Authors: Eugenio Nappi, Pablo Garcia Tello, Christophe Rossel, Ophélia Fornari, Luc Bergé – Workgroup 1 – “Reaching Industry”
Organisations and companies of all sizes, in both the public and
private sectors, which are involved in physics research or in the
development of physics-based technologies, are invited to become EPS
Associate Members.
EPS Associate Members (AM) benefit from the
unique EPS platform to create partnerships with key stakeholders,
industry insiders and decision makers interested in physics, and in
addressing societal grand challenges. They have the opportunity to
contribute directly to focussed actions involving a broad audience at
international scientific conferences, technology trade fairs, and
similar events.
EPS plans to improve its collaboration with
industrial partners, as they are fundamental for translating basic
research into innovation, products, and businesses creating value and
impact for society. In the US, more than 50% of physics graduates are
used to work in the private sector [1]. In the EU, physics-based
industries produce 16% of business revenue, 2/3 being generated in
Germany, UK, France, and Italy [2]. Other statistics show that the
demand for STEM* professionals and associate professionals is expected
to grow by 8% between 2013 and 2025, whilst the average growth forecast
for all occupations is 3%. Employment forecast in STEM-related sectors
shows a similar trend: in 2015 it was estimated to rise by 6.5% between
2013 and 2025, although with huge differences across sectors [3]. In
parallel, in the past years, Europe has been experiencing a decline in
the number of students opting for STEM-related careers [4].
EPS
would like to contribute for mitigating this trend. In 2021, the EPS
will propose new initiatives serving industrial physicists and for
educating students about jobs in industry, with a dedicated staff member
at the EPS secretariat. An EPS workgroup - “Reaching Industry” -
engages into actions for the recruitment of Associate Members affiliated
to physics-based companies and technical universities. It recently drew
up a questionnaire that was sent to a panel of enterprises, technical
high schools and universities between December 2020 and March 2021. The
goal of this questionnaire was to probe their interest in becoming EPS
AMs in the coming years.
This questionnaire proposed six
questions, requesting the opinion of the respondents on the suitability
of the present AM programme and related membership fees to their current
needs. It asked also for possible proposals to enhance the EPS current
offers, for their interest in joining our Society as AM and for which
component of our learned society they would like to work
(https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/EPS-AM).
As displayed in the
figure 1, the survey was sent to a selection of 62 organisations,
composed of 10 regular EPS conference exhibitors, 10 companies proposed
by the Industrial Liaison Office of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica
Nucleare (INFN/ILO), 12 Multinational and Small & Middle-sized
Enterprises, 12 Technical Universities from Western Europe and 18
Technical Institutes - many of them being located in Eastern Europe -
proposed by the EPS Young Minds Action Committee.
We received
feedbacks from 37% of those who were contacted, and by March 1, 29%
returned the questionnaire with complete answers. The distribution of
respondents by European nation - even beyond - is detailed in the
graphics below. Four of them manifested their interest in joining us
within this year as new AM of the EPS. Two others expressed their
interest to join next year, due to the pandemic situation.
FIG.
1: Number of companies and technical universities contacted during the
EPS AM Survey (Dec. 2020 – March 2021), as a function of the countries
hosting their organisation headquarters.
The number of answers
(completed or still pending) and of the potentially future AMs are
indicated.
What emerged from the survey is a common and repeated interest for the following activities:
- Organisation of meetings or workshops between researchers and industrial representatives
- Access to exhibits of top-level physics conferences at discount rates
- Free access to scientific articles and reviews on topics of interest
- Information on upcoming EPS conferences
- Access to a database of bachelor/master students, PhD students and postdoctoral fellows
for employment or internships
- Job offers available on an online platform.
As
a reminder, EPS proposes three levels of Associate Membership (Prestige
Sponsor, Sponsor for Societal Challenges, Supporter Associate Member),
providing customised packages of benefits, prominently highlighted
through multiple communication channels and well acknowledged for their
commitment (see https://www.eps.org/page/membership_am):
1. The Prestige Sponsorship
for organisations that wish to sponsor the most prestigious prizes of
the Society for outstanding contributions to physics. This category also
makes it possible to create new awards tailored to the own field of
interest and strategies of the AM.
2. The Sponsorship for Societal Challenges
for organisations that wish to support early career researchers in
Europe, promote physics education, equal opportunities and/or physics
for development.
3. The Supporter Associate Membership for small and medium sized organisations that are seeking global exposure from EPS networks and events.
Most
of the respondents did not make any definitive choice yet, even if a
clear preference was expressed to join the AM categories 2 and 3.
As
potential EPS Associate Member, the contacted companies and technical
institutes proposed specific actions for adding higher value to their
organisation. These could be priority actions developed together with
the EPS, such as:
- Initiatives to support early career researchers in Europe and promote physics education
- Meetings and webinars to share interests and needs with other associate members or researchers
- Opportunities to participate in scientific and industrial research projects with other partners
- Creation of new consortia to participate in EU project calls.
The
EPS acknowledged these suggestions and decided that, in addition to the
rights and benefits linked to the above categories of membership, new
advantages will be proposed in the future for all AMs, namely,
- Discount
rates for exhibitor stands and for participation in plenary talks,
round tables, workshops and hands-on sessions during EPS Forums that
will bring together young researchers, renowned experts and
physics-based companies
- Access to the broad EPS
scientific and technological network of academic and industrial
facilities, as well as to databases of professionals
- Free access to Europhysics conferences dedicated to technological developments
- Free-of-charge publication and consultation of job offers on EPS dedicated websites
- Participation to career development and societal (e.g., citizen science) meetings.
The
present authors wish to thank again all the respondents for their
important participation to the questionnaire and hope, with these new
offers, to make EPS more attractive to physicists and engineers from the
industry.
If you wish to join the EPS in this renewed framework of collaboration, do not hesitate to contact us at president@eps.org or ophelia.fornari@eps.org for complementary information.
Sources:
[1] American Physical Society
[2] “The Importance of Physics to the Economies of Europe”, European Physical Society, Sept. 2019
[3] “Encouraging STEM studies for the labour market”, European Parliament – Directorate General for Internal Policies (2015)
[4] “Europe needs more scientists”, European Commission - Directorate-General for Research (2004).
* STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
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