The ‘MSCA Doctoral Networks’ are Doctoral networks promoted by the Horizon Europe 2021-2027 framework program through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. These networks seek to increase the attractiveness and excellence of doctoral training in Europe, promoting the appropriate acquisition of scientific-technical and transferable skills. In this context, the European Commission finances doctoral programs proposed by international, intersectoral and interdisciplinary consortia, with the aim of training doctoral students and leading them to high qualification; stimulate their creativity, improve their capacity for innovation and promote their employability.

In its last call, the REA has selected 15 doctoral networks to be coordinated by Spanish institutions. One of them is the TIMES project – in the Physics panel and in the field of advanced quantum materials –, coordinated by the physicist Alejandro Molina from the Institute of Materials Science of the University of Valencia (ICMUV). In addition, the University is part of two other MSCA Doctoral Networks in the panels of Mathematics – CaLiForNIA project – and Engineering – OWIN6G project.

The networks have a duration of 4 years and some are already in the phase of offer and selection of candidates.

TIMES

The TIMES doctoral network will be responsible for training a new generation of scientists capable of devising new theoretical and computational frameworks to simulate out-of-equilibrium phenomena, such as those that occur in solar cells when light generates an electric current. The project will study the dynamic processes that take place in advanced quantum materials, whose modelling is key to developing applications in quantum computing, information processing, photovoltaic cells, and optoelectronic devices for more efficient light emission.

The doctoral network brings together researchers with experience in physics, chemistry, materials science and computing, who will develop theoretical and computational tools for understanding quantum processes and emerging physical phenomena. To do this, TIMES will make intensive use of high-performance computing centres such as the TIRANT supercomputer of the University of Valencia or the CINECA high-performance computing centre, among other European high-performance computing centres. Network activities also include collaborations with leading ultrafast spectroscopy experimental groups.

Coordinated by the theoretical physicist of the University of Valencia Alejandro Molina Sánchez, head of the Department of Applied Physics and Electromagnetism and researcher at the Institute of Materials Science (ICMUV) of the academic institution, the doctoral network has a budget of 2, 7 million euros and is made up of a consortium of nine entities –CNR (Italy), Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel), Queen’s University (United Kingdom), CNRS (France), Università Tor Vergata (Italy), IST (Austria), University of Kiel (Germany), Università di Palermo (Italy) and the University of Valencia itself. In addition, the network has associated collaborators, such as the SIMUNE company (Spain), the IMEC technology centre (Belgium) or the CINECA high-performance computing centre (Italy), among others.

OWIN6G

OWIN6G (Optical and Wireless Sensors Networks for 6G scenarios) is the acronym for the first PhD Network dedicated to training a new generation of early-stage researchers in the field of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for the Internet of Everything. and Internet of Things (IoE/IoT), as part of future 6G networks. “These are optical technologies that facilitate disruptive applications based on wireless sensors connected to future 6G networks. We are talking about new sensors improved through automatic learning, solar cells for energy harvesting and optical detection, or hybrid wireless technologies”, says Joaquín Pérez-Soler, coordinator of the participation of the University of Valencia in this international network of Doctorates from the Digital Systems and Communications Design Group (DSDC), in the Electronic Engineering Department of the academic institution.

The project, led by the Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU), is participated by a consortium of 21 European universities, companies and research centres, and has a budget of 2.7 million euros for four years. Its activity will begin in September 2023. The program will train ten European doctoral students, two of whom will research in the field of the DSDC and the international microelectronic design company Maxlinear, located in the Paterna Technology Park, which also participates as a member of the consortium.

CaLiForNIA

The CaLiForNIA project aims to broaden the frontier of research in two key topics for Mathematics and Physics –the Theory of Lie groups and Cartan Geometry–, in synergy with research in the area of quantum groups; three fields that have in common the study of symmetries in physics and mathematics.

Far from being exclusively a pure mathematics project, the main objective of this PhD network is to apply the new mathematics originated by these fields of research to the current and strategic areas of quantum computing and deep learning geometry, top priorities of HorizonEurope.

Led by Rita Fioresi, a mathematician from the Università di Bologna (Italy), the network is made up of universities and research centres from 8 countries (Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA and New Zealand) and different international business corporations. The University of Valencia (UV) is part of this consortium. Its coordinator at the academic institution, María Antonia Lledó Barrena, is head of the Department of Theoretical Physics and researcher at the Institute of Corpuscular Physics (IFIC), a mixed centre of the UV and the CSIC.

The CaLiForNIA network, which has a budget of 2.5 million euros, will train a total of 10 doctoral students, two of which will come to the UV.

Postdoctoral Fellowships

Within the framework of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, Horizon Europe also finances the incorporation of research personnel of any nationality to institutions of the R+D+i system in Spain. This is the Postdoctoral Fellowships call, which in its last edition (2022) provided the University of Valencia with funding for four projects in the Social Sciences and Humanities panels – Begoña Espejo and Óscar Barberá –, Chemistry – José Jaime Baldoví – and Sciences. of Life – Rafael Sanjuán.

With these, there are already seven postdoctoral grants –called ‘individual’ in the previous H2020 framework program– that the University of Valencia has received since the launch of Horizon Europe in 2021. It should be remembered that, during the Horizon 2020 period, the UV received funding for 16 projects in this category of individual initiatives.

With almost 27 years of existence, the Marie Curie action program has funded the research of more than 150,000 doctoral students and PhDs in Europe and beyond.