Good practice:

The “G. D’Annunzio University in Europe”

The “G. D’Annunzio” University develops institutional activities related to training and education that envisage networking with other European universities. Particularly interesting is the project WHRI-ACADEMY (http://whri-academy.eu/).
The “G. D’Annunzio” University serves as one of the Host Institutions for the William Harvey International Translational Research Academy (WHRI-ACADEMY).
This is a new fellowship programme, which will exploit the career development of the next generation of translational multidisciplinary researchers geared towards innovation across rapidly developing life sciences and health care disciplines.
The key aspects of the WHRI-ACADEMY programme are:
• Truly worldwide collaborative opportunities for fellows in both academic and industrial environments;
• A transnational inter-sectorial exchange dimension between academia and SMEs to enable academic research fellows try an SME working environment without a gap in their academic careers.
WHRI-ACADEMY programme makes the European Research Area (ERA) a reality by adding a new dimension of translational therapeutic innovation to the Mobility Strategy of the ERA in line with rapidly developing inter-sectorial, multi-, inter- and cross-disciplinary trends.
Improving the competitiveness of SMEs is a key aspect of the program that favors the transnational and intersectoral employment of researchers in the SMEs

University and organizations involved: Canada, France, Germany, India, Italia, Slovenia, Spain, United Kingdom, Netherland, Brazil, USA.
It is a Marie Curie Actions, its value is EUR 6.48 million, out of which 60% is financed by national sources managed by Ministry of Education of each partner.

WHRI-ACADEMY offers 55 new post-doc fellowships spread between three different schemes (incoming, outgoing and reintegration) and a training programme, including workshops, dedicated training in complementary skills and industrial placement.

The experience of D’Annunzio University within WHRI-ACADEMY is a good exemplification of collaborative (academia and SMEs) transnational research that has results in the emergence and development of start-ups and SMEs in an international context.
By introducing new technology and by developing sustainable SME-academia partnerships, thereby facilitating the translational research process.
Policy-makers could be inspired by this case for the innovation potential of the introduction of young researchers in the HR structure of SMEs.