Two professionals from CIC energiGUNE, the Basque research center of reference in battery storage, thermal energy solutions and hydrogen technologies, and member of the Basque Research & Technology Alliance-BRTA, have been recognized by the University of the Basque Country – Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea with significant Extraordinary Doctoral Awards, corresponding to the 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 calls delayed by the pandemic. They are general manager Nuria Gisbert and researcher Itziar Aldalur, who have been recognized by their doctoral theses in the field of Social and Legal Sciences and in the field of Experimental Sciences respectively.
In the case of Nuria Gisbert, the Postgraduate Committee of the UPV/EHU has awarded her thesis “Analysis of the validity of inter-organizational mentoring as management development tool”, directed by Doctors Eneka Albizu Gallastegui and Jon Landeta Rodríguez through the Department of Financial Economy II. The award is in the field of Social Sciences – Business.
The doctoral work of the general manager of CIC energiGUNE proposes to address the managerial and professional development through an increase in the knowledge of inter-organizational mentoring practice. Based on a rigorous analysis of the methodological foundations of mentoring and the determination of its key elements, the phases under which an effective mentoring relationship should be developed are identified, as well as the best practices in this field. In fact, this work has counted with the collaboration of a group of 22 experts and 32 organizations, including CIC energiGUNE itself, which thanks to this research work has a mentoring program for doctoral students.
Itziar Aldalur, on the other hand, was awarded the prize –in the field of Experimental Sciences- for her International doctoral thesis “New polymer electrolytes for all-solid-state lithium batteries”, supervised by Doctors Michel Armand and Michal Piszcz through the Department of Polymer Science and Technology.
Aldalur’s thesis, who is currently working at the Basque center as a polymeric electrolyte research engineer under the supervision of professor Michel Armand, proposes overcoming the drawbacks of polymer electrolytes (mainly lower ionic conductivity) to make them them a more economical, sustainable and safer alternative to the liquid electrolytes currently used in energy storage devices.
