EURAXESS Smart Talks
The EURAXESS Smart Talks podcast for talents is your personal guide to Research Careers, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Commision. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
EURAXESS Smart Talks
Discover Careers Beyond Academia - Part 1
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Why do researchers need to explore careers beyond academia? How can EURAXESS help young researchers in career development? For answers to these questions and practical tips, listen to today's EURAXESS Smart Talks and learn more from experts and two life stories of Ph.Ds. who made this transition successfully.
In part one of this episode, we will hear insights and tips learned from the successful Rebeca mentoring EURAXESS project, by Mr. Xavier Eekhout, followed by an interview with Dr. Tomas De Garay Herrera, a graduate of this program. We will also hear an in-depth explanation of how EURAXESS can help young researchers in career development by Ms. Dalila Coviello, Information Systems Coordinator for the EURAXESS EU portal.
In part two of this episode, we will hear tips from an experienced career expert, Mr. Dean Hogan, and then an inspiring success story about the transition from academia to a high-level position in industry from Dr. Udo Greiser, as well as more useful updated information from Mr. Slaven Misljencevic, a policy officer of Directorate-General for research and Innovation of the European Commission. These episodes cover specific obstacles researchers face in the transition from academia to industry, as well as practical advice and important tips from experts in the field.
Keywords: talents, science, career, business, academia-industry interface, European researchers, beyond academia, mentoring, career path mobility, transition from academia to industry, European labour market.
Euroxas Smart Talks for Talents, your personal guide to research careers, innovation and entrepreneurship. Hi, I'm Daria, a senior expert of the Euroxess National Contact Point in Latvia.
SPEAKER_03And I'm Jovan, a teaching and research assistant from Serbia, and you are listening to Euraxis Smart Talks. Backed by the European Commission and 43 European countries, it supports research mobility and career development while enhancing scientific collaboration between Europe and the world.
SPEAKER_02The title of today's episode is Discover Careers Beyond Academia. This is the first part of a two-part episode. According to a recent OECD report, the academic research career track is highly unstable for young researchers. The main cause is that the number of tenured academic positions has not grown at the same rate as the number of postdoctoral researchers.
SPEAKER_03Despite the shortage of available positions, universities still largely focus on preparing researchers for academia. In Netherlands, for example, 69% of PhD holders currently work outside academia, but only 13% of current PhD students feel well prepared for non-academic jobs. To help close this gap, the report recommends that universities provide professional career development to postdocs to help them acquire skills beyond fundamental research.
SPEAKER_02In this episode, we will explore how to better connect with non-academic research employers through mentoring, awareness of professional options beyond academia, and meeting career development needs for higher employability and more.
SPEAKER_03We are excited to welcome Mr. Xavier Eckhout. Shali is an active member of the Eurexis Hub projects who leads the work package, places a special focus on careers beyond academia. Mr. Eckhout himself is a biologist turned EU project manager. He has participated in many research projects and co-authored several papers on animal acoustics, communication, and annual behavior.
SPEAKER_02Shabi, who specializes in international project management, collaborates in the management of the Eurex Spain Network coordinated by FECIT and is a founding member of the Rebecca Project Researchers Beyond Academia Mentoring Program. Shabi, thank you very much for joining us.
SPEAKER_03From this short introduction, it is clear that you have a lot of experience in research, career beyond academia and mentoring. The Career Beyond Academia Work Package in the Euraxis Hubs pilot focuses, as its name implies, on careers beyond academia. Why is this an important area to focus on right now?
SPEAKER_01You've already touched what I would call the basic points in the in the introduction. So the reality is that, I mean, it might depend a little bit on the disciplines, it might depend on the countries and so on, but probably you're never lying completely when you say that 90% of the researchers who start a research career, and I'm thinking in PhD candidates, will not be able to stay in academia, just for a matter of numbers. So that's uh so that's a reality. In addition, you've also mentioned it in the introduction. The support provided for this career transition, which is going to be happening, as I said, to a majority of the researchers, uh normally is lacking. And again, this is a generalization, but again, in general terms, researchers are trained to be researchers in academia and not to be researchers in other sectors.
SPEAKER_03In uh which way do you help them transition from a career which is centralized on the development for academia to a career which focuses more on opportunities which are presented beyond academia?
SPEAKER_01Well, the focus of our of our mentoring program is actually, let's say, on the very first step of what could be this transition. So, what we know is that the reality, as I said, is if you are doing research within an academic setting, most probably your peers are going to be researchers in an academic setting, and and that's the end. That's the end, especially for early stage researchers. That's the that's their professional networking. So, what we try to address on the first level with the mentoring program is to increase the number of professional references that early stage researchers can have. So with the mentoring program, we put in contact these early stage researchers with highly skilled professionals working in with some connection to research development and innovation, but not doing academic research.
SPEAKER_02So what other activities are planned in this hub?
SPEAKER_01This is uh actually Rebecca comes from uh previous projects. So this is kind of an evolution of the of the program. So the differences that we have uh that we are going to be trying to, we are implementing in an Audaxis Hubs project. Uh, first of all, is that we're trying to match pairs with the with the nature that I that I described from different countries. So we're trying to have international matches. The previous editions that we have implemented, the first one was also an international collaboration with other URAX colleagues, but still the implementation was national. On top of that, due to the nice success, Urexis Spain implemented in 2020 and 2021. We implemented a second edition at the at the national level, although with some with some some international uh context. And in this case, thanks to the support of the URAXS Hubs project, as the experience has shown us that there is much to gain in this model of mentoring. We're going to try the main difference is trying to upscale to the European level this this mentoring program. Of course, this brings a number of challenges in terms of, let's say, intercultural communication, because it's a reality. We know it's a challenge that pairs that come from different countries are going to be facing, but but we'll see how it works. But in addition, we know from previous editions that mentees particularly, uh, one of the things that they told us that they would like to improve if possible is to have further connections with non-academic professionals, let's say to not only speak with their mentors, but maybe meet other mentors and ideally meet other companies and organizations and so on. So, with that input, what we decided to do, what we are doing in Ode Access Hubs on one side is that we are connecting the mentoring program with uh matchmaking events, which will bring together business representatives with early stage researchers. It's not only going to be Rebecca mentoring participants, that's the starting point. So, and in addition, what we are going to do also, thanks to building up this international community, we're trying to reinforce the networking possibilities by creating an online community of people, both from the side of the early stage researchers, but also from the side of the mentors, people who are interested in intersectoral research careers.
SPEAKER_02How you reach out to those uh researchers who uh you mentioned this first stage.
SPEAKER_01Well, I mean, mainly in the case of the early stage researchers, that's the easy target because we, I mean, Euraxis by definition is really close to the academic world. So basically, we use our Euraxis peers, uh, the members of our national networks as a speaker to call out to the early stage researchers. So normally that's not the biggest challenge that we have. The challenge is a bit more on the side of the of the mentors, where we have to use definitely professional contacts as audaxis, but also all of us work within uh within an institution, so through other of my Fathe colleagues. And even uh in some cases, even we started with some personal contacts, people who you met during your PhD and you know that are now working in a company, so touched on some kind of word of mouth uh what we are talking about.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03You have worked for so many years as part of Euraxis and mainly focused on the academic aspect of its work. How did you first get interested in mentoring for careers beyond academia?
SPEAKER_01Actually, it's let's say that the explanation thinking and the history of Euraxis as an initiative basically explains this evolution. So we have been trying for a long time as an initiative, and including ourselves as national coordinators in Spain, to engage private sector Euraxis activities. So to get uh representatives of the private sector into our national networks, to get organizations of the private sector to publish jobs, funding, and so on. And that's been a fight for quite some time, with at least in our case, I can say openly, with limited success. The fact that the initiative uh made a transition towards a more holistic support to researchers from the point of view of career development sort of allowed us to change a little bit, let's say, the strategy. So, what we did is okay, we tried to support the researchers by having this contact with industry. And in this way, at the end of the road, we engage industry in our Euraxis activities. And that's one of the main lessons that we learned from the first edition of Rebecca. And it's that suddenly you are chasing private organizations, private research employers, to try to bring them into Euraxis, to listen to URAX story and engage them. And the fact that you do it through a mentoring program, so you're proposing something very specific, which is you as a professional share your professional experience with early stage researchers, actually changes a little bit the balance. So suddenly we get interest from the side of the private sector to participate in the mentoring program.
SPEAKER_02So, what are the objectives of the Rebecca program?
SPEAKER_01Uh the first one, the most basic one, is that we want to help early stage researchers. And as I said, we do not want to push them outside of academia or anything. We just want them to be more informed about their professional opportunities because we think that with more information, their capacity to manage their own career development simply improves and it's better. On a second level, we also have this interest of putting in value researcher profiles in non-academic sectors, because that's also a challenge that we have. I mean, it's not only about getting the researchers to be more aware and work in their career development in order to work in another sector, but it's also to inform other sectors. Like, you know, we got these very valuable and very highly skilled and trained professionals. We have, let's say, a third objective, which is a note access objective, which is learning how to do a mentoring program. So the first Rebecca edition was a complete pilot. We never had implemented a mentoring uh mentoring program ourselves. So we also want to learn by doing and sharing the information. So if 20 years from now, instead of having the 20th edition of Rebecca managed or coordinated by Fetit, what we got is a ton of Rebecca programs all over institutions across Europe with their own mentoring programs, that's also a success. That's also uh one of the things we're looking for.
SPEAKER_03And uh what are the current uh results of the Rebecca project which you would like to highlight?
SPEAKER_01Well, in the first edition, which as I said was was the pilot, we had extremely high levels of satisfaction. And this was, I mean, it was around 80, 80 something percent on the side of the mentees, which is always very uh satisfying for us as managers of the program. But to our strategic objective, a bit of a surprise was that the level of satisfaction of the mentors is even higher than that of the mentees. And this also increased the interest of the of the private sector organizations to engage in the in Rebeca, and that was one of the key results. The second one is uh I also mentioned it already, and it's connected to this high satisfaction of the mentors, is that um private sector starts getting interest, and then you realize, I mean, I come from the academic side if I have to identify myself with one side or the other, which is something we shouldn't do. So coming from the academic side, I've been in that position of you know, evil companies only value money and results and things like that. And then you realize that there are actually a number of lines within many organizations, even hardcore industry organizations, which are really uh open to this kind of collaboration and looking forward to it. So, I mean, the level of altruism is is really is really amazing.
SPEAKER_03And also it's a proof of concept because if uh people who work in companies who are in the higher management see your project as a success in the theoretical field, but it's also a success in the pragmatic field of the work of that company. So it makes business sense to do it.
SPEAKER_01Actually, I have a very, I mean, it's a very limited and very almost an anecdote of the second edition of Rebecca, the one that we did at a national level. But for me, it's the perfect example of how the mentoring program has become a game changer in our relationship with industry. I got invited to a podcast that Bajer Spain does regularly for sharing, let's say, their social concerns and their practices, which are for the benefit of society. Well, they have that podcast, and one of them they invited us because we had several mentors from Bajer. Probably few people apart from my family were listening to that podcast, but still it's Bajer inviting me, an Oracle member, to participate in their podcast, which has never happened to us before.
SPEAKER_03I also wanted to ask you what are the next steps for the Rebecca project? What do you plan to do?
SPEAKER_01Yes, as I said, the currently it would be, let's say, a third edition of Rebecca, which we have called uh Rebecca by Oraxis, and we're doing it within the framework of this the Oraxis Helps project. And as I said, the main difference is that we've gone to this European level. I have to admit that 60% of the participants are located in Spain because, of course, after three years, we have a bit of a branding, if you wish. But still, the other 40%, we have representatives from 15 countries. So we have quite a significant amount of international pairs. And finally, we have set up 100 pairs. And as I said, we have uh we have this community. Go to the Orexis, LinkedIn, and you will have there a showcase of all the Rebecca activities. And that's what we will be doing along the next month, preparing the matchmaking events and trying to keep the community alive and moving.
SPEAKER_02Can you give us a tip for young researchers, young talents who want to pursue a career beyond academia?
SPEAKER_01We are focusing on the side of Rebecca on the very first step, which is go out, speak with people, and see what's out there. You know, it's the basis of your uh career development procedure. The first thing is about self-assessment and knowing what's out there in order to plan your interest. If you participate in a mentoring program such as this one, you will have additional support. But I mean, this is something you can also do from an individual side. Because in the first program, and I and that I think I mentioned it correctly, we talked about satisfaction. So by the end of the activity, we asked people, mentors and mentee, how did it go? A number of questions, do you think it was useful, and very positive feedback. But that's not really impacting that that's a perception. So in the second edition, what we did is basically post, make an initial survey at the beginning, and we had several questions about self-assessment. And these key questions were things like how much do you know about your professional options out there? How much do you know about your research skills being an asset beyond academia? And how much do you know about the gaps that you may have in order to do a transition? And we got the questions at the very beginning before we introduced the mentees to the mentors, and I mean, and the percentages. We have it in our website, but the percentages were really small about the people that agreed or strongly agreed on the level of awareness they had. And by the end of the program, we repeated the questions and the increase was So again, it's just through the conversation with another professional, somebody who provides another professional view. Suddenly you start thinking about the things that you do, how to sell them, how to put them in value. The fact that you know better your options, I think that are for the benefit of becoming a better researcher. I always provide my example. I was doing a PhD of very basic research, as you mentioned it about frogs. And at some point I got really stressed and said, okay, I'm not going to continue this way and I just need to leave and run. Well, probably with a more informed approach, I mean you can do a PhD in very basic science, and hopefully you can use the research that you're doing for your next step in another sector, but not necessarily. You can just use what you've learned through the process, the skills that you gained and so on, in order to then do the change.
SPEAKER_02Thank you very much, Shabi. That was very interesting. Thank you. Thomas is an example of a researcher who successfully made the transition from academia to industry, as someone who has had a positive experience in the Rebecca project, both as a mentee and a mentor.
SPEAKER_03Thomas received his PhD in cell and molecular biology in France and then moved to the private sector, Refine LTD in Helsinki, as the European Sales Manager for Mass Photometry Lab Instruments, Revolutionary Technology for Biomedical Research and Biopharmaceutical Development of Novel Therapies.
SPEAKER_04Hi, Joan, hi Daria. Thank you for having me today. So my main motivation is during my PhD, I realized at one point I had liked very much the experience of going very deep into a single topic and making new discoveries in science. But I did not see myself in the long term in that type of uh job or position. I wanted a wider perspective, I wanted a wider view of science. And my current role as a sales representative and applications as well allows me to interact with researchers, with many of them across Europe, help them developing their research, and get a more shallow view of many different research projects, questions, etc., with obviously a lower level of depth, but in a much more varied position. Uh that's that was my primary attraction for this role, I would say.
SPEAKER_03Do you see some additional benefits when you compare an industry job and one concerning research that's done at the university?
SPEAKER_04Well, I would say for my particular job as a sales specialist treating directly with researchers and with end users, the people aspect is also very important for me. I am a people person, I like to interact with different people, travel, but if you ask me in general, like differences between industry and academic jobs as such, I would say it very, very much depends on what job in the industry you could like to go to. A single path because it's more or less narrow and we all know about it. There is not such a thing as an industry path. There are many different ones. So I'd say if you are just you know willing to try out and see what you like, this industry path allows you to mix and match and see many different variations of this path and choose it for yourself and move horizontally within uh the industry in that sense. I did all those things, the masters, the PhD, etc., because I liked them individually and they led me here. I would not probably advise you this path that I did unless you want to do it like that or you like it. It's definitely not the only path to get here. But the path itself was also very interesting for me, and and uh I learned a lot. And again, like right now, I'm not in this position because I want to get somewhere else. It's not necessarily part of a path I have predefined very much. I'm in this position because I like it at the moment, and I see myself doing this for a number of years, where it let leads me in the future, that's something else, but I prefer to take things one step at a time.
SPEAKER_03I'm sorry, you also mentioned that the path you uh chose isn't necessarily the best one for the career which you're currently doing. I was wondering, are there any benefits that you have from your research experience, from your experience as a PhD student, which you can apply now?
SPEAKER_04Yes, yes, there are. I mean, many of them. So it depends on the company, it depends on exactly what product you're working with. Uh, the the more technical it gets, and the thing I sell it it's a big instrument for a lab on a new technology for highly technical people. So you need to be big on biology and biochemistry, but also on physics behind what we do and the process of the measurement. Having the research experience, it's certainly helpful. My conversations are with the end users of my technique, which are researchers. Uh so just to give you an idea, for instance, in my team, even though it's not technically a requirement, everybody has a PhD. And this depends on the company, this depends on the product that you that you sell and on the stage and the organization in the company. So it's it's not a requirement for everybody, but it's certainly a big addition and something we look for when we recruit for people. I wanted to go to industry and I more or less had clear what type of role I wanted to try out first, type of field applications. So with the Rebecca mentorship, that is something I signed up for. What was it, three years ago? It was for the first edition. And so I signed for that once I had already made the decision. At that point, I realized, okay, now I know what I want to do, more or less, at least where to start. I have made a decision, but I have no clue how to implement it. So that was the next step. Oh, very good.
SPEAKER_02You had this strategy, but no tactics.
SPEAKER_04Exactly. So that's where Rebecca came in. I saw it, I found it online, to be honest. Uh, and uh I thought it was a really good. Alternative, a really good initiative. I signed up for it. I was lucky enough that they selected me for this first edition, which was relatively small. And I got a mentor for six months. And he really, he and the program in general really played a role on giving me the tools about how to actually implement this change that I wanted to make, how to practically go about it. So things about how to network, how to uh look for opportunities, how to identify them, how to sell myself and identifying my values and my skills.
SPEAKER_02And tell us please, if there's something one can do before you apply to something like Rebecca program.
SPEAKER_04There are certain things you can do. You can try to talk to people outside of your circle. You can there are many resources online. They are just a bit hard to find, they are not readily available at your university's board. But there are resources, there are forums, there are conferences. Just talk to people and try to really figure out why you are applying for a certain role or why you want to do a certain role where applicable to those jobs, all those kinds of things.
SPEAKER_02Thank you very much, Thomas. It was really it was inspiring. Young researchers that uh are listening to our podcast, I hope they can get also inspiration to find something they like, and uh it won't be only academia, or if it will be academia, then they still could look from time to time on the industry and look up what's there is interesting for them to see. Thank you very much. It was very nice to have you as our guest.
SPEAKER_04Thanks to you. Thanks for the opportunity.
SPEAKER_03After hearing a personal interview with Thomas, a success story of the Rebecca project, let's take a closer look at how Euraxis and particularly the Eurexis Portal can be a tool to help researchers in developing their careers.
SPEAKER_02We are pleased to introduce Ms. Dalila Coviella, the information system coordinator for Euroxess EU portal on behalf of the European Commission since September 2021. An Italian national living in Belgium for the past seven years. Dalila has more than eight years of experience in project management, communication, and dissemination for EU funded projects. Dalila, we are happy to have you with us and looking forward to hearing your perspective.
SPEAKER_03Dalila, we are very happy to have you today with us and are looking forward to hearing how Euraxis and particularly the Euraxis portal can help researchers in developing their careers. In recent years, Euraxis has experienced transition from providing mobility services to providing career development services for researchers. Why is this important? Why should researchers join Euraxis? How can they benefit? And for those wanting to know more, where can they find more information about Euraxis?
SPEAKER_00Thanks a lot. First of all, thank you very much for uh for your invitation. I'm glad to be here and to take part to Euraxis Smart talks today. So I will try to answer your question. First of all, starting from why should researchers join Euraxis? I think there are plenty of reasons to invite uh researchers to join Euraxis. Euraxis is a pan-European initiative uh aiming at providing researchers with concrete support towards a series of tools. First of all, we have a network of people behind Euraxis working every day to provide this concrete support, free of charge, of course, and tailored to the different situations of researchers. There are more than 18 topics on which the Euraxis network is very well prepared, let's say, to assist our researchers. We are talking about pension schemes, entry conditions, visa, job funding, and hosting opportunities. So amongst the many reasons researchers have for joining Euraxis, there is indeed access to a pool of international job funding and hosting vacancies, but also the possibility of knowledge exchange with peers, uh, access mentoring programs, uh, participating to events, webinars, uh physical gatherings. So there is really a support community behind the let's say the concept. And uh indeed, as you mentioned in your uh question, mobility service uh uh continue to be part of, let's say, Euraxis core mission. This is uh what, let's say, the main purpose, one of the main purposes uh Euraxis uh has been launched 17 years ago. But of course, that's not the only aspect of it. And uh as you well explained, the career development becomes more and more important. I would say it is equally essential for uh researchers at all stages of uh their careers. It is proven that developing and implementing a strategy to pursue specific uh career goals leads to usually greater success but also personal satisfaction. Career development is a great tool that we have to recognize the strengths or areas for improvement, let's say to maximize each researcher's potential, using already the development opportunities at our disposal, but also equipping each profile with more advanced skills and expertise. And of course, in its mission and vision of providing researchers but also research-performing organizations with the best tools and practical support, Euraxis Network expanded its services towards career development with a specific dedicated section of the portals, offering a career handbook, an e-tool, and other specific resources that serve both researchers and organizations willing to add such services to their portfolio. So I would say that a researcher or a young talent or even a research-performing organization looking, let's say, to include career development in their personal or professional plan could definitely benefit from joining Euraxis Network and utilizing all the tools and their services that we have at uh at our disposal on the platforms.
SPEAKER_02So, can you tell us why Euraxis is transitioning to the ERA talent platform and how this will influence the work of your access staff and help researchers, of course?
SPEAKER_00Euraxis is one of ERA's success stories. Uh, it has been launched 17 years ago and a lot has been achieved. However, of course, this cannot be taken for granted. It is very important to make sure that Euraxis continues to thrive. So, EraTalent platform wants to be an improvement and enhancement of everything that Euraxis is already offering. In terms of Euraxis Network, I can say that the platform will provide the network with more efficient and effective tools to implement their work, of course, building on what has been done so far since it is essential and cannot be discarded. So, making Euraxis fit for the future. There are many aspects that, of course, are already partially or completely addressed through Euraxis that we want to target better and respond to better throughout the transition towards the EraTalent platform. I'm talking about governance or user experience, but also data gathering and usage or privacy. These are just some of the topics that we want to address towards, let's say, the transition towards the EraTalent platform to make them better, of course. So to provide even better services and to provide the tools both for our own network to continue the great job that they have been doing so far, and for researchers and organizations joining Euraxis while they are looking for tools and for support.
SPEAKER_03There are probably going to be listeners who are not uh yet members of Euraxis. Could you emphasize again uh how they can join Euraxis and where they can find more information about Euraxis?
SPEAKER_00So joining Euraxis is a very simple process. One can just visit the portal at Euraxis.ec.europa.eu. And uh let's say it's very easy to experience how registration really takes a couple of clicks, both for researchers and for organizations. Creating a profile is very simple, it's just, let's say, through an email. For organizations, of course, they have to first create an individual profile. All the details to enrich one's profile, both for researchers and for organizations, can be filled at a later stage. In the very beginning, just an email and a password is sufficient to create a profile, and this already gives access to a lot of information. The pool of job funding and hosting opportunities becomes accessible, but also one can explore all the other sections of the portal. The career development one, uh, the several initiatives that we have: Charter and Code, Human Resources Strategy for Researchers, Pensions, Resaver, Science for Refugees, and of course, uh they can also visit the national portals. We have 43 at the moment, and the nine Euraxis Worldwide Hubs in case they are interested to other destinations. Of course, the more they fill in their own profile with the relevant information that is asked, the better matchmaking can happen when it comes to the opportunities they are looking for, or if they are looking, let's say, to join a mentoring program, to find a peer to exchange information with, or in case of organizations to find the next talent to join their uh team. But the registration process is really easy. So I invite everybody to visit the platform and to take a concrete advantage of everything that we had to offer.
SPEAKER_03To conclude, what message can you share with our listeners? Can you share a tip for young researchers, talents interested in developing their careers?
SPEAKER_00So if I would have, let's say, to share uh generic tips that I think are uh applicable both to, let's say, to any young researcher talent who is trying to understand the best next step for their career, professional path, uh, I would say that they should remember that one can never learn too much nor start planning too in advance. Of course, let's say a plan is just a plan, and most likely it will require updates or adjustments at any moment. But in my opinion, having one from the very beginning of, let's say, the choice of a professional path can only be beneficial. That's why career development is so important, and I think it should start, let's say, the earliest possible, from a bit of self-assessment of their own skills and interests. And this often could lead to explore alternatives that maybe at a first glance we would have not even considered. Uh, of course, it would be great if such a self-assessment could be, let's say, followed by a good overview of the actual possibilities, the options that are out there to realistically match them with our own personal preferences or inclinations. I think it's very, very uh beneficial to take advantage of the numerous learning opportunities at our disposal nowadays. This can be physical or can be virtual. We have so many webinars, so many trainings that are even free of charge. So this is essential to develop new competencies, but also to perfect and refine the ones that we already had acquired throughout our professional. And this really prepares for the next uh the next steps. And of course, after planning and preparation, the implementation phase can finally start. And I think that like this, any young researcher or talent would make uh, let's say, the most out of all the uh opportunities that uh that we have. And on a more uh personal note, I can say, let's say a personal tip that I feel like uh sharing, I think that it is very important that everybody tries to stay through to themselves throughout the whole process of planning, of acquisition of competencies, skills development, and so on. I feel that uh authenticity can often be the best reward uh both at the professional and personal level.
SPEAKER_02Thank you very much, Dalila. It was very interesting and really a huge amount of information that should be digested, I think, by our listeners. We have touched upon so many subjects. Uh, I mean career development tools that are possible for all the researchers that could be registered on the portal, then of course, job possibilities, possibility to change their work from academia to industry and meet those uh industry leaders as well through Euro Access Portal, and of course, the support from the staff of the portal. Thank you for listening to the Euro Access Smart Talks podcast.
SPEAKER_03We hope you enjoyed this episode and it was useful for you.
SPEAKER_02Do you want to hear more? Part two is waiting for you on the Euro Access Portal and on your podcast application.
SPEAKER_03In the next episode, you will hear tips from an experienced career expert, an inspiring success story about the transition from academia to a high-level position in industry, and more useful update information from a high-level EU policy officer.
SPEAKER_02For more information on Euro Access, visit the Euroxess portal. You will find more episodes of the Euroxess Smart Talks podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.
SPEAKER_03This episode was prepared by hosts Daria Aksanova and Jovan Arangelovic, Audio Engineer Pavle Drashkovich, Outridge Manager Dina Samerit, production manager Morja Rita, editors Isser Per and Miroslav Trianovich.
SPEAKER_02This episode is published under the Creative Commons CC by license.
SPEAKER_03Until next time,
