Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions - Lessons Learnt from the implementation of European Industrial Doctorates in Horizon 2020

Funded under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), the European Industrial Doctorate (EID) is a specific implementation mode of the MSCA Innovative Training Networks (ITN), which were the predecessor of MSCA Doctoral Networks (DN) implemented during the EU European Research and Innovation Framework Programme Horizon 2020 (2014-2020). The MSCA ITN and DN programmes were developed to provide a highly integrated type of international, intersectoral and interdisciplinary collaboration in doctoral training. Key aspects of these programmes are mobility of the fellows between project participants and their joint supervision. The Industrial Doctorates are highly prized training programmes performed in conjunction with industry. The fellows are jointly supervised by academic and non-academic supervisors providing fellows with an industrially-relevant PhD which has a clear foundation in industry and business skills. This results in multiple benefits for doctoral fellows such as enriching their experience, increasing their exposure to the non-academic sector and improving their employability. On 10 November 2022, the European Research Executive Agency (REA) organised a cluster event gathering over 160 relevant actors from 75 EID projects funded under Horizon 2020. The participants represented both the academic and non-academic sectors, which is essential for this mode of MSCA ITN projects. The participants included project beneficiaries and coordinators, industry representatives, Early-Stage Researchers (ESRs), National Contact Points (NCPs), representatives from the REA and the European Commission (EC) as well as the Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA). The meeting was pertinent in terms of timing and focus as highlighted by a survey conducted by the REA in April 20221. During this cluster event, an overview of the funded projects was given, as well as the key outcomes highlighted by the survey. The experiences of participants in the implementation of EID projects were discussed in depth. A key goal of the meeting was to document successes, good practices and lessons learnt, as well as provide recommendations to help improve and enhance the efficiency and impact of the programme for fellows, industry and academia in the future, thus contributing more effectively to the corresponding EU priorities. These conclusions are also applicable to the DN-ID programme in Horizon Europe.