The Multiplier event: “Doctors for Blue and Sustainable Growth” took place on December 1 st,2022, as part of Innovazul. The event was organized by SEA-EU DOC and aimed at finding synergies between the skills provided by the doctoral programs in marine and maritime sciences with the skills demanded by the non-academic labour market.

The SEA-EU DOC project coordinator at the University of Cadiz, Dr. Irene Laiz, explained the main objectives of the project and the work carried out, including the development of an online platform to foster networking among PhD students, PhD holders, and employers within the blue economy sector (https://opportunities.sea-eu.org/).

The event included the participation of five invited speakers, including one representative of a doctoral program from the University of Cadiz (Dr. Laura Martín Díaz, Coordinator of the PhD program “Management and Conservation of the Sea”), one representative of the public sector (Dr. Pablo Quero García, project manager at the Provincial Energy Agency of Cadiz (APEC), a non-profit foundation with funding from the Provincial Government of Cadiz), one representative of the private sector (Dr. Mercedes García Barroso, head of production at Tecnoambiente), one representative of a non-profit technological centre (Dr. Erik-jan Malta, head of the Department of Applied Research &Innovation at CTAQUA), and one entrepreneur (Dr. Beatriz Díaz Garduño, Copywriter and content creator).

The speakers shared their own experience as doctors working outside academia, as well as their institutions main interests and objectives. Finally, a very participative open debate on “Skills beyond academia” took place, in which the invited speakers, the project coordinator, and the attendees discussed about the main skills offered by the doctoral schools, the skills demanded by the non-academic sector, or the perception of the skills acquired by PhD students.

The debate revealed many synergies and the need for close collaborations, mainly between the public sector and non-profit foundations with the universities, with the twofold objective of adapting the doctorate training to the market needs and increasing the awareness of PhD holders’ skills among the non-academic sector.

Many people attended the event, including researchers from public research centres, non-profit research foundations, private companies, PhD students, and universities, both local and from foreign countries.