The RMIT European Doctoral Innovators (REDI) Program seeks to significantly boost research links between Europe and Australia by creating an international, multidisciplinary network of academic and non-academic partners to offer unique intercontinental and intersectoral doctoral training opportunities for ESRs. RMIT’s hub in Barcelona will lead a network of 24 Hosting Partners across 11 countries and more than 40 supporting industry Partners to offer 41 doctoral positions in a wide variety of research fields spanning business, arts and sciences. All positions are based in Europe and provide for 12-month secondments to RMIT University in Melbourne and shorter stays or engagements with Industry Partners. Partners were selected for their exceptional training and supervisory methods, materials, and facilities, so the REDI program may offer the best conditions and opportunities to its enrolled ESRs. The entire cohort of REDI ESRs and their Supervisors will also gather annually at a 5-day event in Barcelona to establish a community of multidisciplinary and multicultural researchers through their engagement in transversal skills and training workshops, cultural and social events, and the exploration of inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary collaborations for responsible research and innovation. They will also share best practices in innovative doctoral training, particularly international and remote co-supervision. The ESRs will graduate (most with two degrees) with a wealth of intersectoral skills, experiences and relationships that will catapult them into whichever research career they choose to pursue. The agreements signed within the network are expected to generate further co-supervised positions, with a target of 160 in total, meaning REDI will have a significant impact on linking the EU-Au research areas and creating long-term institutional relationships committed to implementing and sharing best practices in the international co-supervision of doctoral researchers.

The Australia-Spain Network for Innovation and Research Excellence (AuSpire) is an ambitious interdisciplinary, intersectoral and international researcher training program that links Spanish and Australian research communities through 28 Postdoctoral Fellowships. Led by RMIT Europe, the AuSpire consortium consists of 15 contributing Partners (1 Beneficiary, 10 Implementing, 4 Associated) across academic and non-academic sectors in both countries (ES / AU). All Postdoctoral Fellows (PF) will be employed in Spain by renowned companies, research centres and universities and benefit from international and intersectoral co-supervision and secondments with counterpart organisations in Spain and Australia. PFs will lead their own ground-breaking and innovative projects following their chosen research lines, and guided under the supervision of the top-class researchers and technical professionals at the Partner organisations. PFs will receive sector- and discipline-specific training to become specialists and experts in their chosen field or area, whilst also receiving training in transversal skills to broaden their knowledge and open up alternative career paths. Training workshops and meetings will be organised for and by the PFs as a common platform to provide the interdisciplinary and transversal training, as well as opportunities for strategic and structured networking across sectors – growing the PFs’ professional network opening career opportunities. Digital training will complement and expand on the in-person training workshops. A common theme of Planetary Wellbeing will underpin the workshops and overall training program, to ensure outputs from the research, innovation and co-creation activities offer true value to society and a positive impact on our planet’s inhabitants and ecosystems.

AUFRANDE is a highly ambitious 15.6M€ interdisciplinary doctoral training program linking France and Australia through 64 unique doctoral training positions. Led by RMIT Europe with participation of 22 French and 15 Australian academic partners and supported by over 40 non-academic partners, AUFRANDE aims to create a critical mass of collaborative doctoral training agreements between multiple institutions across France and Australia, reinforced with regular events where Candidates and Supervisors come together, share common experiences and build a sustainable community. The many legal and procedural elements developed to link the French and Australian research ecosystems during AUFRANDE implementation will lay a strong foundation for long-term impact on future collaborations and careers. To ensure that AUFRANDE attracts top talent globally, all Candidates will: - dual-enrol, earning doctoral degrees from both France and Australia, - be employed in France on attractive salaries with full social security benefits, - able to extend contracts up to 3.5 years, giving ample time to complete secondments, research and training activities, - spend up to 12 months on secondment in Australia, with generous 10,000€ travel allowance. Additionally: - Each position will be advertised with at least three topics to choose from, proposed bottom-up by Supervisors across all disciplines. - All research projects will have the direct involvement of a non-academic partner, ensuring inter-sectoral experiences and societal relevance of the research, - Training schools will be held regularly at multiple locations across France and Australia, bringing Candidates and Supervisor together to learn and network. - Dissemination will aim to attract female, at-risk and widening countries applicants, - Best practises in international co-supervision and doctoral training will be documented and shared with the international community.

RMIT EU spearheads the Driving Climate Positive Futures (DREAM+PLAN), a truly interdisciplinary, international and intersectoral PhD program, uniting European and Australian research via 32 doctoral positions for double degree. DREAM+PLAN brings together a community of visionary changemakers, leaders, who dream big and develop tangible pathways for solving local and global climate-related challenges, all united by a mission to create a positive impact, towards a more sustainable, fair, inclusive and thriving planet for future generations. The need for 1. resilience (ability to withstand and recover from disruptions), 2. restoration (ability to repair or rehabilitate degraded ecosystems) and 3. regeneration (fostering the renewal, revitalization and replenishment of ecosystems, communities) research is more acute than ever. The overarching objectives of DREAM+PLAN research training program is to create and deliver, legacy-worthy, novel, cutting-edge, 3i-centric training through best-practice multi-faceted, multi-modal group and individual training options for DCs. Ultimately, breeding the next generation of high-performing ESRs equipped with a unique set of skills and capabilities to fully comprehend and address the multifaceted nature and scale of climate change, across sectors. DREAM+PLAN’s training program is aligned to contribute to EU Missions, the European Green Deal and supporting RIS3 strategies and includes 3 annual doctoral schools, adopting a novel scaffolding approach. DREAM+PLAN will fully embrace diversity and through its ecosystem approach, develop pathways for ESRs towards new mindsets, behaviours, technologies, policies supporting the transition to more sustainable, fairer, and productive futures.

CoDesign4Transitions will develop 10 transdisciplinary Early-Stage Researchers (ESRs) at the intersection of co-design, design for sustainability, service and systems design, democratic innovation and climate transitions equipped to develop new approaches and validated prototypes for action. This is urgent to enable governments, businesses and civil society to deliver multi-level solutions required to achieve net zero targets committed to in the Paris Agreement. Design is central to achieving this because of its capacities for enabling experimentation through prototyping to reduce the risk of failure; synthesising ideas and evidence into material and visual forms for engaging stakeholders in co-creation; and facilitating innovative change. In contested sustainability transitions, design provides a connective tissue essential to engaging publics in democratic innovation towards net zero. CoDesign4Transition offers ESRs the possibility to develop crucial new approaches to democratic design for climate transitions in a cross-disciplinary, intersectoral environment. This will provide a unique training experience for each ESR, who will benefit from access to expert supervisors and mentors from academic and non-academic sectors. The network comprises 6 leading higher education beneficiaries and 13 Associate Partners from 9 countries, who will provide advanced training including transferable skills. 10 non-academic organisations will host secondments where ESRs will develop and test design approaches to transitions and critically assess how to build design capabilities. The 4-year research and training programme comprises research work-packages investigating prototyping, materialisation and visualisation, and facilitating practice-systems change in democratic climate transitions; one on training and researcher development. Two horizontal work-packages devoted to communication, dissemination and exploitation and project management underpin the network.