ICFO Launches new COFUND PhD fellowship program with research project in collaboration with industrial and clinical partners

A central pillar of ICFO’s mission is the training of the next generation of scientists and technologists. Since ICFO’s founding in 2002, the institute has enthusiastically worked to build a strong educational program, offering excellent opportunities for talented women and men to pursue careers in diverse areas in which photonics plays a decisive role.

ICFO has recently been awarded highly competitive funding for a new doctoral fellowship program via the European Commission´s Marie Skłodowska-Curie COFUND action. This project, entitled FLIGHT (Fostering research careers in LIGHT sciences), will recruit up to 30 outstanding, international, early stage researchers (ESRs) to carry out fellowships at ICFO of 36 months duration in Academic, Industrial or Clinical tracks. This is ICFO’s fourth COFUND action (Stepstone I, Stepstone II, ICFO NEST+ program).

FLIGHT aims to foster career mobility of researchers beyond the academic sector. The program includes an extensive training program of multidisciplinary scientific workshops and training events where all Fellows are exposed to the interdisciplinary mix between academic research and industrial/clinical work. ESRs in the Industrial and Clinical tracks will undertake research projects in collaboration with one of 14 Industrial and Clinical partners, from innovative start-ups to multinational companies and leading local hospitals, who will co-finance research projects, and provide co-supervision, extended secondments, research and training resources.

INDUSTIRAL PARTNERS:

• Sixsenso Technologies S.L
• LuxQuanta Technologies S. L.
• INSTITUT DE RECERCA I TECNOLOGIA AGROALIMENTARIES
• QUSIDE TECHNOLOGIES SL
• QURV TECHNOLOGIES SL
• PICOQUANT INNOVATIONS GMBH
• CARL ZEISS AG
• Vitsolc Technologies SL

CLINICAL PARTNERS:

• Parc Sanitari Pere Virgili
• FUNDACIO CLINIC PER A LA RECERCA BIOMEDICA
• FUNDACIO HOSPITAL UNIVERSITARI VALL D'HEBRON - INSTITUT DE RECERCA
• FUNDACIO PARC TAULI
• FUNDACIO PRIVADA PER A LA RECERCA I LA DOCENCIA SANT JOAN DE DEU
• INSTITUT NACIONAL D'EDUCACIO FISICA DE CATALUNYA

ASSOCIATE PARTNERS:

• SPIE

FLIGHT will equip recruited Fellows with unique capabilities to launch a research career at the intersection of photonic sciences with a wide range of industrial and clinical applications, and enhance the European talent base in a field – photonic sciences – identified as vital to the ongoing competitiveness of the European Research Area.