Professor Anne-Laure Mention, Director, Global Business Innovation Enabling Impact Platform, RMIT University | DREAM+PLAN Chief Investigator & Academic Lead, along with her international management / implementation team was delighted to bring together all now recruited DREAM+PLAN Doctoral Candidates to LUT University, Lappeenranta for the 1st DREAM+PLAN in-person Doctoral School which offered attendees ample opportunities around the PhD Journey & Training, networking, Community-Building, rich discussion, industry engagement, groupwork.

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​A jam-packed full-five-day program kicked off with a fun icebreaking 'making connections' activity. This was followed by a Welcome and Introduction by Professor Mention, followed by each Doctoral Candidate presenting their 3-minute research pitch. It was wonderful to see and hear about DREAM+PLAN Research Projects, what has been achieved so far, and a mapping of what is yet to come. We were able to learn more about the Research Projects through recorded sessions with DCs pitching their research to a non-specialist audience, as well as on the last day of the program, presenting a Research Impact Statement in 6 seconds.

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Over the week we were delighted to collectively learn from sessions including: A welcome from LUTs Vice-Rector, Jaana Sandstrom; From Theory to Practice and From Practice to Theory, presented by Dr. Sophie Altrock; Groupwork workshops around Mapping R3 (Resilience, Restoration, Regeneration), Rethinking R3 & Synergies, Crafting a Research Impact Narrative; Navigating eco-emotions presentation and workshop: Wellbeing on the DREAM+PLAN Path with Tunne Ry; Interactive Presentation and Workshop by Maud Reveihac: Human-in-the-loop AI approach to detect biased information - Challenges & Opportunities; Student-led session with Professor Mention as facilitator to challenge some DCs to identify and map synergies between electric mobility & energy distribution; Career and Self-Development for PhD students facilitated by Pedro Resende; as well as an extremely useful and fully engaged discussion including MSCA Fellows from outside the DREAM+PLAN Program with their PhD journey either successfully completed or at the final phase of submission & defense. Learning from the experience of others ignited lots of questions from our DREAM+PLAN DCs. Industry engagement was also at the forefront of the program including at Industry Talk about R3 in Practice; Fruitful Speed Networking with Green Reality Network Companies; Technical visit at Soletair Power and Elstor; as well as an Industry Talk - Regenerative Innovation & Entrepreneurship with David Audretsch.

 

This event was another important opportunity in nurturing the next generation of visionary changemakers to collaboratively creating societal impact. ​

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This gives a snapshot of the Agenda and these photos represent some of the great many brilliant experiences across the 5-Day Event.

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                                      DREAM+PLAN is Co-Funded by the European Union.

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