Stocktaking and prospects: Doctoral Training and Research – The Link between EHEA and ERA

The conference was organised by doktorat.at – Österreichs junge WissenschafterInnen and Students Union of Vienna University of Technology.

The 9th International Annual Conference of Eurodoc, the European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Young Researchers took place in Vienna, Austria from March 11-15, 2010. Organised by doktorat.at this two-days-conference focused on “Stocktaking and prospects: Doctoral Training and Research – The Link between EHEA and ERA”. Through well planned plenaries and workshops this academic event provided a framework for young European researchers to meet with stakeholders from different fields and to engage in fruitful discussions on the construction of the European Research and Higher Education Areas (ERA and EHEA.)

What marked the event was also the presentation of the results of the first ever Europe-wide survey on conditions for doctoral candidates. Eurodoc started this major undertaking in 2008 to counteract the shortage on real comparable data on crucial topics like motives for pursuing a doctorate, academic environment, gender bias, career paths, funding, training and supervision, transferable skills and mobility. The focus was presenting what has been achieved and also working on what can be improved.