Fagpressenytt

In recent years there has been an increasing offer of courses on generic and transferable skills, with the objective of preparing the PhD candidates to expert performance not only in academia, but also in industry, public and health organizations and other non-academic setups. New courses on transferable skills synergize with the traditional “learning-through-doing or through-mentoring" that the older guard is more familiar with as training method. These transferable skills courses and modules are effective in improving competence in teaching, scientific writing and presentation techniques, fundraising and project management and are now given in the programs by several research schools.

However, these organized courses do not usually prepare for a skill that is being increasingly asked for to candidates that will continue in academic research and who will compete for young-scientists research grants, and tenuretrack-like positions both nationally and internationally: competence in leadership and management. Actually, PIs also have to show that they are excellent leaders when they coordinate and head multi-partner projects, consortia and centers. A good scientific