The EDELNet Partners have adopted the Graduate School label due to its ability to provide an overarching framework to their comprehensive training activities and research commitments on the PhD level. This framework signals the intention of the partners to:
- Offer an advanced structured programme focused on a particular academic discipline capable of helping participants produce original research through elective courses, common evaluation processes by professors and peers, work in small groups, much student interaction and international work experience as researchers, teachers, project managers, etc. for PhD candidates; and
- Attain research excellence through collaborative high quality research projects as a complementary goal of the above.
This notion is both aligned with the EDELNet Partnership goals and the Seven Principles of Innovative Doctoral Training of the European Research Area, created under the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission.[1]
Constitution of the EDELNet Graduate School
Thanks to the 2015-2018 Erasmus+ grant (KA2) awarded to the EDELNet Strategic Partnership, a collective student-centered and blended learning programme for PhD level has been developed by the EDELNet Partners. On 27 September 2016, in view of the comprehensive nature and far-reaching scope of the courses and training activities envisaged, the Executive Board of the Partnership decided to reframe the programme under the new label of Graduate School in order to give it more coherence and help students benefit from the synergies created by the programme, including non-Erasmus+ funded activities. In the same meeting, the EDELNet Executive Board also confirmed that the programme should be coordinated by Dr. García Blesa. This decision was formally ratified by the Supervisory Board of the Partnership on the same date (27.09.2016).[2] The programme was officially launched during its second face-to-face Intensive Study Programme in December 2016 in Madrid. With this long-term formal commitment, the EDELNet Graduate School ceased to be a bundle of activities tied to a project and became a process pertaining to the regular operations of the Faculties of Law of the Partner universities involved. This commitment is formally aligned with the Partners’ legal commitment to guarantee the sustainability of all activities carried out under the Erasmus+ funding scheme beyond the 2015-2018 period.
[1] The 2012 European Research Area Communication (COM(2012) 392 Final) defines ERA as a unified research area open to the world based on the Internal Market, in which researchers, scientific knowledge and technology circulate freely and through which the Union and its Member States strengthen their scientific and technological bases, their competitiveness and their capacity to collectively address grand challenges. ec.europa.eu/research/era/pdf/era_progress_report2013/era_facts_and_figures.pdf – retrieved 5.12.2018
[2] The EDELNet governance structure consists of an Executive Board, a Partnership Coordinator appointed by the Executive Board and a Supervisory Board. According to the Partnership’s constitutive agreement, the EDELNet Executive Board is responsible for the management of the Partnership and its activities and is competent in all matters that are not explicitly subject to approval/decision from the Supervisory Board. Each Party designates a maximum of two persons who will be member of the Executive Board and serve as the contact person for this agreement. The Parties safeguard that their delegation to the Executive Board covers both academic and organizational issues (Article 4 (1)). The Executive Board decides all matters on the basis of consensus. The Executive Board organizes, plans and monitors the activities of the network, operates the system of evaluation and quality assurance and, if appropriate, drafts proposals on changes and project applications of the network, to be put before the Supervisory Board. The Executive Board meets regularly with a minimum of once a year face to face. Additional meetings are organized virtually (Article 4 (2)). The coordinator of the Partnership appointed by the Executive Board assists the Executive Board in the organization and implementation of the Partnership’s regular operations. The coordinator also puts forward to the Executive Board new proposals for the development of the Partnership and acts as focal point for external relations with other institutions.