NOVA-SKIES: A programme on entrepreneurial skills and career development for astronomers

© Dr Giovanna Pugliese

The NOVA-SKIES (Skilled, Innovative and Entrepreneurial Scientists) programme is the implementation in the Netherlands of the original SKIES project, funded by the EU (through the Horizon 2020 programme), and created to address a specific call of IAU. The SKIES project (March 2021-August 2022) aimed to provide training on innovation, entrepreneurship and open science for PhD candidates and early-career researchers in the field of astronomy science in Germany, Poland, Portugal, South Africa and The Netherlands. The Implemented NOVA-SKIES programme started in July 2023 and will run till the end of 2028, supported by NOVA and NOW funding. The programme provides training on innovation, entrepreneurship, and development of soft and hard skills of PhDs and PDs, and creates career opportunities for PhD candidates and early-career researchers in the field of astronomy in the Netherlands. The NOVA-SKIES programme aims to support the recognition of the competences of young astronomers and help them to become fully aware of their skills and the constructive way in which these skills can be transferred to any career-path they decide to pursue. Once outside academia, thanks to the strong awareness of their values, our PhDs and post-docs become active STEM ambassadors in the society, and this represents an important goal of the astronomical field as a whole. In this talk, I will provide an overview of the programme and share with the audience the ongoing efforts we are making to continue and expand the original international collaboration.