The future of education lies in digitalisation, yet we would have never reached this peak of performance if it wasn’t for research carried out as part of educational programs, such as doctoral or master programs. Researchista is a venture based in Amsterdam that tackles complex and technical topics come to live, by generating educational tools. Mobility Era Game is the first success educational game inspired from a PhD thesis to illustrate the value of intellectual efforts and the attention it needs. Policy makers will see more value in R&D investment if they will support initiatives that link education with research communication.
We made the one of a kind board game and app in the field of financial and fiscal education that is inspired from a PhD thesis (from Maastricht University), called Mobility Era Game. Mobility Era Game is now played by all Ministries of Finance and Tax Inspectorates in the EU, as well as high schools and universities to fight income inequality and contribute to 4 SDGs. We would like to inspire educators to use research-based educational tools and make more beneficial connections with Researchers. We believe that education based on research combined with educational gaming to reduce/complement the dry scientific language can make a big impact income inequality around the world. Other than avoid periods of depression or unemployment, this process is highly transformative and it enables researchers to add the entrepreneurial dimension to their skills portfolio.

In terms of leadership and courage, Researchista is a (ad)venture born from courage in 2015. As a fresh graduate, with a new wax stamp Dr. in the diploma many of the researchers in my network could not stop wondering what is Dr. I Burlacu up to? As if finishing my PhD was not enough of an effort? What is this sudden jump into a new direction?

Social media for academia those days would go the furthest as into making a post on Twitter about your latest scientific article, there was no Instagram profiles of researchers or picture or videos in the lab. The trend for researchers to be more visible on social media changed fast, yet when we started it felt embarrassing almost. Courage and the belief in your own beliefs is what Researchista advice whole-heartedly, but please keep in mind that this does not bring immediate rewards and financial sustainability.

From our experience, doing into entrepreneurship barehand/bootstrapping will take a lot of time and effort, and it might not go right at all. At the same time, it offers some sort of freedom of action and also, a full ownership of what your produce and eventually, sell. It is a trade-off that one needs to make for themselves.

Every experience and researcher is unique, the most important is to listen to the inner voice and balance it with realistic projects/funding process.

For us to truly get to the hearts of researchers and the public is important to make the Mobility Era Game as a truly inspirational game. We want to showcase vividly how results/ideas from a PhD thesis can be used/played by anyone who can count and have fun. Currently, we are working on the second edition of the European version, the USA edition, as well as MENA regions, but schools in other parts of the world enquire about when we are going to cover their region.