§ 1
Idea
1. The idea of EU TalentOn Katowice 2024 – European Union Contest for early-careerresearchers (EU TalentOn) is to challenge young bright minds to shape the future, by givingthem a chance to participate in an open competition for creative scientific solutions to majorglobal challenges.
2. The EU TalentOn is an event for young researchers from all across Europe, aged 21 to 35years, representing all disciplines of academia, including science and technology, art andhumanities. In this competition, they are invited to come up with solutions to major challengesin the world of today and tomorrow.
The EU TalentOn aims to bridge the gap between young research talent, science and industry,promoting thinking that is creative, while remaining scientific and realistic.
3. The participants take on challenges linked to the 5 EU Missions of Horizon Europe – 5 Mission Arenas of EU TalentOn:
- Adaptation to Climate Change
- Cancer Prevention and Care
- Restore our Ocean and Water
- 100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030
- A Soil Deal for Europe
4. The competition is financed by the Horizon Europe Program as a project titled: “EU TalentOn Katowice 2024 – European Union Contest for early-career researchers”, hereinafter referredto as the Project.
§ 2
Timeline
- April 15 – May 20, 2024 – Open call for applicants
- May 21-31, 2024 – Application evaluation process and selection of participants
- June-July 2024 – Teaming of participants and within-team online meetings
§ 3
Application process
1. In order to be eligible to apply for the EU TalentOn, the criteria are:
- age of 21-35 years, i.e. year of birth 1989-2003;
- affiliation with a university or research institution in one of the following countries.
EU Countries:
1. Austria
2. Belgium
3. Bulgaria
4. Croatia
5. Republic of Cyprus
6. Czech Republic
7. Denmark
8. Estonia
9. Finland
10. France
11. Germany
12. Greece
13. Hungary
14. Ireland
15. Italy
16. Latvia
17. Lithuania
18. Luxembourg
19. Malta
20. Netherlands
21. Poland
22. Portugal
23. Romania
24. Slovakia
25. Slovenia
26. Spain
27. Sweden.
Non-EU countries associated to Horizon Europe:
1. Albania
2. Armenia
3. Bosnia and Herzegovina
4. Faroe Islands
5. Georgia
6. Iceland
7. Israel
8. Kosovo
9. Moldova
10. Montenegro
11. New Zealand
12. North Macedonia
13. Norway
14. Serbia
15. Türkiye
16. Tunisia
17. United Kingdom
18. Ukraine.
Applicants will confirm adherence to both criteria during the application process. They will beasked to provide proof of age and affiliation only by individual request by the organizer (identity card/passport; a certificate from a university/research institution).
2. Application forms will be collected only through online form at https://eutalenton2024.eu/.
3. The form will include:
- basic information such as name, date of birth, contact data and affiliation;
- education and area of scientific expertise, including selected relevant scientificachievements;
- the selection of preferred 1 of the 5 Mission Arenas;
- 4 questions:
- What is your motivation to participate in EU TalentOn?
- What is your perspective on the most important open issues related to theMission Arena that you have selected?
- Please describe how you deal with teamwork and working under timepressure?
- Explain how your scientific background makes you a perfect person toparticipate in EU TalentOn within the Mission Arena that you have selected?
- statements & consents.
4. All applications will go through 3 stages of evaluation:
- Internal evaluation
- This will be performed by the EU TalentOn team to check eligibility and otherbasic formal criteria.
- Peer evaluation
- This will be performed by other EU TalentOn applicants (called for this purpose “peer reviewers”). Each peer reviewer will receive at least 5 application formssubmitted by other applicants. The forms will be anonymized and will comefrom applicants to other Mission Arenas, so that there is no incentive to unfairlyjudge potential competitors. Each application will be scored through an onlinegrading system according to a standardized form.
- Each application will receive a total (peer review) score which will be anunweighted arithmetic mean of the total scores from individual peer reviews.
- Failure to provide peer reviews within the set deadline will result indisqualification of the peer reviewer from the application process.
- Expert evaluation
- The best-graded applications – whose number will be selected based on thetotal number of applications – will be sent for expert evaluation. The applicationforms will be anonymized. Each expert will grade pool of applications throughan online grading system according to a standardized form.
- Each application will receive a total (expert) score which will be an unweightedarithmetic mean of the total scores from individual experts.
5. The list of maximum 125 participants will consist of applications with the highest total expertscores. The final number of participants will be selected based on the number of applicationswithin each Mission Arena. Care will be taken to ensure a similar number of teams foreach Mission Arena.
It is not possible to appeal against the results of the recruitment process for the competition.
6. Each team will consist of 3-5 participants and 1 buddy. Participants will be teamed, basedon the result of an online meeting, organized shortly after the participants are selected. Duringthe meeting, the participants will have the chance to introduce themselves to other people intheir own Mission Arenas, and provide the organizers with an (unpublished) list of preferredteam members. The composition of the teams will be decided based on their preference and,if necessary, randomization.
The function of buddies, is to help the participants with issues such as moving around thecampus, arranging materials, reminding about important points in the program and othersupport during the contest.
7. The condition for taking part in the competition is to read the GDPR information clause for the competition participant. The content of the GDPR information clause can be found in the application form on the competition website, indicated in section 2.
§ 4
Contest - Finale week
1. The EU TalentOn Finale will be an event held in Katowice on 9-14.09.2024 at SpinPLACE Centre for Creativity and Coworking (Bankowa 5, Katowice).
The main purpose of the finale is to give the participants time to develop their ideas into aproposal that will be later presented to the jury. During the finale the participants will also begiven opportunity to participate in additional lectures/workshops to help them in their workand in a number of network events.
2. The organizer will purchase plane or train tickets related to the competition participant’s travel to Katowice, and also reserves and covers the cost of accommodation during EUTalenOn in a hotel in Katowice. Catering service during the competition will be provided by the organizer.
2. Each team will be responsible to prepare two forms of presenting their proposal:
- Written proposal that answers the following questions:
-
- What is the specific problem that you are solving?
- How does this problem relate to the selected Mission Arena?
- What is the solution that you propose?
- Are there other solutions to this problem? Why is your solution better?
- Is your solution feasible? Can you present a tentative cost analysis? How would you implement this solution?
The document template will be made available to competition participants.
- Public pitch. It is a public presentation of 3-5 minutes that briefly presents all the key
elements of the proposal in a convincing way. The purpose of the pitch is to „sell” the
proposal to an audience of experts.
3. The written proposal and the public pitch will be evaluated by a jury composed of experts
in relevant fields of science, representing the European community of scientists. Each Mission Arena will have its own juries and in each case a Head Jury will be selected.
4. The participants will be informed that their proposal must be scientific, creative, feasible and convincing . Therefore, the following criteria will be taken into consideration by the jury:
- Scientific merit. The proposal must be scientifically sound and relate to an actualproblem within the given Mission Arena.
- Creativity. The purpose of EU TalentOn is to promote novel, out-of-the-box thinking,including ideas that are unusual or thought-provoking.
- Feasibility. The proposal, while creative, must be feasible. For instance, the proposalcannot be based on highly unrealistic or outright impossible technologies. However,for the contest to promote creative problem-solving, the jury will be invited tounderstand this term liberally.
- Appeal. The proposal must be presented in a convincing fashion. One of the purposesof EU TalentOn is to invite the participants to be bold and entrepreneurial. The contentand quality of the pitch are especially important for that criterion.
5. Each member of the jury will grade each proposal according to a standardized form. Based on their evaluation of 4 criteria, each proposal will receive a total score. Unweighted means will be calculated from these total scores from individual jury members, to give the final score. Prizes will be awarded based on these final scores.
§ 5
Prizes
1. The following prizes will be awarded:
1) Main prize (EU TalentOn Winner): 12 000 EUR;
2) First prize per each Mission Arena: 7 500 EUR;
3) Second prize per each Mission Arena: 4 500 EUR;
4) Special prize – EU TalentOn Community Award: 3 000 EUR.
Each prize will be divided equally among each person in the winning team and paid to each person separately.
2. The prizes referred in section 1 points 2) and 3) will be awarded on the basis of the finalresults obtained based on the jury of each Mission Arena assessments.
3. The prize referred in section 1 point 1) will be awarded by a Jury consisting of 5 members,each of whom will represent one of the 5 Mission Arenas. The selection will be made as aresult of a moderated discussion.
4. The prize referred in section 1 point 4) will be awarded as a result of voting by: competitionparticipants, organizers and guests.
5. The cash prizes referred to in paragraph 1 will be reduced in accordance with Art. 41 section4 of the Personal Income Tax Act (consolidated text: Journal of Laws of 2024, item 226, asamended) by the amount of flat-rate personal income tax in the amount of 10% of the amount of such a prize, and then paid to the entitled persons on the basis indicated by bank accounts in the application form.
§ 6
Final provisions
1. The Organizer of the competition – the University of Silesia in Katowice reserves the right todisseminate information about the submitted works in the media, the Internet and promotionalmaterials of the Project.
2. The Organizer reserves the right to verify whether the awarded Participant meets the conditionsspecified in these Regulations. Failure to meet the conditions of the competition orthose resulting from legal provisions results in the exclusion of a given Participant from the Competition, with the simultaneous expiration of the right to prizes.
3. In all matters not regulated in these Regulations, the provisions of the Civil Code, the provisionson the protection of personal data and the provisions of the Act on copyright and relatedrights shall apply.
4. The Organizer reserves the right to change the Regulations.
Date of publication: 18 April 2024
