Arqus PhD Week for Careers Outside Academia

The Arqus European University Alliance is a cooperation between the Universities of Bergen, Granada, Graz, Leipzig, Lyon [1], Padua, and Vilnius, which is funded by the European Commission. Arqus aspires to:

• enhance the education of critically engaged European and global citizens who are able and willing to contribute to a multicultural, multilingual and inclusive Europe which is open to the world;
• increase and improve the joint research capacity of the partner universities;
• better respond to the grand societal challenges of the 21st century in Europe and beyond.

The Arqus Action Line 6 Research Support and Early Stage Researcher Development has developed initiatives to support doctoral candidates and doctorate holders in making their skills and knowledge available to employers outside the university context. One of these initiatives is the Arqus PhD Week for Careers outside Academia (programme here).

This event will take place on the premises of the Center for Knowledge and Innovation Transfer (ZWI) on the campus of the University of Graz from October 13 to 15, 2021.

Around 60 participants - doctoral researchers, PhD graduates and career development experts - from the seven universities of the Arqus alliance will meet with local entrepreneurs to work together. In case of travel restrictions, there will be an online version of the event.

In addition to cooperating in an international and multicultural environment, the main aims of the PhD Career Week are to train doctoral researchers and PhD graduates to develop skills for careers outside academia. Participants will

• become aware of their competencies,
• be empowered to make them explicit to others,
• learn to develop entrepreneurial (and intrapreneurial) projects
• be trained in opening up professional opportunities and increasing their employability.

^{[1] Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 and Université Jean Monnet at Saint-Etienne.}

The full programme is here. Among the contents of the Career Week are:

• Mapping the skills acquired during doctoral training
• Entrepreneurship creativity workshop
• Preparing international job applications
• Meet and greet at Centre for Knowledge and Innovation Transfer, University of Graz
• Pitching competition
• Career dinner

In addition to the workshops and activities aimed at helping the participants in securing a career outside academia, the workshops related to entrepreneurship and creativity will allow doctoral researchers and early postdocs to become aware of what entrepreneurial spirit and behavior means. For example, participants will improve their compentence in

• working with others, problem solving, communicating, becoming self-aware and recognizing personal competencies

Participants will also learn to recognize and explore entrepreneurial opportunities by

• being creative, identifying an opportunity and developing it, identifying its value proposition and pitching it.

Gayannée Kedia, A Brilliant Mind: writing and productivity boost for scientists

We cooperate with the Arqus AL5 team for this event. Have a look at their video interviews with PhD entrepreneurs!

Information about the location: Unicorn Graz (unicorn-graz.at).

We thank our cooperation partners!

City Maps by Graz Tourismus.

See a list of university affiliated hotels here.