OSCAR

Project Overview

The OSCAR project supports researchers, master’s students, and doctoral candidates by offering personalised online training and mentoring that strengthens their mental wellbeing, career development, and transversal skills—competences that go beyond disciplinary boundaries.

The initiative recognises that a sustainable research career requires more than academic excellence: it also demands skills in self-management, stress handling, and proactive career planning.

Key Components

1. AI-driven Learning Recommendation Platform
   Development of an adaptive framework and tool that uses artificial intelligence to provide personalised learning recommendations tailored to the researcher’s individual needs and context.
2. Online Mentoring for Researcher Wellbeing
   Focused on understanding and addressing the psychological challenges and stress factors within academic environments.
3. Career Mentoring and Planning Support
   Empowering researchers to actively design their career paths—both within and beyond academia.

Why It Matters

Academic careers are increasingly complex and demanding. Researchers face intense competition, pressure to publish, and uncertainty regarding long-term positions. OSCAR promotes sustainable research careers by supporting both mental resilience and career adaptability, helping individuals thrive in and beyond academia.

Results and Resources

The project has produced an open, online learning platform integrating an AI-based recommender system and a mentoring framework that enables researchers to develop critical skills in a self-directed, personalised way.

Key outputs include:

• Online courses focusing on mental wellbeing and transferable skills;
• The eDoer platform for adaptive, self-paced learning;
• A set of evidence-based guidelines for effective online mentoring.

All resources are freely available via the OSCAR website.