Technology Transfer Fellowships (TTF)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Co-funding of regional, national and international programmes
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Belgium
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-COFUND, 2013)
Start date: 2014-03-01
End date: 2019-02-28
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 21148313.6
EU funding (EUR): 8459325.44
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The fellowships scheme offers a total of 80 two-years fellowships to highly skilled researchers to perform a research stay in a Belgian French-speaking university, in close co-operation with a Walloon industrial/commercial private partner. The project will run on a 5 years period, allowing 4 calls for proposals offering a total of 160 fellowship-years. Eligible researchers cover all nationalities that have at least 4 years of research experience or a PhD, but less than 10 years research experience, they must comply with a clear mobility rule: having spent less than 12 out of the last 36 months in Belgium. All research fields are eligible, as long as a potential industrial/commercial added value can be demonstrated. The researcher can choose to perform his/her 2 years-stay in one of the 7 eligible universities but a total of 6 months must be spent on the premises of a private partner (this stay can be done in several periods). A facilitator is part of the staff of the project management to enhance the matching between universities and private partners. Researchers who will be granted a TTF fellowship will benefit from two supervisors: one from the university, another from the private partner. Mentorship, training and supervision are important facets of this mobility scheme. Objectives of the present programme are triple: - offer to international researchers a high level research stay in a university unit and develop economic/innovation skills in an enterprise ; - enhance trans-sectoral collaboration and mobility; - identify and valorise research results that have a potential economic impact. Publication of the call will be diffused widely, using all available tools and networks. The evaluation process is transparent and based on skills and experience: each proposals will be evaluated by 2 international independent experts and one internal scientific advisor through well-defined evaluation criteria, that will be available for the applicants in a user-friendly and detailed guide for applicants (in English, downloadable from the dedicated webpage). Support to applicant will be offered permanently, the evaluation process will be as short as possible and feed-back to applicants will consist of a detailed Evaluation Summary Report (ESR) justifying the scores, underlining strengths and weaknesses of the proposal and explaining reasons for funding or rejection. Furthermore, grantees will be offered a 2 years employment contract will full social security coverage, an extra mobility allowance and a bench fee for covering research costs and participation to conferences, workshop, etc.

Keywords: technology transfer - innovation - mobility - trans-sectoral - training