Aug 13, 2026 | 2 PM (CEST) | Online via Zoom

Non-academic experience will facilitate your career in various ways.

For MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship proposals it adds value, and proposals with a non-academic placement have a higher acceptance rate than those without. Experience from the non-academic sector gives new insights for exploitation and impact. It will also be beneficial in the next Framework Programme (FP10), which is more connected to Europe’s competitiveness, technology leadership, and real-world impact. You can have an SME involved in your research colaboration and build academic-industrial activities to solve real problems by the research.

And many more.

At this meetup we will share about placement, training, and guest researcher possibilities. The purpose is to initiate an interactive discussion from the shared information, shaped by the interests of participants.

Register

The post is a share of PIE (Practices, Insights and Experiences)

I have been to quite many events, mainly conferences. I have a bag full of badges.

Conferences are most useful when building network. Learning new things in research field. One listen to talks, meet new researchers. Understands more in our research area. From interaction point of view, the poster session is more useful than oral talks (see previous PIE-letter, or visit MSCA Sweden web page under Practices, Insights and Experiences). The discussion is more fruitful by posters.

For building network, the next step is closer format discussion. When I had my first grants as PI, we had projects meetings. Partners in one Nordic project that I coordinated were in Sweden, Denmark and Germany (Germany was additional country in a call). So then I organized meetings. Half day was in general sufficient. Since they were travelling, I added others to meeting and called it workshop. Others also presented, there was interaction, broadening in topic area. From practical point of view it had to be two days, lunch to lunch. Then we had lunches, coffee breaks, and dinner together. There was extra discussion at those.

I started to run those regularly, and we had different hosts. Denmark, and Germany. Next also Japan because our project was related to Japanese initiative in silicon carbide as new LED material. We organized symposiums at E-MRS three times. After some years this lost momentum because funding was nog continued (we applied of course). Core consortium got new ideas based on learnings, we applied in those and got new projects. Still after 15 years we have a core consortium that collaborates. Latest project is an EIC Pathfinder.

Pandemic made everyone to learn online tools. So I started to have forums in certain topics of my interest and research area. People discuss and new ideas emerged. Sometimes there is forum with presentation. Sometimes forum as open meeting: a topic and we meet to discuss, no presentation.

Conferences are very one direction communication. 12 minute presentation and 3 minute question. Conference has certain focus, but being fairly broad in general. Workshops are more focussed in certain area. So I learned that conferences is mainly building network, workshops is deepen network in focussed areas. Because it is smaller format. Forum is complementary because we can do online, smaller than workshop and even more discussion, especially when there is no presentation.

Conferences have planned agenda. That leaves less room for new. Workshops have also agenda but has more time for time in between presentations. Forum has more exchange. These are very complementary. For career progression, the workshops and forums are more useful. Consortium ideas come from those, not conferences.

Key learning: be most active by forums and workshop. They have more interaction in topic that can grow to projects and funding. Builds relevant personal network more than shallow one from conferences. Being organizer increases visibility of yourself. Leave plenty of room for the unexpected (by generous time for discussion part).

Photo: my collected badges.

By Mikael Syväjärvi

Meetup | future postdoctoral opportunities | Aug 6, 2026 | 10AM (CEST)

Future postdoctoral opportunities in “Data-Driven Value Creation in Green Technologies”

A proactive pathway for your next postdoctoral career step.
This career positioning is for those in an ongoing fellowship, or as part of non-academic placement with our host SME Alminica AB in MSCA PF application.

Many postdoctoral researchers face the challenge: their host may not have a position after the fellowship. One way for next career step is to be involved in consortium for future Horizon Europe project applications. However, that requires a host organization, and to build up to be invited to a consortium.

ICM Research Institute can host your next postdoctoral career step. In such a position you will explore how shared data creates value in the green technology your research explores now. Such paid position is conditional on a consortium securing EU project funding in Horizon Europe.
(You can in any case join us as a guest or visiting researcher to initiate activities for your career and strengthen your CV)

This requires being active. One route is to use forums and workshops to explore consortium development. We are now inviting expressions of interest from postdocs who want to actively position for consortium participation and EU project funding. You will already benefit from that along the way by building your network.

Want to know more? Join the meetup. Being part of a consortium will come from your network. At the meetup we will share ideas how you in practice can support consortium building by your current host, and expand network by being active with forums.

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Open Meeting | Bring Your Research Career Question | July 30, 2020 | 10AM (CEST)

For postdocs and researchers thinking about next steps such as funding, collaborations, consortia, and how to position for what is coming in European research.

Mikael Syväjärvi will share his reflections on your questions. Mikael has 26 years of experience in academia and more than 20 years of entrepreneurial experience in research to business, exploitation pathways to aim for impact creation. He has seen the shift in challenges for researchers. The competitive funding landscape and the coming framework programme FP10 make it necessary to position early by building a network and developing collaborative partnerships.

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The post is a share of PIE (Practices, Insights and Experiences)

What is a merit in CV and what is more useful for career are not always the same thing. As a young researcher, one desired merit related to conference presentations is oral talk. Mainly oral talks are given to established researchers, but from time to time there are also oral presentations given to a young researcher. That gives more visibility in conference booklet. Name is more pronounced instead of being in a list of poster presentations.

Certainly, chances are low for a young researcher to get an invited talk. A regular talk is the one that is relevant. If a young researcher gets invited talk or plenary, then that conference may not be a suitable one. Regular talks are typically 12 minutes presentation and 3 minutes for questions. In too many cases, a question is about something that was not understood. A minute or even two are gone. Next comes a relevant question that may be interesting to learn from. Discussions starts, and session chair keeps track of time. At some point after overtime of the allocated 15 minutes, chair interrupts the discussion and suggests that the discussion can continue at the next break. Obviously the audience will not have the possibility to listen and have insights from that discussion.

So what about a poster? Poster sessions are longer. Not one after one like in oral talks session, all posters are available at the same time. People walk around and stop at posters with an interesting title. Some ask a question. Maybe still some have not understood, but most who ask knows what poster is about and ask relevant questions. There will be a fruitful discussion for some time, and poster presenter has got some insight from the questions, and the person asking question has also got some new insight.

Maybe discussion was so interesting that they exchange business cards, or connect on LinkedIn. That is a step in your network building. Those connections are more relevant than connect requests on LinkedIn by social media passing strangers. The relevant connections will last over longer time, and at some point in the future may be an opportunity. Maybe job position, invited to consortium, etc.

Sometimes people stop for a while and then move on. It may be so that nobody asks a question. So your work from last year or so, and all preparation for poster, travel etc is not disseminated more than as a title in the conference booklet. Then you can be active. Ask those who stop: should I present the work for you so you get the overview? Most accept. Then present the findings and work, but do not get into all details. The update should not take too long time. If they actually are not so interested, you have wasted several minutes on explaining things. Maybe an interested person who actually may have a question walked by but saw you were busy and moved to another poster. But those who start asking questions after your overview, those are also the useful ones.

Over time, it is your network that will facilitate progress of career.

By Mikael Syväjärvi

Aug 11, 2026 | 9-11:30 AM (CEST)

Short course

Digital Transition for Green Technologies: Essentials and Future Perspectives

Half-day format, 2.5 hours, group.

A short course with lecture and Q&A focusing on practical perspectives for aligning research activities with the digital transition. The course introduces participants to the digital transition in green technologies and provides practical perspectives on how data in research activities can create value and relevant motivation for the transition. This can be achieved by implementing data-driven approaches in research to provide realistic impact and exploitation. We share a real case example from our own pilot (GlobalSiC).

The course gives insight into how shared data creates long-term impact through assets, exploitation pathways and new business models. This includes how data-driven value creation can attract investment as technology reaches higher readiness levels and application in society. The course also addresses positioning for research funding in the next Research and Innovation Framework Programme (FP10, 2028–2034).

Fee: 150 EUR

Contact us to participate.

This is part of training Digital Transition for Green Technologies

Individual course

You can start anytime.

A six-week programme with three biweekly one-to-one sessions (90 minutes each). The purpose is to establish a foundation that can be used for your research to present that you are aware and aligned with the digital transition. The orientation will not include details (that is available in Roadmap for Research and Career) but you will have the foundation to demonstrate a realistic motivation about how the digital transition is relevant in your research.

Participants complete the course with a short assignment that is started in week one and finalised by week three, applying insights from the lectures to describe their own research activity, data pathways and initial positioning for the digital transition. The assignment develops throughout the course, from initial data pathway framing in lecture one to a more developed value creation perspective by lecture three. Each participant receives feedback on the data-driven value creation content of their assignment.

Participants receive a certificate of completion stating the successful completion of the course and assignment.

Lecture 1: Introduction to data-driven value creation with a real case example (GlobalSiC). You introduce your research. Assignment before Lecture 2: draft how data and digital transition connect to your research.

Lecture 2: You present your draft. We discuss how to develop it further so it credibly reflects digital transition relevance for your research.

Lecture 3: Finalise your orientation for a digital transition.

Fee: 420 EUR. You can start anytime. Contact us.

Lectures by Mikael Syväjärvi who has more than 20 years of experience from international technology transfer, start-up creation and research-to-business activities. This experience forms the basis for his SME, Alminica AB, which contributes to European research projects with transfer of knowledge for impact and exploitation from research and innovation towards business and sustainability. Recent examples include the EU FET Open project SiComb (2020–2024) and the EIC Pathfinder project rePowerSiC (2024–2028). He is accepted as a mentor in the two European Innovation Council (EIC) 2026 programmes EIC Tech to Market and EIC Women Leadership. These activities support researchers and innovators in areas such as value proposition development, early-stage commercial thinking, leadership development, and strategic reflection on future opportunities arising from research and innovation.

The GlobalSiC pilot case that we will share is a part of Wafer Ecosystem. The pilot case is explored together with Mats Brodén (expert in creating value and assets from data) and Lars Montelius (former director International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, INL that is the first International Intergovernmental Organisation (IGRO) in Europe conducting world-class research and development in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology. He is currently member executive board The Innovative Advanced Materials Initiative, IAM-I that is the international non-profit Association that will operate the upcoming European co-programmed partnership Innovative Advanced Materials for Europe.

For more information about our activity related to the digital transition for green technologies, go here

We iterate when using AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, etc. The AI proposes things from your initial idea. Some of what it proposes is very insightful. The idea grows into something more mature, innovative, and built on your knowledge and experience. You bring your knowledge and experience. The AI brings suggestions from its training data.

Can you show that the intellectual contribution is yours? Document your process so that the intellectual contribution is coming from you.

Exploitation pathways, IP, use of data, AI etc are areas where there are no handbook answers, but can be referred to as knowledge valorisation. We can address those and as collective format we have initiated a Knowledge Valorisation Forum

Non-academic placement and capacity building | benefits for career and MSCA PF application

July 3, 2026 | 9 AM (CEST) | Online via Zoom

Meetup for those interested in non-academic experience and positioning your research career. We will share information, ideas, and experiences about the benefits of non-academic placement and how non-academic activity is beneficial for researchers’ capacity building.

Advantages include extra months and funding, a higher proposal acceptance rate, a clearer demonstration that the researcher is committed to maximise expected outcomes and impacts, and a realistic exploitation plan.

The meetup is intended to share information briefly and answer questions that you bring.

Register

The introduction is given by Dr. Syväjärvi who has more than 20 years of experience from international technology transfer, start-up creation and research-to-business activities. This experience forms the basis for his SME, Alminica AB, which contributes to European research projects with transfer of knowledge for impact and exploitation from research and innovation towards business and sustainability. Recent examples include the EU FET Open project SiComb (2020–2024) and the EIC Pathfinder project rePowerSiC (2024–2028). He has recently been accepted as a mentor in European Innovation Council (EIC) 2026 initiatives, including the EIC Tech to Market Programme and the EIC Women Leadership Programme. These activities involve supporting researchers and innovators in areas such as value proposition development, early-stage commercial thinking, leadership development, and strategic reflection on future opportunities arising from research and innovation.

Two options will be available. Dates to be announced. Contact us with your interest.

Short course

From impact to Exploitation: Basics and Perspectives for Exploitation Pathways

Summer course

From impact to Exploitation: Exploitation Pathways and Research Case Development

More information: From Impact to Exploitation