CITIC presents 3-i ICT, an innovative, European-funded early research talent recruitment programme
Last Friday, 25th March, CITIC hosted the presentation ceremony of the European-funded 3-i ICT project, an innovative ‘International, Interdisciplinary and Intersectoral Information and Communications Technology’ PhD Programme for Early-Stage Researchers. The programme has a budget of €1.3 million, and is co-financed by the European Commission and the Regional Government of Galicia. It is the first Galician project to be awarded an MSCA-COFUND-H2020 grant.
3-i ICT will fund eight Early-Stage Researchers to carry out their PhDs at CITIC. Fellows will receive complementary training in research and transferable skills that will provide them with a solid competitive advantage in their career development.
The opening ceremony was presided over by the UDC Vice-Rector for Science Policy, Research and Knowledge Transfer and member of the CITIC Governing Committee, Salvador Naya Fernández. In his address, Naya Fernández highlighted the timeliness of the project due to the exponential growth of ICT in recent years and the close alignment of 3-i ICT with the strategic goals of UDC.
Speakers at the event also included the head of the Research Planning and Structuring Service of the Galician Department of Culture, Education and Universities, Faustino Infante Roura, who congratulated CITIC on behalf of the Regional Government of Galicia on becoming the first Galician organisation to receive funding from the MSCA-COFUND-H2020 scheme, and expressed his confidence that “researchers will find in the CITIC an ideal ecosystem for their career development”.
Next, the Vice-Rector for Students, Participation and Employability of the UDC, María José Lombardía, indicated that one of the core aims of 3-i ICT is to promote the presence of women in science and work to reduce the gender gap in a sector in which the percentage of female enrolment in engineering is still less than 25%.
Finally, the CITIC Director, Manuel F. González Penedo, recalled the centre’s long history of multidisciplinary research in areas such as biomedicine, industry 4.0, natural language processing and sustainability, before handing over to the CITIC European Projects Manager, Ana Almécija Pereda, to inaugurate this innovative training programme, which will last for five years and consist of two calls for candidates.
