Working Life and Business Skills for PhDs

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What?

The main objective of this pilot training project is to

Improve the working life competencies of doctoral students, especially in the field of Life Sciences
Increase the correspondence between doctoral programs and bio companies
Enhance the cooperation and networking between the national doctoral programs

The project provides the doctoral students with novel training modules covering both field-specific topics, such as biobusiness, IPR issues, quality regulations; and more general (transferable) skills such as career coaching, project management etc. The training modules consist of e.g. short courses, lectures, workshops, case exercises and seminars.

To whom?

The training courses are intended primarily to doctoral students enrolled to doctoral programs of Biocenter Oulu (BCO-DP), Tampere Graduate Program in Biomedicine and Biotechnology (TGPBB), International Doctoral Programme in Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics (iBioMEP) and Oulu Business School.

In general, the lectures are open for all interested but if the number of attendants is limited (in e.g. workshops or case exercises) the doctoral students take the precedence over e.g. post docs and senior researchers.

The number of ECTS credits awarded from each course component (e.g. lecture, workshop etc.) is indicated in the course info. A certificate of attendance is provided if requested.

When?

The pilot project period has started at autumn 2011 and it will continue until spring 2014. See the tentative timetable for courses and seminars.

How to apply?

In general, all courses require at least a registration. Some course components or modules (e.g. workshops, exercises) have a limited capacity for participants and for those courses an application form must be filled. The participants will be selected according to specific criteria which may vary depending on the course. In general, the doctoral students take the precedence over senior researchers, and students at their 2nd or 3rd year take precedence over freshmen.

Travel grants

PhD students enrolled to doctoral programs of BCO-DP, TGPBB, iBioMEP and Oulu Business School are eligible to apply for travel grants to attend courses offered by the ‘Working Life and Business Skills for PhDs’ –project. However, according to EU-legislation, students from iBioMEP Kuopio and iBioMEp Tallin are in a special position and therefore not able to apply travel grants from this project.

Travel grants are to support the students’ mobility to attend courses offered by the project in another town than the student is from. Financial support is available for a limited number of applicants and for a limited number of euros and may vary from course to course. See more info.

The project

A national project “Working Life and Business Skills for PhDs” is coordinated by University of Oulu, Biocenter Oulu. The collaborating partners in the project are the Life Science doctoral programs of University of Tampere (TGPBB) and University of Turku (TuBS, until January 2013), Oulu Business School, International Doctoral Programme in Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics (iBioMEP), the business development organizations (BusinessOulu, Turku Science Park and FinnMedi) and companies in the fields of health, wellbeing and food industry.

The project duration period is 2011-2014 and the total budget of the project is 0.6 million euros, of which the majority comes from European Social Fund (ESR) via Pirkanmaa ELY center. Other investors are Biocenter Oulu Doctoral Programme, City of Oulu, TuBS, TGPBB, Oulu Business School and iBioMEP.