3rd Edition of the Arqus PhD Week for Careers Outside Academia

The Arqus Alliance invites PhD candidates and early post-docs from the nine member universities to participate in the 3^rd Edition of the Arqus PhD Week for Careers Outside Academia. After two successful editions, the first one hosted by the University of Graz in October 2021 and the second one celebrated in Lyon on April 2022, the third Arqus PhD Week will take place in Granada from 9^th to 12^th May 2023.

The PhD Week is developed in the framework of the Arqus PhD Pursuit, the Alliance’s initiative that stands for bridging research and education to prepare early-stage researchers for existing and emerging grand societal challenges by enhancing their international competitiveness inside and outside academia and contributing to regional and European innovation strategies.

Under the title “Granada Arqus PhD Week: PhD, and now? Explore new professional opportunities beyond the world of academia”, the PhD Week will gather together more than 40 doctoral researchers, PhD graduates and career development experts from the nine Arqus universities to participate in a 4-day intense training course aimed at:

• Supporting PhD candidates and early post-docs in navigating the challenge of career possibilities outside academia and developing the necessary hard and soft skills for this endeavour.
• Offering students an international and multicultural environment.
• Making participants aware of their competencies and enabling them to make these skills explicit to others.
• Teaching students to develop entrepreneurial (and intrapreneurial) projects.
• Helping PhD candidates and early post-docs to recognise the value of their doctorate and skills, and increasing their employability opportunities in other professions.

The workshops will be taught by trainers experienced in PhD support and career development fields, offering perspectives from diverse international backgrounds.

The full programme of the Granada Arqus PhD Week will be published shortly. The main contents of the workshops for PhD candidates and post-docs can be summarised in the following list:

• How to recognize your competencies for the general labour market and successfully transfer your academic skills to a new professional environment.
• How to develop business ideas and pitch entrepreneurial projects, including start-ups and knowledge-based spin-offs.
• How to prepare applications and job interviews for (international) positions specifically outside academia.
• Receiving observations from companies on employing post-docs.
• Networking opportunities with peers from diverse international backgrounds.
• Exchanging insights with successful PhD graduates.

The Arqus Alliance will support the participation of 4 advanced PhD candidates and early-stage post-docs from any academic discipline from each of the 9 partner universities in this programme. For funding opportunities and more information please directly contact your Arqus Project Officer:

• University of Granada: arqus@ugr.es
• University of Graz: luzia.strasser@uni-graz.at
• Leipzig University: arqus@uni-leipzig.de
• Université of Lyon 1: laura.bousquet@univ-lyon1.fr
• Maynooth University: contact the organizers (arqus@ugr.es)
• University of Minho: arqus@uminho.pt
• University of Padua: elena.pavan@unipd.it
• Vilnius University: mariana.sueldo@kf.vu.lt
• University of Wrocław: emilia.wilanowska@uwr.edu.pl

The application deadline is 9^th March.

The application form is available here. For other important dates in the application process please check out the call.

Have a look at the experiences of the participants in the previous editions of the Arqus PhD Week here.

For further information please contact Inma Yuste Martínez at arqus@ugr.es and Pedro A. García Sánchez at pedro@ugr.es.