Information for Candidates' Supervisors

Introduction

Value that Catalyst Fellows bring to their organizations

Fellow Sponsor

Fellows dedication

How To Proceed

Introduction

Candidates to the Catalyst Europe 2021 program may be currently working in full time activities. Catalyst Europe is specifically designed to enroll participants on a half-time basis because this allows participants to maintain (partially) the job and relationship with their current employer during the program, although they may reduce the dedication. Employers typically are universities, research centers and hospitals or other healthcare service providers. It may be companies as well.

The ultimate mission of Catalyst Europe is to optimize the translational potential of biomedical research. We expect program participants (Fellows) to be determined to execute the research they plan during the program. If this eventually happens, the fact that the Fellows are affiliated to a research group or hospital facilitates the creation of the consortium that would potentially execute the actual research project (by potentially including those organizations in the research consortium).

How Catalyst Fellows bring value to their current organizations?

Fellows bring value to their current organizations through their participation in Catalyst Europe by:

  • Learning methodologies and adopting skills:
    • Ability to design and execute a strategy for research that leads to impact and increases translational potential.
    • Skills in opportunity validation and value proposition design.
    • Gain understanding about translational research and entrepreneurship.
    • Train a needs-driven innovation mindset, a user-driven design of products and services, and patient-oriented solutions.
    • Critical analysis, defending an idea, oral communication and professional networking.
  • Bringing opportunities for new research projects. Fellows will work during the program to develop strong arguments based on validation of medical unmet needs to develop winning research proposals. We expect Fellows to involve their research groups or organizations in the research consortium they would plan to form if they obtain the hoped funder. Thus, the process should be seen as an opportunity generator for the Fellow’s organization to initiate new lines of research with strong international partners.
  • Connections: Fellows will be exposed to all kind of stakeholders, not only those who might ultimately utilize the outcome of the research, but others that might bring interesting perspectives or opportunities. Such as physicians, patients, key opinion leaders, experts in specific technological, clinical, technical, legal or regulatory aspects, industry partners (such as GE Healthcare, Catalyst Europe’s corporate champion), potential funders, etc. Fellows will be encouraged and trained to be active and effective in networking and outreach (this is, expand their network not only for their own benefit but also for the benefit of their organizations, that open new collaboration spaces, one of them being getting closer to the biomedical innovation ecosystem in Massachusetts and the MIT).

Fellow Sponsor

If the Candidate currently has a full time activity, and his/her organization is open to:

  • allow the participation of the candidate to the Catalyst Europe program
  • and, if needed, facilitate the reduction of dedication in his/her current duties to make sure that the candidate can devote the time to Catalyst Europe program
  • and will keep his/her current salary unchanged

Then, the organization can be considered Fellow Sponsor by Catalyst Europe program.

In addition to the benefits stated in the previous point, a Fellow Sponsor will have the right to:

  • Appoint one person (typically the fellow’s supervisor) to attend the formal presentations during the Catalyst Europe program.
  • Explore collaborations with Catalyst Europe projects to potentially join the research teams that are formed after the program. Explore the possibility to become a Principal Investigator for any of those projects (not only the projects where your fellow is involved).
  • Identification as “Fellow Sponsor” in the Catalyst Europe 2021 edition web page.
  • Invitation to Catalyst community activities and events.

Please, request to be considered a Fellow Sponsor in the Letter of Support that the candidate will attach to the application form.

Fellows dedication during Catalyst Europe 2021

Fellows are expected to dedicate an average of 15 hours/week to the regular weekly activities of the program, including sessions, personal work and teamwork – personal and team work in a flexible schedule format. For the Clinical Immersion and Intensifications, Fellows are expected to work full time.

Fellows are expected to attend the following activities:

  • Sessions: Weekly sessions will be run on Tuesdays from 3pm CET to 6pm CET. These sessions will be run online, except 3 of them that will require physical attendance* at the university in the Hub where fellows have been assigned to. Sessions will run from May 4th until November 18th.  
  • Trips – Clinical Immersion and Intensifications: Fellows are also required to participate in the following activities (dates on the website and Terms & Conditions):
    • Clinical Immersion in Madrid (3 weeks, mixed online and in-person*)
    • Intensification in Erlangen (4 days, in-person*)
    • Intensification in Boston (4 days, in-person*)
    • Intensification Debrecen  (4 days, in-person*)

* If the COVID-19 pandemic situation does not allow in-person meetings, these activities will be converted to an online format.

How to proceed

If the candidate has a full-time job (or is currently committed to a full-time activity) and is willing to reduce their current activity dedication (temporarily, during the program), the candidate will be required to present a “Letter of Support” signed from their current supervisor. Please find here the template. The candidate must upload the Letter of Support in the Application Form.

Candidates have the option to apply for a stipend. More information in the Terms & Conditions.

The organizations providing the stipend are Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, and University of Debrecen. If the candidate is currently employed by one of these organizations the funds will be allocated to their department to facilitate that they maintain their current salary. So in this case, their supervisor would only have to ensure to free the candidate’s time so they can participate in the program. 

Due to EIT Health requirements, Catalyst Europe organizers formalize an enrollment agreement directly with the participant, not with their organization. 

Learn more about Catalyst Europe 2020 in https://www.catalysteurope.eu/.

A program

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Catalyst Europe is a network of people working at European academic, industry and hospital partners who implement and run the MIT linQ Catalyst methodology in Europe.

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