ERABERRIKUNTZAN ETA EZAGUTZAN ADITUAK DIREN PERTSONEN MUGIKORTEASUNA SUSTATZEKO ELKARTEA

Their core work

BIZKAIA:XEDE is a Basque NGO whose name translates as "Association for Promoting the Mobility of People Specialised in Innovation and Knowledge." Their core work is supporting researcher mobility, early-stage researcher career development, and the transfer of research expertise into non-academic and industrial settings in the Basque Country. They operate within the MSCA and EURAXESS ecosystem, connecting doctoral researchers with cross-sector career pathways and facilitating the kind of industry-academia mobility that European research policy aims to encourage. In practice this means both contributing to large international doctoral school consortia and organising career events that bring researchers and employers face to face.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Both projects fall within a narrow 2016-2018 window, which limits meaningful long-term trend analysis. In the early phase (DIRS), their engagement was broad and structural — doctoral training, interdisciplinarity, cross-sectorality, and the European Higher Education Area framed their contribution to a large international consortium. In the more recent EUESCADA project, the focus narrowed to practical researcher career facilitation in the form of a national career day. This suggests a subtle shift from supporting doctoral training infrastructure to delivering direct career services, but with only two data points caution is warranted.

With limited data available, BIZKAIA:XEDE appears to be moving from a background structural role in large doctoral consortia toward organising practical career events — a direction consistent with regional innovation support agencies building visibility with the research community.

How they like to work

BIZKAIA:XEDE has never coordinated an H2020 project, always joining as a partner or participant. Their presence in DIRS — a large MSCA-COFUND doctoral school spanning 48 consortium partners and 9 countries — suggests they function as a regional mobility node or local support service embedded in a much larger network. They bring regional access and sectoral focus rather than technical leadership, making them a practical addition to consortia that need a Basque Country anchor or EURAXESS-connected partner.

Their two projects connected them with 48 unique partners across 9 countries, almost entirely through the large DIRS doctoral school consortium. The geographic breadth reflects the inherently pan-European nature of MSCA programmes rather than a densely cultivated bilateral network.

What sets them apart

BIZKAIA:XEDE occupies a specific niche as a Basque regional association that sits at the intersection of MSCA researcher mobility policy and local career development services. Their connection to EURAXESS España activities and a large international doctoral consortium gives them recognised standing in the Spanish researcher support landscape. For consortia building MSCA-COFUND, RISE, or researcher career-focused CSA projects with a Spanish or Basque dimension, they offer a credible local partner with existing relationships in both the research and regional innovation ecosystem.

Highlights from their portfolio

• DIRS
  The Deusto International Research School is an MSCA-COFUND doctoral programme involving 48 consortium partners across 9 countries — by far the largest network BIZKAIA:XEDE has participated in, and a flagship example of cross-sector doctoral training in Spain.
• EUESCADA
  This CSA-funded EURAXESS España Career Day is the only project where BIZKAIA:XEDE received direct EC funding, and it demonstrates their capacity to organise national-level researcher career events within the EURAXESS infrastructure.