From the 29^th of January to the 3rd of February, 2024, our consortium gathered for the fourth Network Training Event. This NTE took place in Miraflores de la Sierra, a small town located in the mountains of Madrid region, Spain. The main goal of the event was to equip our ESRs with various new skills in the domains of Entrepreneurship and Social Performance.  

Presentation Skills Workshop by Eva Pantelakis (https://www.evapantelakis.com/) 

The event was kicked off by an engaging presentation skills workshop by professional coach Eva Pantelakis. Through interactive exercises, our ESRs were immersed in learning the art of delivering a sparkling presentation that connects with the audience.  

Following this workshop, the ESRs gave both poster and oral presentations. This allowed them not only to showcase their project progress with the entire consortium, but also to bring the presentation skills to practice! After the performances, all ESRs received constructive feedback from Eva.

Grant Writing Workshop by Germana Di Falco 

Germana Di Falco, an expert from the Department of Cohesion Policies, provided a workshop on grant writing. This session taught the ESRs about the particulars of a grant application process, including tips on creating impactful research proposals and understanding the expectations of grant providers.  

 CV Writing Workshop by Serenella Panaro (https://serenellapanaro.it/)

Career and leadership coach Serenella Panaro provided a workshop on CV writing. In this session, ESRs acquired new insights into crafting effective CVs that highlight their skills, experiences, and achievements. They learned how to tailor their CVs to different opportunities to best position themselves in the job market. 

Workshop Entrepreneurship by Aniek Ouendag, University of Groningen

The last external skill workshop consisted of a session in entrepreneurship, led by Aniek Ouendag from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. In this session our ESRs pitched a self created business plan, using a business canvas model, and received feedback on their ideas. 

“Life after REPAIRS”: Career Counseling Workshop with David Travieso and Remy Casanova 

In a career counseling workshop, facilitated by our own David Travieso and Remy Casanova, the ESRs received personalized guidance on navigating their career paths in academic or non-academic sectors. Through group activities they explored different job markets, snd the steps required to make different career choices.  

Visit to Fundación ONCE in Madrid 

On the 31th of January, the consortium travelled to Madrid to visit the offices of our partnerFundación ONCE. This large foundation is specialized in developing training and technologies to help people with various type of disabilities. During the visit, all ESRs dived into the world of assistive robots and AI innovations and acquired a taste of what rehabilitation can do for society.  

In addition to the skill learning workshops, the Network Training Events are also an opportunity to invite guest speakers to present their research to REPAIRS. During NTEIV, we had guest lectures from three external speakers: Andrew Wilson, Dees Postma and Vicente Raja.  

Guest Lecture: Dr. Andrew Wilson, Leeds Becket University, United Kingdom 

Dr. Wilson presented his work on the study of affordances in throwing tasks. He offered the consortium an innovative view on how to understand the role of the environment in our actions: a message that was well received by the consortium!  

Guest Lecture: Dr. Dees Postma, Technische Universiteit Twente, The Netherlands 

In his presentation, dr. Postma showed the consortium how the principles and ideas of Ecological Psychology can be used to design innovative experiments at a technical university. Giving examples that ranged from virtual reality to interactive platforms, he managed to impress the consortium and stir many discussions!   

Guest Lecture: Dr. Vicente Raja, Universidad de Murcia, Spain 

The last invited speaker of this NTE was philosopher Vicente Raja, from the University of Murcia. Much in line with the adopted Systems Approach of REPAIRS, he discussed an interesting alternative way to think about the role of the brain in human behavior, stepping away from reductionism and embracing the idea of resonance in brain activity to enable perception-action coupling.  

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