imπACT is a 5-year Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) COFUND programme, of around 3 million Euro, recently awarded to the VUB to develop a dedicated training programme for post-doctoral researchers. The training programme will equip post-doctoral researchers with the necessary entrepreneurship expertise and technology transfer skills to maximise impact of their research and to take up leadership positions in academia, business and civil society.
Europe is currently facing several challenges in its R&I landscape. Studies have shown Europe is struggling to keep up in the global race for innovation and that stronger collaborations between academia, business and civil society are needed to counter this trend. Consequently, the future of innovative leadership in the EU goes hand in hand with knowledge and technology transfer. In addition to this observation, research focusing on the practices of TTOs has identified an underexplored opportunity in knowledge and technology transfer, i.e. the inclusion of postdoctoral researchers in the process. Postdocs can have tremendous potential in triggering economic and social impact, while training in knowledge and technology transfer can significantly expand their career development. imπACT gives an answer to this unmet need.
Therefore, imπACT will increase post-doctoral researchers employability by promoting their impact-driven and/or entrepreneurial mindset, whilst enhancing VUB’s international attractiveness and contributing to European competitiveness and growth by investing in young talents.
imπACT will launch 2 calls for applications to select a total of 20 entrepreneurship minded postdoctoral researchers proposing a 2- year project and open to applicants from Physical Sciences and Engineering (PE), Life Sciences (LS) and Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts (SSHA). The ERIS-TechTransfer team developed and submitted the programme starting from its experience in application-driven research and entrepreneurship to create Impact in Flanders, Belgium and Europe.