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PROFESJON-Forskningskompetanse for utvalgte profesjonsutdanninger

PROFRES 2.0: The Interdisciplinary, Interprofessional and Practice-Near Research School - Shaping Future Welfare

Alternative title: PROFRES 2.0. Den tverrfaglige og tverrprofesjonelle forskerskolen for praksisnær forskning

Awarded: NOK 16.0 mill.

PROFRES 2.0 is a national research school for practice-near research in three major fields of the Welfare State: health, welfare and education. We recruit up to 60 PhD candidates from a consortium of eight Higher Education institutions in Norway. We offer these candidates a social arena for their personal and academic development. Our educational content encompasses participation in an integrated academic programme, the purpose of which is to improve the quality of practice-near and professions-oriented research through interdisciplinary and interprofessional approaches, and cross-collaboration. This is our contribution to strengthen knowledge development within the “young” fields of professions research. A further purpose is to increase the relevance of research for the labour market, in line with HE policy directions in Norway. Consequently, PROFRES 2.0 will, for example, establish a ThinkTank as a space for co-creation between Academia and the labour sector’s practice fields, cultivating interplay between knowledge-based professional practice and practice-near research mutually. Participants in the research school become part of a dynamic multi-disciplinary community holding advanced scientific, theoretical and methodological knowledge and expertise. An important task for PROFRES 2.0 is to contribute to the formation and development of our candidates as researchers and practitioners. We believe this is achieved through the cultivation of our candidates’ ability for critical reflection and fine-tuned ethical sensitivity in their encounters with various academic, practice-near and professional challenges. Further to this, PhD candidates in the PROFRES 2.0 research school will also get opportunities to develop transferable, creative and collaborative skills. These will equip and enable our participants to meet challenges and shape practices in the future Welfare State - whether within or outside academia - even after their PhD trajectory is completed.

PROFRES 2.0 is a national research school profoundly preoccupied with conditions in working life, as evident in our remit for practice-near research problems in the fields of health, welfare and education. Through nine partnering institutions we recruit candidates from 16 PhD-programmes in Norway, which altogether enroll around 800-900 PhD candidates. We respond to policy ambitions for research and education with an integrated academic programme, designed to deliver excellence and relevance by strengthening relations between higher education and labour markets. This includes new emphases on interprofessionalism and the need for innovation and collaboration in services in order to resolve the major societal challenges in the welfare state. The overarching aim, operationalised by our objectives, is twofold and complementary: 1) to cultivate excellence in a high-quality interdisciplinary and interprofessional learning environment for practice-near doctoral researchers, with focus on three major labour sectors in the welfare state: healthcare, welfare and education. 2) to vouchsafe relevance by facilitating new co-creation spaces between academic and practice fields – mutually cultivating innovative knowledge-based professional practice and practice-near research. PROFRES 2.0 maintains high labour market relevance both through its core mandate of supporting and developing interdisciplinary and interprofessional research perspectives in key welfare labour sectors – and through its activities and organisational structure. Our unique contribution is to encourage budding scholars, professional practitioners, leaders, educators and policy-makers to engage in interdisciplinarity, interprofessionalism and co-creation through practice-near and professions-oriented research, pushing institutional, sectorial and disciplinary boundaries towards a progressive future.

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PROFESJON-Forskningskompetanse for utvalgte profesjonsutdanninger

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