A
global research and innovation project led by Northumbria University since 2017
has secured a further four years of EU funding worth in excess of €1.5m.
Global and Entrepreneurial Talent Management 3 (GETM3) was an
international consortium of higher education institutions and businesses undertaking
research and staff exchange projects to explore why employers across the world can
struggle to recruit and retain younger generation employees. In particular, the
research investigated why many young people experience instability in their
career, despite being highly educated and entrepreneurial – and at the same
time why employers often report a skills mismatch and difficulties in recruiting
and managing young talent.
Based on its success, GETM3 has now been replaced by GETM4 to
continue and expand the international research and staff exchange work for
another four years. Led again by Northumbria, GETM4 has secured €1.5m from the
EU’s key research and innovation funding programme Horizon Europe, plus an
additional €130,000 from the Korean Research Foundation, who are long-standing
partners on the project.
As well as updating and expanding its aims, GETM4 has also extended
the original European and Korean consortium into Africa (Kenya), South America,
(Chile) Northern and Southern Europe (Estonia and North Macedonia), creating a
global team of high-quality universities and industry partners.
GETM4 project objectives
GETM4 is a
community of educators and researchers who have been working with students,
graduates, businesses, NGOs, social enterprises and others. It will explore how
universities can help ensure a better alignment between the expectations of
employers and of new employees by capitalising on the latent entrepreneurial
talents seen in graduates across the globe.
Researchers are
also considering the role of academia in supporting the development of creative
confidence with entrepreneurial agency for “responsible and respectful
innovation” in areas such as health and wellbeing; social innovation;
environmental sustainability, digital resilience, etc. Recognising that the
world has been greatly disrupted since the inception of GETM3, the future focus
will consider the significant impact of the shift towards digital work, study
and collaboration.
Professor Alison Pearce, Principal
Investigator and Project Lead for Northumbria University at Newcastle Business
School, said: “GETM3 was a highly successful project, despite being
severely disrupted by geopolitics and pandemic lockdowns. We are delighted not
only to maintain but to expand our successful research and innovation
consortium into new countries and continents and to be asked to lead this
endeavour once again. GETM4 is an
ambitious extension of a 15-year collaboration between European and Asian
universities and I’m delighted to be working with Northumbria colleagues Professor
Mark Bailey in the Design School, Dr. Alan Godfrey in Computer Science and
Alejandra Vicencio in Graduate Futures. We will be able to deepen existing
partnerships while developing new ones, creating opportunities to
internationalise our research on a truly global scale with even greater funding
from Horizon Europe”.
Professor Louise Bracken, Pro Vice-Chancellor
for Research and Knowledge Exchange at Northumbria, added: “We are thrilled
that GETM4 will continue the excellent work and outcomes delivered through
GETM3. It is exciting to be able to continue our support for staff mobility to
enable them to develop their research capacity across institutions, disciplines
and themes, and to promote interdisciplinarity and external impact by working
with non-academic partners. The programme supports individuals and provides benefits
at all scales to those individuals involved, their institutions and the
non-academic partners they work with. We are pleased that Horizon Europe
continues to value this initiative and has extended their funding”.
Support from the European Commission, UKRI and
the association of the UK with Horizon programmes, has also been pivotal to the
success of the research. Aleksandra
Schoetz-Sobczak, Project Officer, European Research Executive Agency, and
support office for the project commented:” GETM3 was very successful in various
aspects. This includes among others: outstanding implementation of the project,
mastering challenges with positive results and a fantastic team spirit. I am
delighted to be working with this consortium again on GETM4”.
GETM4 held a kick-off online meeting with
the Steering Committee on Friday 24 November 2023 including all partners and
the European Commission’s project officer. The first ‘sandpit’ collaboration
event will be hosted by the Technical University of Dublin, one of the
longstanding members of the consortium, from 22-26 January 2024. This sandpit
will welcome the new member universities and will set the scene for the next four
years of work.
GETM3
outstanding performance
The GETM3
project was highly successful, despite multiple geopolitical challenges during
its lifetime, and the consortium was invited by a member of the EU Commission’s
Research Executive Agency to apply for a follow-on project. The project
delivered 27 research deliverables, 54 internationally authored publications,
250+ month-long secondments in 5 countries for 167 participants of 22
nationalities. 53% of the secondees were women and 15 international innovation
‘sandpit’ networking events were hosted in the participating countries.
For
more information on GETM4 and how to become involved in the research please
contact Prof. Alison Pearce Northumbria University lead for GETM4.
