Career Development Fellowships in the National Technology Centre Programme

ended

The Career-FIT PLUS COFUND Programme proposes 50 three-year Career Development Fellowships to be situated in Ireland’s National Technology Centres with mandatory secondment to industry. The programme will be managed from the Research & Innovation Division of Enterprise Ireland (EI), a national industrial development agency with a mission that targets developing people and their capability for driving enterprise growth. The Career-FIT PLUS programme will have a duration period of 72 months with two calls for proposals. As the successor to the previously funded MSCA COFUND Career-FIT programme, the Career-FIT PLUS offers a maturity of approach with key learnings from the engagement of EI, the Technology Centres and the Fellows in Career-FIT incorporated into the enhanced Career-FIT PLUS programme. These provide for an improved platform for researchers to develop high quality proposals with the Technology Centres and their partner enterprises. It also reinforces a more structured basis for training and mentoring initiatives and actions developed during the implementation of Career-FIT, such as cross-over training across the Technology Centres. There is an intention to position the programme as a more central element of EI’s innovation portfolio, with a particular focus on enhancing the interdisciplinary platforms of the Technology Centres. The proposal is supported by a significant demand from enterprises relevant to the research areas of the Technology Centres. The total budget of the Career-FIT PLUS programme is €13,792,500 of which €5,517,000 is requested for co-funding.