need to be further developed.
  • Both the idea and the team are important to establish a successful new company.
• Project partners ran a brainstorming session on SCIENT Training Programme that focused on methodology, learning units, tools for trainers, job shadowing, mentoring and programme implementation.
• GrantXpert provided all partners with guidelines on project and financial management.
• Sigmalive presented WP2 completed online and offline activities, received feedback and indicated the next steps of the project’s dissemination plan.
• ISOB referred to all coming evaluation and quality assurance activities.

Publication Date: 23/09/2015