As a PhD candidate in Materials Science and Engineering at Ege University (Türkiye), I had the opportunity to take part in a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Staff Exchange secondment within the VILLAGE Project (Virtual Innovative Learning Laboratories for Global Engineering Education). My host organisation was DigiMindSphere (DMS), a non-academic SME partner in Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, Sicily, while I represented the academic part of the partnership. It was a cross-sector collaboration that was a defining factor of my secondment and affected both my professional and personal life.

Academic Meets Non-Academic: A New Approach

It was a privilege to work at DMS, since it meant going out of my comfort zone in a typical higher education environment and considering research questions in a non-academic context. Although I have a background in engineering education and scientific research, DMS introduced an entrepreneurial and applied mindset. Such an interchange provided an opportunity to observe how research outputs and concepts in instructional design can be converted into intuitive tools, applications, and services that directly benefit industry and society.

In particular, my tasks were connected to Work Package 2 (Needs Analysis for the Engineering Virtual Learning Laboratories Instructional Model), specifically Task 2.3 – Needs Analysis of Students. The task aimed to study and gain a deeper understanding of the requirements of engineering students for virtual labs.

My activities included:

• Designing and implementing outreach strategies to reach a wider student cohort and ensure meaningful participation in the needs analysis questionnaire.

• Compiling the contact details of 65 researchers from Italy and 50 researchers from other European countries, followed by sending invitation emails to circulate the student needs analysis questionnaire.

• Planning a second round of dissemination of the questionnaire aligned with the academic calendar to increase student engagement further.

• Participating in training sessions on the design of learning platforms and digital learning needs, provided by the host team.

• Contributing to discussions on potential improvements to the VILLAGE project website for broader dissemination of project outputs.

Through these initiatives, I personally added to expanding the dataset that will be used to inform requirements analysis of students across different countries and institutions.

Intercultural Exchange Between Türkiye and Italy

Equally valuable was the cultural dimension of my secondment. Moving from Izmir to Sicily gave me a chance to be exposed to a new work and cultural environment. Italian team-based work-open, inclusive, and community-oriented, contrasted against my own research background, creating a delightful multicultural experience. Conversations between supervisor Viktor at DMS often extended beyond research to discussions about culture, school systems, and innovation practice in our two countries.

Professional and Personal Growth

This secondment was not only about completing project work; it was a transformative learning process. I gained valuable insights into how SMEs operate within research projects that receive EU funding, how usability and sustainability become paramount concerns for them, and how research outputs can be converted into applications. I also gained new skills in collaborative research work, database maintenance, and competence analysis of instructional design model competencies that will be highly required in my doctoral studies and career.

On a personal level, my time in Sicily was invaluable, as it allowed me to create memories that I will cherish forever, ranging from experiencing the local culture and cuisine to forming lasting friendships long after the project.

Looking Ahead

It was a validation of the actual worth of the VILLAGE project: creating a multidimensional, multicultural, and multidisciplinary platform where both academic and non-academic actors cooperate to co-design sustainable engineering education solutions. I return to Türkiye not only with completed tasks and reports but also with a broadened vision of how my academic research can contribute to innovative practices in industry and society.