The conference has the objective of promoting collaborative doctoral training for enhanced career opportunities, exploring the three fundamental traits of doctoral education. International cooperation, intersectorial (university-enterprise) mobility and open mind to a multidisciplinary approach are essential steps to reinforce employability of young researchers in the global market and to reach the benefits of employing creative workers with high professional expectations.

Goals

With the objective of contributing to the upcoming review of the Europe 2020 Strategy, the Presidency intends to propose a political discussion on the future role of education and training in the national and EU growth agendas, highlighting the impact of investment in education on economic sustainable growth and the role of higher education in fostering competitiveness and job creation.

The overall theme of the EU2014 conference ‘International, Intersectoral, and Interdisciplinary: the triple “i” approach to doctoral training’  is to discuss and reflect on how programmes and practices for  doctoral research training will be more effective to enhance career opportunities of young researchers and knowledge-exchange opportunities through discipline cross-fertilization and cross-border and cross-sector mobility.

The programme is divided into three main parts.

After the opening session with high-level speakers such as the Italian Minister of Education, Universities and Research, the appropriate EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth and local Authorities, three plenary sessions characterise the first day on:

• Internationalisation to enhance quality of doctoral education
• Interdisciplinarity for widening career opportunities and boost knowledge transfer
• Collaborative doctoral education: innovative training to acquire new skills with impact on employment

Three parallel workshops will follow, each including an introduction by a chair followed by 4 or 5 selected case-studies from participant European universities with presentation of best practices and active discussion. Rapporteurs will review the outcomes, including statements useful to university management, industries and policy makers.

An innovative workshop on doctoral training in the Arts will characterise the second day with the goal to produce recommendations able to give a renewed impetus to a co-ordinated action for the development of a common view on doctoral education  in the Arts with a visible European dimension and a substantial European added value.