Turku Intersectoral Excellence Scheme – For External Organisations

Information for organisations wishing to host Fellows’ secondments.

The Turku Intersectoral Excellence Scheme (TIES) is funded by the EU Marie Skłodowksa Curie Action (MSCA) COFUND scheme (1.14 M €) and the University of Turku (1.01 M €)

Turku Intersectoral Excellence Scheme (TIES)

TIES is a ground-breaking new fellowship scheme based within UTU’s Turku Institute for Advanced Studies (TIAS), in partnership with Turku Science Park. It combines the Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) model of elite, bottom-up, postdoctoral research with the intersectoral approach only found at present in industrial PhD programmes, adding best-in-class working conditions and practices in line with EU standards.

By supporting secondments to external organisations of leading university researchers for periods of between two and six months, TIES’ ambition is to develop a cohort of expert researchers able to spot and develop opportunities across and beyond academia. We are now seeking potential partners to join us in this exciting development by offering hosting opportunities to TIES researchers.

The TIES programme will commence in September 2023, with the first secondment opportunities being offered from 1 November 2023. All TIES researchers will be appointed for three years and must spend between two and six months of their Fellowships working within an organisation external to higher education.

Call for applications and launch event 15 Nov 2022

Opportunity for external organisations

The TIES programme involves top level researchers being located in an organisation external to higher education for a period of between two and six months. This provides a number of benefits to the host organisations:

Dedicated research undertaken in-house by an expert researcher with an external perspective
Added value from knowledge exchange, including access to latest research
Enhance connectivity with Finnish academia
No direct cost: salary paid by TIES
Networking at TIES workshop events hosted by UTU and, potentially, by host organisation
Output, e.g. Open Access scientific articles, policy briefs, industrial publications
NDAs and publication embargo periods can be agreed in advance if necessary

(Organisations wishing to fund additional TIES research positions or research secondments focusing on their own strategic areas should contact TIAS directly.)

Requirements

We require potential partners to provide the following:

Specified non-academic supervisor with at least five years of relevant work experience to provide necessary training and guidance for the researcher
Workspace for researcher (desk in a calm environment with high-speed internet connection)
Company policies in areas such as equal opportunities should be in line with those of UTU and the EU (e.g. non-discrimination and equal opprtunities etc)
Willingness to attend workshops at the University on intersectoral working.

NB: Prior to the commencement of any secondment, the University will meet with the host organisation and discuss issues such as NDAs, IPRs etc, which will be formalised in a secondment agreement.

Details

Number of positions available: A total of 8 appointed in 2023 and 2024
Duration of positions: 3 years (1.9.23-30.8.26 and 1.9.24-30.8.27)
Faculties involved: Economics, Education, Humanities, Law, Social Sciences,
Eligibility of applicants:

Excellent Candidate: Postdoctoral Researchers with a maximum of 8 years from PhD
Excellent Proposal: Original project to tackle an issue involving a non-higher education sector
Intersectoral Mobility: 2-6 month secondment at an organisation outside of higher education
International Mobility: Researchers must meet the EU’s requirement that they have spent at least 24 of the previous 36 months outside Finland prior to the call deadline.

Selection: International expert chair (Professor Simon Frith, University of Edinburgh), vice-chair (Professor Nadia Al-Bagdadi, Central European University), Kalle Korhonen, Director of Funding, Kone Foundation, and the TIAS Board of Management
Training: TIES-focused workshops held at UTU and at partner organisations and TIES Fellows will have their own training budget
Supervision: 1 academic and 1 non-academic supervisor, overseen by the Director of TIAS
Coordination: TIAS Director and TIAS Coordinator
IP Owner: The creator
Non-disclosure agreement: To be negotiated prior to commencement of secondment

Further information

Co-funded by the EU flag

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions grant agreement No. 101081293.