Driving Climate Positive Futures (DREAM+PLAN)
Funding Programme: European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Cofund scheme
Academic Lead: Anne-Laure Mention
Team: 28 Partner Institutions (9 Academic and 19 Industry)
Budget: 7.5M EUR
Ends: August 2030
The Driving Climate Positive Futures program, also known as DREAM+PLAN, is supported by the MSCA COFUND programme, and addresses the pressing need for interdisciplinary research aiming at delivering practical solutions for climate-related challenges as well as the imperative demand for a climate-cognizant workforce. It will equip doctoral researchers with specialized skills to tackle the complex challenges of a changing world, positioning them to advance Europe’s resilience, restoration and regeneration goals. With tailored secondments, industry mentoring, and multicultural exposure, participants will enhance their values, mindsets, and employability across sectors, including academia, industry, policy, and entrepreneurship. By offering a visionary curriculum on Climate Positive Futures and fostering collaboration among global experts, the project will shape the next generation of climate-aware researchers, leaders, and supervisors.
European Training Network for InduStry Digital Transformation across Innovation Ecosystems (EINST4INE)
Funding Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks (ITN) scheme
Academic Leader: Anne-Laure Mention
Team: 21 Partner Institutions (6 Academic and 15 Industry)
Budget: 4M EUR
Dates: January 2021 to December 2024
The European Training Network for InduStry Digital Transformation across Innovation Ecosystems, also known as EINST4INE, is a consortium of six European academic partners and 15 industry partners working in the domain of industrial digital transformation.
EINST4INE has developed new concepts, approaches and methods in the area of digital transformation and brings together a unique group of world-leading experts in the areas of Open Innovation, Industry 4.0, digital transformation and innovation ecosystems.
Open Innovation – Research Translation and Applied Knowledge Exchange in Practice through University-Industry-Collaboration (Open Inno Train)
Funding Programme: International and inter-sectoral cooperation through the Research and Innovation Staff Exchanges (RISE) – Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Academic Leader: Anne-Laure Mention
Team: 22 European Partner Institutions
Budget: 2.5M EUR
Dates: Jan 2019 to June 2024
Award-Winning Program, OpenInnoTrain, was the recipient of the 2023 ABDC Network Award for Innovation & Excellence in International Engagement & Education as well as having been featured as 1 of the 130 projects that contributed to the European Year of Skills (2024).
The overall aim of “OpenInnoTrain” was to unpack the translation process of research outputs within an Open Innovation paradigm and, specifically, a University-Industry-Cooperation (UIC) setting, to maximize the impact of multidisciplinary research. The core focus of OpenInnoTrain lay at the nexus between Open Innovation (OI), University-Industry Cooperation (UIC) and Research Translation (RT) which, given the highly complex nature of all three phenomena, needs to be addressed through multidisciplinary lens. A close cooperation amongst researchers and industry practitioners from a diverse range of fields as well as countries could be extremely beneficial, which is why, the exchanges between academics and non-academics within the Marie Sklodowska Curie Action Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) scheme is the ideal vehicle for the implementation of the OpenInnoTrain project. The key strategy of OpenInnoTrain revolved around the establishment of strong research and development networks, connecting broad disciplinary foundations of researchers with practitioners from four industry settings. Besides academic outputs, the outcome of OpenInnoTrain lay in the development of Research Translation Toolkits – formalization, implementation and utility of which has been and continues to be communicated and disseminated for the benefit of the OpenInnoTrain Consortium and, overall, the EU Member States, the Third Country Member States and beyond.
RMIT European Doctoral Innovators (REDI)
Funding Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks COFUND grants scheme.
Role: Senior supervisor for 8 PhD candidates in double degree programmes with LUT, Finland; University of Agder, Norway; University of Copenhagen, Denmark and TUHH, Germany.
“The REDI doctoral training program, which is funded through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) COFUND grants scheme, will be led by RMIT Europe and support 41 new PhD positions with academic and industry partners in Europe”. Read more.
Trade, Innovation and SMEs (TISME)
Funding Programme: Erasmus+ Programme – Jean Monnet Activities Partnership Instrument Funds, EU co-funding.
Team Leader: Bruce Wilson
Team Members: Anne-Laure Mention, Bruno Mascitelli, Annmarie Elijah
Budget: 40K EUR
In 2015, the EU released a new trade policy, Trade for All. The new policy was partly aimed at enabling trade to be more effective in delivering economic opportunities, but also being more transparent in opening up negotiations to more public scrutiny and addressing values as well as interests.
This project will contribute to the implementation of the new policy, specifically in relation to the proposed trade negotiations with Australia and New Zealand. These are due to commence in 2018, and will continue during the life of this project. The project will engage key stakeholders from policy agencies, business and civil society to examine varying perspectives on trade and the implications of measures which lead to a more open trading environment between the partners. Because of the close relationship which the project team has with the key negotiators, the project outcomes can contribute to enhancing the effectiveness of the negotiations, and add to greater transparency in how trade can bring benefits for companies and their communities.