“To have a bigger impact in research and innovation, both inside and outside of academia, universities, doctoral schools and professionals in doctoral education need to provide doctoral candidates with necessary support and skills to be able to tackle various social, environmental, health, digital and economic challenges and to support open science. This will help us to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and the European Green Deal, which is the blueprint for transformational change creating also new opportunities for research, innovation and investment as well as new jobs in Europe.

Therefore the next generation of researchers needs to be prepared for a future research environment that is different from that one of 20 years ago. Digitalisation is changing the way research is conducted and disseminated. An approach to the scientific process that focuses on spreading knowledge as soon as it is available using digital and collaborative technology. PhD holders play an important role, they will deal more and more with ethical dilemmas, they will need to assess the potential and risk of new technologies, and have to communicate appropriately with society.” ​Eva Hnatkova (NTK)