Kick-off Meeting in Amsterdam.

As originally planned, the Orientation Meeting (OM) and the first complementary-skills workshop (CS) took place at the University of Amsterdam within the first 6-9 months of the network, once most of the Doctoral Candidates (DCs) have been already recruited by the partners.

The main goal of the OM and CS is to provide the DCs with:

• An overview and context of the QSI programme.
• An opportunity to develop a spirit de corps and form a strong and effective network.
• An overview and introduction to all aspects of being a PhD student.
• The opportunity to meet with their network and secondment supervisors. This event was designed to include as well a Supervisory Board (SB) meeting, and a sandpit meeting to discuss (among the scientists-in-charge/supervisors) how to implement and enhance research collaborations within the network.

All these goals have been successfully achieved. Since this was the first time for all the project members to meet each other, various ice-breaking activities for the whole group were organised the first day. This significantly helped the attendees to quickly get to know each other in a friendly and relaxed environment.

The remaining days were mainly dedicated to provide a detailed overview of the QSI network, including its principal goals and activities, as well as to get to know each other’s work and main research interests, together with soft-skill training for both the DCs and supervisors. 

The meeting counted with the participation of the DCs, all beneficiary partners, and several associated partners, as well as the Project Manager.

Picture on June 27, 2023, during the “Presentations” session held at the University of Amsterdam: