EURECA-PRO PhD Journey 2024: International, Inspiring and Collaborative!

From November 24 to 29, Hasselt University welcomed 19 PhD students from 5 different EURECA-PRO partner universities. PhD students from Poland, Spain, Greece, Austria, and Germany joined UHasselt researchers to explore diverse topics, from sustainable materials to equity and inclusion in organisations.

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The EURECA-PRO PhD Journey

The PhD Journey is a week-long exchange programme where students from EURECA-PRO universities visit partner professors and PhD researchers. The goal is to share as much knowledge as possible and strengthen ties, paving the way for exciting collaborations in education or research. A joint doctorate? It’s entirely possible!

For one week, the PhD students were immersed not only in the fascinating research at Hasselt University but also in Belgian culture. The same week 8 PhD students from UHasselt were joining the PhD Journey in Leoben, Austria.

Key moments during the Hasselt 2024 PhD Journey:

Poster sessions allowing a meet-and-great exchange between researchers across 13 different topics linked to responsible consumption and production.
Research interactions with UHasselt experts including exploration of joint PhD and common projects.
Visit to ECOTRON, a state-of-the-art controlled climate facility, clearly linked to the sustainability focus of EURECA-PRO.
Cultural programme including a Dutch Crash Course, a city tour and a visit to the Christmas market in Hasselt.

"The PhD Journey offers young EURECA-PRO researchers opportunities to start collaborations and further develop their network," explains Stefanie Kerkhofs, Head of the Doctoral School (OBI - Directorate Research, Library and Internationalisation).

EURECA-PRO is often approached from an engineering perspective. Through my participation, I aim to highlight that sustainable consumption and production is also about people. Consider, for instance, the working conditions in a factory— how do we ensure employee well-being? In reality, SDG 12 (Sustainable Development Goal 12, editor’s Note), which focuses on responsible production and consumption, has clear links with other SDGs.

Prof Koen Van Laer, Faculty of Business Economics and SEIN (SEIN - Identity, Diversity & Inequality Research)

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Collaborations not limited to the PhD Journey

"I would definitely also join a future PhD Journey," says Professor An Hardy. "I offered my topic to see in the broad EURECA-PRO community who would be interested in the kind of research I am conducting, and soon we were able to establish a link with two PhD students from Poland."

These were Muhammad Danish Ali and Lema Shumi from the Silesian University of Technology.

"Even before visiting UHasselt, I saw clear common ground with Professor Hardy's work," Lema explains. "I focus my research on acidic ionic liquids and Professor Hardy's focus on solution synthesis of materials fits very well with that."

"We aim to make the collaboration very concrete," An Hardy adds. "The objective is that the young researchers can come back here to carry out experiments or send samples from Poland. This week is a very nice start, and I hope the collaboration will not be limited to the PhD Journey."

Complementary match

Michaël Daenen of the Faculty of Engineering Technology also welcomed a PhD student, along with his colleague Dr Nikoleta Kyranaki.

"Nikolina Pervan, from Leoben, Austria, already visited us three times in the framework of our bilateral cooperation. We see a complementary match. Nikolina’s work on polymers used in solar panels can be iterated towards actually testing these new materials in our photovoltaic module here in EnergyVille. In the next step, we look at how these modules have applications such as agriculture or infrastructure projects. Eventually, Nikolina’s work can help us identify which polymers we should use for a given industry," Daenen explains.

"We also get to know each other on a friendly basis, which is a nice extra for me as a PhD student. As the EURECA-PRO network expands in the future, these kinds of connections will continue to grow," Nikolina Pervan adds.