In the second real phase, the PhD students travelled to the host universities for active collaboration with research fellows and professors from the host universities. This has enabled PhD students to exchange experience, access research materials and resources and conduct research activities (e.g. interviewing experts or target groups, conducting simulations, carrying out analyses, etc.) in close cooperation with the research fellows or professors of the host institution/faculty.
The duration of the second (real) phase of the blended mobility run for PhD students was 2 months in the period from March to May 2019. The real mobility phase kicked off with the introductory presentations of the PhD students at the host faculties, in which they could present their universities, faculties and their own research areas in order to establish future academic cooperation. The host universities provided workplaces for hosting PhD students, access to library resources, access to the laboratory (in case of necessity to conduct the experiment), etc. The sending universities have equipped PhD students with the notebooks purchased for the mobility runs.
In order to strengthen communication between all participants and to measure the progress of the blended mobility run, the Miletus Virtual Lab was launched in April 2019 as a platform of mid-term virtual discussion, moderated by NaUKMA. In the Virtual Lab, the research topics and expected results were presented by PhD students; the challenges of the blended mobility run such as working in the multicultural groups and/or on multicultural topics were discussed; afterwards, the organisational questions of the blended mobility run were answered.