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EUROPEAN COMMISSIONDirectorate-General for Research and InnovationDirectorate R— ResourcesUnit R6— Marie Curie Actions-FP6E-mail: [email protected]

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Máire Geoghegan-QuinnCommissioner for Research, Innovation and Science

That is why one of my top priorities is to strengthen the European Union’s position as world leader in science and to attract and encourage the best talents to work together across Europe.

The Marie Skłodowska-Curie programme has been working towards this goal since 1996 by pro-viding financial support to young researchers wishing to expand their horizons through a period of work in another European country. It has encouraged researchers to work together, fostered pan-European collaboration and built upon EU cultural and social diversity. We should never for-get that it is Europe’s cultural diversity that makes our mobility programme so successful. This cultural diversity is something unique and reflects the nature of Europe and the programme is named a�er Marie Skłodowska-Curie, herself a pioneering scientist whose international collabo-ration resulted in invaluable scientific discovery in the early 20th century. The Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions harness this diversity, which is an invaluable asset to the European Union, a pillar of European Research, and the backbone of the European Research Area.

This book introduces some of the researchers who benefitted from a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship under the Sixth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Develop-ment and Demonstration (FP6) implemented between 2002 and 2006. During the training period (2003-2012), funding was provided for 14,500 Fellows coming from 121 Countries. The book therefore presents only a limited selection of the outstanding accomplishments of this multidisciplinary international research programme; it cannot do justice to all the young and brilliant researchers who have made it such a success. It demonstrates, however, that despite coming from different countries, they have in common the desire to make a better life for future European generations. They will be among the key players of the next generation of European research leaders and entrepreneurs.

Since the launch of Marie Skłodowska-Curie, some 60,000 Fellows have already received support, but we want to raise the bar even higher. The goal of encouraging excellent science will be one of the three pillars of the next EU research and innovation funding programme, Horizon 2020, which I announced in November 2011. Horizon 2020 will help Europe’s bright-est and most creative minds extend the frontiers of knowledge by strengthening activities, including Marie Curie Actions, that support researchers’ careers and mobility.

The reason is simple: research and innovation are vital to everyone’s wellbeing. This book illustrates how thousands of young researchers are contributing to a brighter future for us all.

Europe’s competiveness and future standard of living depend on our ability to drive innova-tion through new, job-creating products and services. Major innovations o�en come from unforeseen breakthroughs or the new appli-cation of existing or emerging technologies.

Foreword5

Table Of Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Portraits

Amin Ameri GhasrodashtiErgin AtalarUlrich BlumZeev BomzonMichael BoutrosAlicia BoyanoMichelangelo CampanellaRoberta CarafaTomasz CiamulskiDennis ClaessenLove DalénAmit DeshpandeStoycho Dimitrov StoevDolores Domínguez GarcíaRui Pinto GuimarãesJosé A. Iglesias GuitiánMarian-Daniel IordacheOlivier JolyVaios KaranikasDorota Kostrz Chandrashekhar Vishwanath Kulkarni

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F r o m f a c e t o f a c e6

Nikolaos Laoutaris

Piet Lens Narcisa Martínez Quiles John McKeanRoman NevshupaDorota Roberts Manel Rodriguez RipollVinothkumar Kutti RagunathHakan Serhad SoyhanClaudia Custodia Delgado SimãoNicole F Steinmetz Irina Ivanova StoyanovaLena SvenssonOvidiu TesileanuPanagiotis TsakalidesArjen van MiltenburgFrancisco VegaAdmar Verschoor Nadine ZeeniZulin Zhang

Acronyms

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P o r t r a i t s o f M a r i e C u r i e F e l l o w s7


INTRODUCTION

When the European Commission decided in 1996 to name its programme for researcher mobility a�er a pres-tigious European scientist, the Nobel Prize winner Marie Skłodowska-Curie, nobody could have predicted how popular it would become. By 2012, the programme had attracted more than 60 000 researchers – from Europe and beyond – who have benefitted from Fellowships last-ing between a few months and a few years.

In 16 years the Marie Curie Actions (MCAs) have gone through four Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development; today they are ready to be-come part of the new Horizon 2020 programme, to be launched in January 2014.

This book, presenting portraits of 41 researchers, fo-cuses on one specific Framework Programme – FP6 (2002-2006) – which included the funding line ‘Human Resources and Mobility’. The overall strategic objective here was to provide broad support for the development of abundant and dynamic world-class human resources within the European research system, taking into account the inherent international dimension of research.

Why are we publishing these results now? Because al-though the first projects started in 2003, those funded towards the end of the programme finished only recently. Now is therefore the right time to gather the facts and present some of our data for discussion.

With an initial budget of EUR 1.9 billion, the FP6 MCAs made it possible to fund 4 065 projects, involving 1 580 different organisations and recruiting almost 14 500 Fel-lows from 121 countries.


Mobility of Marie Curie Fellows

Analysis of the results of the FP6 MCAs reveals the distribution of Fellows across Europe. In the map shown in Figure 1, the darker the shading, the higher the number of Fellows from this country having partici-pated in the MCAs. The green dots indicate where the Fellows were hosted.

The map shows that the United Kingdom was the main “receiver” of FP6 MCA Fellows, although Fellows were trained all over Eu-rope. Italy and Germany were the main “pro-viders” of Fellows, followed by France, Spain and Poland. These data have not been nor-malised in relation to the overall population.

It should not be forgotten that Fellows needed to overcome a number of obsta-cles to be able to move to another country. The main obstacles were administrative and legal aspects, and family commit-ments as illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 1: Overall mobility comparing origin of Fellows and countries hosting Fellows


Peer-reviewed publications

In the third Century BC, Archimedes said: “Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the Earth with a lever.” He was describing the incredible strength that one could exert with a simple lever: one would be able to move the Earth.

Are we not also making the world move for-ward when we innovate? Are we not helping to move the world with scientific progress? A huge effort was made by scientists across the lifespan of the FP6 MCAs, and the re-sults – many of them very significant – have helped to move the frontiers of knowledge.

One of the outputs, papers in peer-re-viewed publications, is illustrated in the graph in Figure 3. The numbers are based on follow-up questionnaires filled in by Fellows two years a�er the completion of their Marie Curie project. On average, each Fellow was involved in at least three scientific publications and was the main author of around two. This is the result of Fellowships lasting, on average, 20 months. The total number of papers pub-lished by funded researchers during the FP6 MCAs was more than 45 000, which considering the funding represents on av-erage EUR 40 000 per publication.

Not defined

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Admin LegalAspects

Recog & Validof Mob

Lang & Cultof Host Coun

FamilyReasons

Type of obstacle

Percentage of answers in this category

Figure 2: Obstacles to the mobility necessary to participate in Marie Curie Actions


Questionnaires on Employability

The questionnaires provided very useful feed-back. Fellows were first asked to fill in a ques-tionnaire immediately a�er the completion of their Fellowship (evaluation) and then again two years later (follow-up). In total, one third of the Fellows completed the follow-up ques-tionnaire, providing a valuable insight into the impact of the programme on their profession-al career. The figure 3 above is based on a representative sample of the questionnaires collected. Overall, 4 514 completed follow-up questionnaires were collected.

Employability data – as extracted from the follow-up questionnaires – tell us that al-most 90% of the Fellows were employed two years a�er the end of their MC project, and as illustrated in Figure 4, a large propor-tion of them continued in research. As can be seen in Figure 5, experienced researchers had a slightly higher employment rate than early stage researchers, but the rates were very similar.

Peer-reviewed publications in journals

As main author

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Figure 3: Average number of publications per Fellow


The FP6 MCAs can be seen as Archimedes’ “place to stand”. They provided researchers with a ‘lever’ to use their scientific capaci-ties to move European science forward. In addition to allowing many Fellows to move forward in their careers, the MCAs also helped them strengthen their personal ca-pacities and skills.

Moreover, analysis of responses from the various questionnaires shows that the FP6 MCAs had a structural effect: on mobility, with 50% of the Fellows not returning to their home country a�er their MC contract; and on contractual arrangements, with 40% of coor-dinators declaring that the MC contract had a structuring effect on their organisation, in particular for the type of contract offered to Fellows outside of the MC programme.

not employed

11%

employed89%

in SME15%

unknown5%

not inSME 69%

0%

Early Stage Researchers Experienced Researchers

20%

40%

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100%

94.2%86.8%

Figures 4 and 5: Employment rate based on follow-up questionnaires and according to research

experience


PT

FI

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100%0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

Female37%

Male63%

Female

Male

Figures 6 and 7: Gender distribution by total number of Fellows and by country (working place)

Figure 7 shows that women researchers were represented best in Portugal and Fin-land, where the ‘ideal’ of 50% was almost reached. Data for Malta and Luxembourg are not presented due to the small sample size.

Gender distribution

From Figure 6 it is clear that participation by women was close to the programme target of 40%, with women representing around 37% of recruited and trained researchers.


Industry participation

In relation to industry participation, the FP6 MCAs did not have specific targets. But the results of this so� approach are nonetheless worthy of mention and posi-tive, in particular in relation to innovation: the Actions were able to attract many companies, representing 22.6% of all 1 580 participants, as illustrated in Fig-ure 8. When companies were involved in projects, they took full advantage of the opportunity (e.g. for patents or spin-offs). The activity reports show that 525 patents were filed and 141 were granted.

Non commercial 77.3%

Commercial 22.6%

SMEs 7.7%

Large enterprises 15.0%

Figure 8: Distribution of commercial vs non-commercial institutions participating in the programme


EU-25 73.9%

Non ICPC 5.2%

ICPC 12.4%

Associated countries 8.5%

Third countries 16%

International collaboration

The FP6 MCAs were conceived for Euro-pean researchers. But the data on inter-national collaboration highlights positive trends in brain circulation, confirming the attractiveness of Europe for researchers on a global scale.

Figure 9: Origin of MC Fellows by home country

Whether a researcher moved from Europe to outside, or from outside to Europe, the links established launched collaborations that are ongoing several years a�er the end of the project. The participation of MC fellows from Third Countries, represented in Figure 9, shows that 16.6% of all MC Fellows (approximately 2 350), who came primarily from countries with a special agreement with EU – International Coop-eration Partner Countries. The status of each participating country is the one of FP6, with Bulgaria and Romania consid-ered Associated Countries

16

And now the Fellows’ Portraits…

The MCAs – and European projects in general – are a common effort. They enable stakeholders to have a say and contribute to making Europe the most performing and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world. Only through synergies will the European engine gather the strength necessary to chart the current crisis and return to growth. Every research institution is a key piece in this engine. Full cooperation between them is essential to achieve the mo-bility of knowledge – sometimes referred to as the EU’s fi�h freedom, a�er the movement of goods, services, capital and labour.

Looking back, it is not without pride that we can say the FP6 MCAs were avant-garde at their time. They addressed issues being prioritised today, such as within the Europe 2020 Flag-ship Initiatives: ‘Youth on the move’, ‘New skills for new jobs’ and ‘Innovation Union’. Through Individual and Host-driven Actions, the FP6 MCA programme implemented attractive sala-ries, family-friendly conditions, transparency in recruitment and industry participation. It also helped define the charter for researchers, which is now widely acknowledged as a tool to help researchers find their way when hosted through a MC project.

The information presented in this introduc-tion represents only a small part of the work accomplished by Unit R.6 “Marie Curie ac-tions – FP6” of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Inno-vation between June 2011 and June 2012. It is not exhaustive, but intended to frame the Fellows’ portraits.

The stories presented in this book represent only 0.3% of all FP6 MCAs stories. But they confirm that practical examples are the best way to convey messages about the success of the Marie Curie Actions.

Without exception, all Fellows interviewed were exuberant in their praise of the scheme and the experience they had gained from it – both personally and professionally. Many would not be where they are today if it were not for the knowledge, experience or contacts gained dur-ing the Fellowship. While moving abroad was initially daunting for some, all went on to em-brace the international experience and never looked back.

We would like to dedicate a special thank you to the Fellows who accepted to introduce themselves and pass on their thoughts to fu-ture Marie Curie Fellows!

17

Cleaner energy and a brighter futureLarge quantities of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere from industrial sources are having a major impact on the environment. Marie Curie Fellow Amin Ameri Ghasrodashti has been looking at one way to deal with this problem – a process known as enhanced oil recovery.

Striking the right balance between serving the world’s energy needs and reducing pressures on the environment requires new and innova-tive solutions. In enhanced oil recovery, CO2 gas is injected into – or adjacent to – producing oil wells, acting as a pressurising agent and, when dissolved into the underground crude oil, significantly reducing its viscosity and enabling the oil to flow more rapidly through the earth to the removal well.

“On one hand,” explains Amin, “enhanced oil recovery using carbon dioxide offers an opportunity to produce more oil from mature oil fields, and on the other hand, it means large quantities of CO2 can be sequestered underground rather than emitted into the atmosphere, reducing pollution and global warming.” A stimulating experience

As a Marie Curie Fellow, Amin says he had hoped to be involved in a multi-disciplinary, world-class research training programme, to work closely with other experts and professionals and to gain some degree of experience for his future career.

Amin Ameri Ghasrodashti

I was aware that coming to a new country would involve a series of emotional and professional changes and challenges that could generate feelings such as isolation, uncertainty and even frustration.


Asked whether his hopes were answered, he says, “All my major expectations have been achieved. From the academic point of view, the lab facilities available at the Technical University [TU] Del� are truly excellent, set-ting it apart from most other research insti-tutes and universities. Here, researchers have so many information sources available.”

Amin says his time as a Fellow at TU Del� al-lowed him to build a strong knowledge-based social network and to better understand what it means to be a professional scientist.

Even just living in the Netherlands has been a stimulating experience for a Fellow with an eye for engineering marvels: “This country is unbelievable,” Amin remarks, “with about 25% of its area and 21% of its population located below sea level, and 50% of its land lying less than one metre above sea level – a complicated system of drainage ditches, ca-nals and pumping stations keep the low lying parts dry for habitation and agriculture.”

Opportunity for personal growth

Making new friends, living in a different place, and, most importantly, working in a new and different academic environment were the primary motivations for Amin when he made the decision to leave his home country of Iran for the Netherlands.

“It was a risk,” he admits. “I was aware that coming to a new country would involve a se-ries of emotional and professional changes and challenges that could generate feel-ings such as isolation, uncertainty and even frustration. Fortunately, my wife was also involved in the Marie Curie Programme and in fact that helped both of us move forward.”

And move forward he has; a�er his Fellow-ship, Amin became involved as a full-time PhD researcher at TU Del�’s Department of Geoscience and Engineering, where he is continuing the work he started as a Marie Curie Fellow.

Amin says the Marie Curie Programme pro-vides an interactive, well-organised and effi-cient research framework for scientists with a clear potential for future achievement.

“From my viewpoint,” he says, “the most no-ticeable advantage of the Marie Curie pro-gramme is that it takes into account the in-ternational dimension of science.” He advises future Fellows to take advantage of a great opportunity, and to do as much networking as possible, a key to advancing their profes-sional careers.

“The Marie Curie Programme, with its gener-ous Fellowship packages, represents many, many people who have put their time and effort into finding the minds that will shape the future.”

Amin Ameri Ghasrodashti

Age: 32

Nationality: Iranian

Fellowship dates: January 2010 – September

2010

Contract number: MRTN-CT-2006-035868

Institution where Fellowship was carried out:

Technical University of Del�, the Netherlands

Research area: Chemical engineering

Contact: a.amerighasrodashti@tudel�.nl

Climate Change And Clean Energy

Sustainable Consumption And ProductionP o r t r a i t s o f M a r i e C u r i e F e l l o w s

19

mailto:a.amerighasrodashti@tudel�.nl

In the world of advanced medicine, doctors, surgeons and researchers have a range of new tools and technologies at their disposal to help people live healthier and happier lives. Marie Curie Grant recipient Ergin Atalar is making one advanced imaging technology available to a group of people who were previously unable to use it.

Active medical implants such as cardiac pacemakers and implant-able cardioverter-defibrillators are powerful tools that save countless lives. Unfortunately, they are generally considered to be incompatible with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), an equally important tool used over a million times a year in the diagnosis of disease.

The problem is that these implants have metallic parts that can be affected by MRI’s strong magnetic effects. Concerns centre on the potential of MRI to inhibit implant functioning. “But there are even more important problems related to heat produced near implant electrodes,” says Ergin, “which can damage the patient’s heart.

“When I applied for Marie Curie funding, it was estimated that over 60 000 patients per year with active implants were being denied the imaging capabilities of MRI,” explains Ergin Atalar, “and the number is still rising.”

Ergin Atalar

Reconciling medical implants andhigh-tech imaging

The Marie Curie grant enabled enabled my career move. It was the seed that I needed to return home and establish a large research centre.


Back where he belongs

Ergin received a Marie Curie International Reintegration Grant (IRG), which allowed him to come back to work in his home coun-try of Turkey.

“I went to the United States to carry out re-search under a two-year Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University,” he explains. “I was eventu-ally offered a faculty position at the same insti-tute and ultimately promoted to full professor.”

It was during a sabbatical year at Bilkent Uni-versity in Ankara that Ergin applied for a Marie Curie IRG fellowship: “I knew there was a strong demand for an MRI-compatible active implant. My plan was to develop one in Turkey together with graduate students at Bilkent University.”

The change came easily for Ergin. “On the other hand,” he says, “my kids, who were five and nine, did not speak much Turkish, but they learned quickly with the help of the interna-tional school here at Bilkent University. My wife got a job as a teacher at the same school.”

A striking career path

While Ergin was making strides in the US, he says, things were changing back home: Government spending on research in Turkey significantly increased and it was becoming easier to obtain funding. When I realised that I could establish a research group at Bilk-ent University, I resigned from Hopkins and came back home.

“We have received more than €8 million in research funding,” he boasts, “supporting about 25 researchers at the centre.

“Things are moving quickly now. There are many problems that we need to solve but, rather than watching from a distance, being part of it all is very joyful.”

A�er six high-impact journal papers, four master’s theses and one PhD thesis on the subject of MRI-compatible pacemakers, Ergin’s group has now had two of its designs licensed by MRI interventions Inc. and pat-ent rights have been transferred to Boston Scientific.

Ergin’s group has also published dozens of other papers, 14 US patents and over 70 con-ference presentations in a variety of areas.

Without the Marie Curie Reintegration Grant, Ergin says, he would not be where he is today: “It was the seed that I needed to return home and establish a large research centre.” What’s more, he says, two other members of his re-search centre have also received Marie Curie funding.

The end result is a new and thriving research centre and a novel medical technology that could potentially improve the lives of people around the world.

Ergin Atalar

Age: 51

Nationality: Turkish

Fellowship dates: August 2004 – July 2006

Contract number: MIRG-CT-2004-506262


Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey

Research area: Biomedical engineering

Contact: [email protected]

P o r t r a i t s o f M a r i e C u r i e F e l l o w s Health

Public Health 21


During his time as a Marie Curie Fellow at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI), Ulrich Blum carried out basic research in atmospheric physics, concentrating in particular, he explains, on the temperature structure of the polar middle atmosphere. He also looked at related effects, such as waves and clouds, including polar stratospheric clouds and noctilucent clouds.

Atmospheric physics is a broad field of activity that encompasses the modelling of the Earth’s atmosphere, using fluid flow equations, chemical and wave propagation models as well as experimental techniques at the forefront of technological development. These in-clude light detection and ranging (LIDAR), radar and rockets.

“This research is important,” Ulrich asserts, “because knowledge of at-mospheric processes is essential to gaining a better understanding of the weather and climate that directly affect life on Earth.”

Ulrich says FFI’s atmospheric group is well known for excellent research in the polar middle atmosphere and has access to unique infrastruc-ture such as the lidars and radars of the Arctic Lidar Observatory (ALOMAR) on the Norwegian island of Andøya, north of the Arctic Cir-cle. “Fortunately,” he says, “I had the opportunity to carry out several measurement campaigns with the ALOMAR lidars during my research stay. In addition, the group at FFI is a European leader in rocket-based experiments.

Ulrich Blum

In a rarefied atmosphere

Concentrate on your favourite research, establish an international network and develop your own outstanding research profile.


“When applying for a Marie Curie Fellowship, I expected to get the opportunity to carry out my favourite research in an inspiring setting with unique technical possibilities. These ex-pectations were indeed met.” Going a different way

Compared to his home country, Ulrich says working in Norway is more relaxed; while scientists in Germany tend to spend an overwhelming part of the day on their research, in Norway they stick to the ‘clos-ing time’. Meetings are scheduled in such a way that everybody can participate dur-ing regular working hours and people with children can easily combine family life with their career.

On the other hand, he says, finding money for basic research is not as easy as in his home country. Group leaders spend quite a lot of their working time applying for fund-ing, which prevents them from actually do-ing their research.

On top of the professional and scientific rewards, Ulrich says moving to Norway was a very pleasant experience. “I got to know some very friendly and helpful peo-ple in my working environment, in my pri-vate life and even in the public administra-tion services. It was easy, not least due to the fact that almost everybody in Norway speaks English fluently and most people also speak German. On the down side, this meant I never had to speak Norwegian – not a situation conducive to learning a new language.”

Bright outlook

“I think the Marie Curie programme is a very good way to fund researchers,” says Ulrich. “Like the CERN Fellowship or the Fellowship programmes of the German Humboldt foundation, Marie Curie offers you a defined period of funding and a very good travel stipend.”

A�er his Fellowship, Ulrich went to work as a scientist at the Fraunhofer-Institut for Technological Trend Analyses in Euskirchen, Germany. Since 2008, he has been working at the University of Bonn, leading laboratory courses for Bachelor’s and Master’s pro-gramme students in physics and astronomy.

“Future Marie Curie Fellows should use the opportunity wisely,” he advises. “Concentrate on your favourite research, establish an in-ternational network and develop your own outstanding research profile.”

Ulrich Blum

Age: 38

Nationality: German

Fellowship dates: February 2005 – December

2006

Contract number: MEIF-CT-2004-010333


Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI),

Kjeller, Norway

Research area: Atmospheric physics


P o r t r a i t s o f M a r i e C u r i e F e l l o w s Climate Change23


In today’s world, optical components and systems are omnipresent; CD and DVD players are based on optics, as are computer screens and the fibre-optics used for communications. Marie Curie Fellow Zeev Bomzon says optical devices in life sciences and medicine provide new options for diagnostic tools and imaging.

“As a Marie Curie Fellow, I carried out research in the field of op-tics,” says Zeev Bomzon. “In particular, I focused on the use of op-tics to study biological problems. New optical technologies enable a better quality of life for all of us.”

Zeev says he knew that the Marie Curie Actions offered prestig-ious Fellowships and that his participation would provide him with some freedom to perform his own research. “The Fellowship more than exceeded my expectations. I received a good salary, which is unusual for young researchers and post-docs. I was able to direct my own research and the prestige of the Fellowship has been a door-opener since.”

“When applying for a Marie Curie Fellowship, I expected to get the opportunity to carry out my favourite research in an inspiring set-ting with unique technical possibilities. These expectations were indeed met.”

I was able to direct my own research and the prestige of the Fellowship has been a door-opener since.

Zeev Bomzon

Marie Curie Fellow sees optics everywhere


Period of adaptation

Moving to a new country, in Zeev’s case Australia, was not exactly easy. It took him and his family a while to get used to a new mentality and to develop a circle of friends. “My children had to learn English,” he says, “which was not easy initially, and my wife had a hard time adapting to life away from her mother.”

The culture shock lasted a few months, during which Zeev says he felt a bit dis-connected, but over time he and his family adapted to life in Australia. “The kids began speaking mainly English, and eventually I felt right at home. My wife adapted too.

“There were also some more technical is-sues, regarding taxes and benefits, which took a couple of months of negotiations and talks to resolve, but eventually I think we found a good agreement.”

Forever changed

Zeev, who runs marathons in his spare time, says he could have stayed in Aus-tralia, enjoying in particular the ‘laid-back’ lifestyle and the Australian love of sports. He was also exposed to some different at-titudes on the professional side. “The main difference I found was that Australians are so much more relaxed. They work hard, but the stress levels are much lower. Leisure receives a lot more emphasis than it does in Israel.”

Zeev says the Marie Curie Fellowship has made a real difference in his life. “It was an eye-opener in terms of exposure to re-searchers around the world, enabling me to develop both personal and professional contacts that I still maintain, and I am sure that these kinds of connections ultimately lead to the diffusion of information and ideas from place to place.”

When his Fellowship ended, Zeev le� ac-ademia and began working in the elec-tro-optical industry in Israel. Initially, he worked as the manager of the physics and algorithms group at a company called CI-Systems. “Today,” he says, “I am a senior algorithms engineer at KLA-Tencor, the leading manufacturer of inspection equip-ment for the semi-conductor industry.”

Zeev is another in a long line of former Marie Curie Fellows whose lives have been changed forever by their experience. His advice to future Fellows? “Always remem-ber that you have been given a unique op-portunity. And have fun!”

Zeev Bomzon

Age: 38

Nationality: Israeli

Fellowship dates: May 2006 – August 2009

Contract number: MOIF-CT-2005-021726


Swinburne University of Technology, Victoria,

Australia

Research area: Biophotonics and optics



Ageing Population 25


Researchers have demonstrated that dysregulated signalling processes in cells or between cells can cause severe diseases, such as cancer. With support from a Marie Curie Excellence Grant, a team of top-level scientists in Germany has taken us a step closer to understanding how cells communicate.

Each year, more than 12 million people worldwide are diagnosed with cancer. The disease poses enormous challenges to research, because every cancer is different and its course can vary im-mensely – from one patient to the next.

“Cellular signalling systems control many key decisions during tu-morigenesis,” explains Michael Boutros. “We are working on un-derstanding these key signalling processes that tell our cells, the building blocks of our bodies, whether to proliferate, differentiate or die.”

The aim, he says, is to comprehensively understand the regula-tory networks underlying communication routes in cells. “To dis-sect these networks, we use genomics – essentially querying every gene for its contribution to a particular process. This allows us to discover new factors and their interconnections, and how one can possibly interfere with misregulated signalling networks in diseases.”

The Marie Curie programme is an excellent opportunity to stimulate international mobility, in particular for junior researchers.

Michael Boutros

Leading the way in cancer research


When opportunity knocks

A�er completing his postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School, Michael says the Marie Curie Excellence Team Grant provided him the opportunity to gain early independence and attract talented collab-orators from all over Europe to work with him at Heidelberg University’s German Cancer Research Centre.

“As a Marie Curie Excellence Grant Team Leader, I was able to establish myself as an independent scientist and build an ac-tive research group in the area of genom-ics and systems biology,” he says.

Marie Curie Excellence Team Grants pro-vided support for research groups for up to four years and were aimed at encour-aging world-class researchers in key fields to resume or further develop their careers in Europe. The Team Leader – in this case Michael – selected the team members and applied jointly with the host institution.

“The Marie Curie programme is an excel-lent opportunity to stimulate international mobility,” Michael says, “in particular for junior researchers. It was certainly critical for my own career path; the Team Grant allowed me to work as principal investiga-tor and raised the international profile of my research group.”

Excellence rewarded

When the Marie Curie funding ran out, Mi-chael’s research team, now continuing its work under a European Research Council Advanced Grant, was made a full Depart-ment. Michael is now a Division Head at the German Cancer Research Centre and a Professor at Heidelberg University.

Asked what he would say to potential Ma-rie Curie Fellows, his message is simple: “Science is an adventure. Embrace it!”

Michael Boutros

Age: 38

Nationality: German


Contract number: MEXT-CT-2004-014310


German Cancer Research Centre, Heidelberg,

Germany

Research area: Genomics, systems biology,

cancer research


P o r t r a i t s o f M a r i e C u r i e F e l l o w s Health27


For Alicia Boyano, a Marie Curie Fellowship at the Technische Universität Berlin was her passport back into academia and into a topic about which she is passionate. And by widening her network and working with prestigious scientists, her career has moved in exactly the direction she wanted.

It was a year of working in the private sector that spurred Alicia Boyano to apply for a Marie Curie Fellowship. She was keen to get back into academia as she missed gathering information about new technologies and developing new ideas.

The opportunity to move back to Germany, where she had previ-ously spent time as part of the EU’s Erasmus programme, and the thought of working on energy efficiency and renewable energy research were added motivations to apply for a Fellowship.

“The idea of moving abroad again for a longer period of time and the large network I was about to join, caught my attention,” she explains. “Germany is a country I like and I knew that the oppor-tunity to work in the reputed research group led by Professor G. Tsatsaronis at TU Berlin would be a turning point for my career path. I did my PhD in a different field so I had to work hard to catch up quickly.”

Alicia Boyano Larriba

Energy conversion system analysis

Although the application process to Marie Curie projects is time consuming, the experience is worth it!


Cooperation across disciplines

Alicia’s work involved the environmental and economic analysis of an energy conver-sion system for producing hydrogen by re-forming steam methane. She worked with another Marie Curie Fellow who was looking into the exegetic and economic evaluation of several combined power plants.

“This type of exchange provides a broader view of problems and allows you to look for solutions following a holistic approach. In my field, both cross discipline coopera-tion among professionals and an interna-tional atmosphere are crucial to success-fully achieving objectives.”

An unrivalled boost

Following her Marie Curie Fellowship, Alicia went on to work at the European Commis-sion’s Joint Research Centre (JRC). She is currently based in its Institute for Prospec-tive Technological Studies (IPTS).

“At the IPTS I am responsible for projects that deal with sustainability in the con-struction sector. Sustainability is a new concept based on three pillars: economics, environmental science and social issues. The first two pillars are better developed than the third one and therefore most of the studies in this field are done just con-sidering the economic and environmental aspects. So what I learnt in Berlin [on eco-nomics and environmental analysis] has been extremely useful.”

Although the topic is not exactly the same, Alicia’s current work at the JRC is closely linked to the research she carried out as part of her Marie Curie Fellowship, dur-ing which she developed and applied new theories to evaluate energy conversion systems. These evaluations used exergy-based methods combined with economical and environmental assessment methods, which are similar methodologies to those she applies to her work at the European Commission today.

“I highly recommend applying for a Marie Curie Fellowship. Although the application process is time consuming, the experience is worth it! My Marie Curie Fellowship pro-vided me with personal skills that were not easy to develop in the research centre where I was a PhD student.”

“Moving to a foreign country always takes a bit of getting used to, for example when I moved I could hardly speak German. But I made some great friends during my time there. In a nutshell, my Marie Curie Fellow-ship was a positive turning point for my personal life and my career!”

Alicia Boyano Larriba

Age: 33

Nationality: Spanish

Fellowship dates: June 2008 – December 2009



Technische Universität Berlin, Germany

Research area: Chemical Engineering and

Environmental Technologies / Energy


P o r t r a i t s o f M a r i e C u r i e F e l l o w s Energy

Sustainable Consumption And Production 29


Mitochondria are sometimes described as ‘cellular power plants’ because they generate most of the cell’s supply of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), used as a source of chemical energy. Basic research on these key cell components, like that carried out by Marie Curie Fellow Michelangelo Campanella, is fundamental to our understanding of the human genome, heredity and ageing.

“Mitochondria are equally important for both cell physiology and pathology,” says Michelangelo. “The goal of my research was and is to understand what regulates the interplay between energy and quality of life in mammals, and therefore I have focused my re-search on mitochondria.”

Michelangelo says the aim when he applied for a Marie Curie Fellowship was to complete his cultural and technical education as well as gain an international profile, and he wanted to experience a different working environment. His expectations, he says, were met.

Michelangelo Campanella

A launch pad for basic research into cell functioning

Fairness and room to earn trust beyond personal sentiments was also something I genuinely appreciated.


Being the best

“I consider myself first a European citizen,” he affirms, “and so I had no objections to liv-ing and working in another EU country.” He chose England because of a long-standing interest in its culture and work attitude, which he calls “ordered but dynamic and intense”.

“Not to mention the sense of humour,” he adds. “And football.”

Michelangelo says his Fellowship has made a real difference in his life: “The Marie Curie Programme teaches you to believe that you can achieve your goals and be the best at what you do, both in your work and in your personal life. It means international expe-rience, career advancement, and that first step towards independence, which is so im-portant for an ambitious scientist.”

Approach to work, professionalism of col-leagues, respect for the job of scientist; these are the things that stood out the most for Michelangelo during his Fellowship.

“Fairness and room to earn trust beyond personal sentiments was also something I genuinely appreciated,” he says. “Equally surprising and extremely educative was the sense of competitiveness. “I worked with great collaborators, irreplaceable mentors and made true friends, and, above all, I met the person who is now my wife!”

Encouraging work

For the next generation of Marie Curie Fel-lows, Michelangelo says he hopes the ex-perience will be the turning point for them that it was for him. He is continuing his re-search into mitochondria and more.

“A�er completing my Fellowship, I re-mained here at the University of London where I now hold a tenured academic posi-tion and am running a range of research programmes, guiding many talented young scientists.”

And he is truly thankful, he says, “to those who trusted the application of a young Italian scientist some years ago”.

Michelangelo Campanella

Age: 34

Nationality: Italian

Fellowship dates: November 2005 – October

2007



University College London, United Kingdom

Research area: Biology





Water is a precondition for human, animal and plant life, as well as an indispensable resource for the economy; and it plays a fundamental role in the climate-regulation cycle. Former Marie Curie Fellow Roberta Carafa is doing her part to make sure we understand and minimise the human impact on water resources.

The model Roberta developed as a Marie Curie Fellow at the URS Corporation in Barcelona is helping national and regional water agencies to design monitoring programmes for the control of chemical risk in river bodies, considering the links between pollut-ants and decreasing biodiversity.

“During my Fellowship,” says Roberta, “my main task was to de-velop a ‘Case-oriented Guidance Document’ to link chemical and ecological status in rivers while proposing methods for clarifying cause and effect relationships.”

“I had the opportunity to work with experts from all around Eu-rope,” she explains. “I was mentored by very competent supervi-sors and the working environment was relaxed and productive.”

A real impact in the life of a young researcher

Roberta Carafa

I had the opportunity to work with experts from all around Europe. I was mentored by very competent supervisors and the working environment was relaxed and productive.


She says the Marie Curie Programme was a great opportunity for her to develop her career, providing all the necessary support – professional, high-level training, a travel allowance, a personal budget for career-advancement activities and for participa-tion in conferences and courses.

Meeting of minds

Roberta had already worked in an interna-tional research centre – at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy – so she knew what it was like to func-tion in a multicultural environment, but the Marie Curie Fellowship provided her first op-portunity to actually move to a new country.

“I managed to fit in right away, thanks es-pecially to the support of my supervisors and colleagues,” she says. “I learned Span-ish quickly and within about two months I felt perfectly integrated in my new environ-ment, both professionally and from a per-sonal point of view.

“I spent two years in Barcelona, an amaz-ing, vital and dynamic city! I made new friends, visited wonderful sites and I can say that a�er this experience I am more open-minded.”

Roberta says the activities she participat-ed in, aside from her daily research – in-cluding training, networking, communica-tion and dissemination activities – made life stressful at times, but in terms of her own career and personal development, the Marie Curie Fellowship surpassed all ex-pectations: “I reached all the objectives of my project, in a very stimulating, interna-tional environment.”

Moving forward

Since completing and publishing the re-sults of her Marie Curie project, Roberta has started a new research assignment at the Resource Centre for Environmen-tal Technologies (CRTE) in Luxembourg, a leading provider of support for eco-inno-vation in both the private and public sec-tors, at national and international levels.

She says upcoming Marie Curie Fellows should aim to take maximum advantage of an exciting and fruitful experience: “Always appreciate the value of this opportunity. Be very active, curious and positive. This is a concrete and stimulating programme that provides a unique opportunity for a safe professional and personal ‘jump’.”

Roberta Carafa

Age: 36

Nationality: Italian

Fellowship dates: September 2008 – September

2010



United Research Services (URS), Barcelona, Spain

Research area: Biology (biodiversity-ecology)


P o r t r a i t s o f M a r i e C u r i e F e l l o w s Climate Change33


Personal and professional development happens when individuals leave their comfort zone. This was the case for Polish researcher Tomasz Ciamulski, who took off for a Marie Curie Fellowship in Sweden, and has never looked back.

When Tomasz applied for his Fellowship, he did not have any spe-cific expectations, but felt that he needed a change of pace. “I was doing very well in my job and in my research,” he explains. “But for several years, I had started to feel the need for a big change. I hoped to find new opportunities in both my professional and per-sonal life, and with the Marie Curie Fellowship, I certainly found this. The programme was a good starting point for many positive changes for me.”

He says the Marie Curie Programme was a great opportunity for him to develop his career, providing all the necessary support – professional, high-level training, a travel allowance, a personal budget for career-advancement activities and for participation in conferences and courses.

The Swedish experience

Tomasz spent 21 months in Sweden, working with a broad range of colleagues interested in the modelling of physical phenomena – electromagnetism – and their simulation on computers. This cut-ting-edge area of research gives scientists a greater insight into things humans cannot observe, and enables them to perform com-

Professional development should not be detached from personal development, such as improving communication skills, recognising strengths and identifying motivational factors.

Advancing computer modelling and personal ambitions

Tomasz Ciamulski


plex, computer-based experiments without the need for expensive laboratory analysis.

“In particular, I worked with high frequency applications in electronic technologies,” says Tomasz. “Our advances have extended the geometrical limits of what is possible to analyse and design.”

In addition to furthering his career, Tomasz also greatly appreciated the multicultural aspects of the Fellowship. “This was my first proper international experience, and I feel that I discovered a new way of contrib-uting to European society,” he says. “I also developed a strong passion for experienc-ing life.”

Challenge yourself

Indeed, Tomasz believes that for those looking to simply advance their careers, a three to six month placement abroad would probably be enough to gather new skills, experience and contacts. Those who want bigger challenges however should immerse themselves in another environment and culture for much longer – at least for one year, but ideally for two years or more.

“A Marie Curie Fellowship can be a great catalyst for people,” says Tomasz. “For me, as a researcher concentrated strongly on technologies rather than more social-type projects, there is some level of inherent so-cial detachment. But professional develop-ment should not be detached from personal development, such as improving commu-nication skills, recognising strengths and identifying motivational factors.”

In addition to pushing himself profession-ally, Tomasz also had to deal with the

practical and logistical issues of relocat-ing and integrating into an unfamiliar en-vironment. “This involved being exposed to different cultures, foreign languages and new outlooks on life,” he says. “Eventually, I enjoyed the whole process, but not all the intermediate steps were comfortable!”

A�er completing his Fellowship, Tomasz worked on a research project in Norway, and is now involved in founding start-up companies based on different electron-ics technologies. He organises the imple-mentation of technology solutions partly through international cooperation.

“I actively create cooperation between SMEs and corporations, universities and research institutions,” he explains. “I find that new ideas emerge when you meet with people who have experience in to-tally different areas. We begin by looking for small overlaps in our mutual interests, which then evolve into brainstorming on problems and potential new solutions. The idea is to implement these solutions to-gether in a complementary manner.”

Tomasz Ciamulski

Age: 37

Nationality: Polish

Fellowship dates: March 2006 – December 2007

Contract number: MTKD-CT-2004-509786


Mid Sweden University, Sweden

Research area: Electronic engineering


P o r t r a i t s o f M a r i e C u r i e F e l l o w s Sustainable Consumption And Production

Increase Of The Use Of Technology In Manufacturing Initiative 35


The Marie Curie programme enables young scientists to pursue their research dreams in leading laboratories around the world. The time Dennis Claessen from the Netherlands spent at Oxford and Newcastle in the UK as a Marie Curie Fellow would transform his career, in more ways than he might have perhaps expected.

“When I applied for a Marie Curie Fellowship, I was unaware of the impact that the Fellowship would have on my career,” says Dennis Claessen. “Although the application and selection went smoothly, I only realised much later that it would be an important discrimi-nating factor from ‘regular’ postdocs without their own grant. The grant enabled me to follow my personal research interest and helped me to feel independent, one of the main goals of future academic leaders. But this is something I perhaps did not fully ap-preciate when I applied.”

Learning by doing

Dennis’ own research focuses on the bacterial cell wall, which is the outer shell that protects bacteria from damage. This makes it an attractive target for novel antibiotics that can help us fight against emerging pathogenic bacteria. During his time in the UK, Dennis worked with various Marie Curie Fellows, all of whom, he says, are now running their own labs. He believes that this clearly shows that the Fellowship tests researchers to the full, and that this is highly regarded by future employers, opening up new and unexpected op-portunities.

The experience of living and working abroad, and meeting many eager scientists, is of the utmost importance for your entire career.

The search for novel antibiotics

Dennis Claessen


Indeed, the experience gave Dennis far more responsibility than he was expecting. “Dur-ing my Marie Curie Fellowship, the entire lab moved from Oxford to Newcastle,” he ex-plains. “Obviously, some people complained about the disruption to their work. As one of the first people to move, I was confronted with the difficulties and problems of start-ing a new lab. Although this was frustrating at some points, in retrospect it was of great benefit when I moved to Leiden to start my own research group!”

Long-term benefits

Dennis would strongly recommend all young researchers keen on pursuing a ca-reer in academia to apply for a Marie Curie Fellowship. “The Marie Curie programme is an excellent platform that allows young scientists to follow their innovative re-search ideas in leading labs in Europe,” he says. “The experience of living and working abroad, and meeting many eager scientists, is of the utmost importance for your entire career. These colleagues will later be the ones who drive science forward, and could be your future referees or peers for paper and grant submissions!”

Dennis also points out that the programme provides a unique opportunity to perform research driven primarily by scientific cu-riosity. The challenging research climate at the moment means that attracting funding for such research has become progressively harder and harder. Researchers are also un-der greater pressure to show how their work could be beneficial to society. “The Marie Curie scheme is thus helping young scien-tists to develop and perform innovative re-search, which will be of great importance for their future careers,” he says.

A�er his Intra-European Fellowship, Dennis moved back to the Netherlands, where he successfully applied for a Marie Curie Rein-tegration Grant, shortly followed by a ten-ure track assistant professorship. “I current-ly hold that position at Leiden University,” says Dennis. “Both Marie Curie Grants have been of great help to obtain this prestigious position, which are few and far between.”

Dennis Claessen

Age: 34

Nationality: Dutch

Fellowship dates: July 2006 – December 2007



Oxford University/Newcastle University, United

Kingdom

Research area: Biology/Microbiology



Public Health 37


A Marie Curie Fellowship is not just about focusing on a particular research project, but about developing new skills and competencies, says Swedish researcher Love Dalén. He spent two years in London researching ancient DNA and population genetics.

“My main expectation for the Marie Curie Fellowship was that it would enable me to work in an exciting research environment, and this expectation was certainly met. However, I didn’t really appreci-ate just how important the Marie Curie position would be for my future career,” explains Love.

“First, I acquired a number of important skills, including how to manage scientific projects, write grant applications and supervise students. Second, I learnt to develop a scientific network that has helped my career in a very positive way. Third, the Fellowship re-sulted in more than 10 papers in top-ranked scientific journals.

“All these things allowed me to reach a position of professional ma-turity in the field of ancient DNA and population genetics, and were instrumental in leading to the permanent research position I am holding now.”

The Marie Curie programme is focused on developing new competencies, with a view to supporting the Fellow’s career over the long term.

A bright future studying the past

Love Dalén


Making a difference

“I suppose one important question is: what differentiates the Marie Curie programme from other postdoctoral schemes? Well, one obvious answer is the high prestige that Marie Curie Fellowships are held in, which means that having held such a position is regarded with considerable merit when applying for grants and jobs. Another im-portant difference compared to other post-doctoral grants is that instead of mainly focusing on a research project, the Marie Curie programme is focused on developing new competencies, with a view to support-ing the Fellow’s career over the long term.”

Love believes that this point is very signifi-cant, and is reflected in the career paths of many former Fellows. In contrast, many young researchers think only about con-tinuing the work they did during their PhD, rather than about how to obtain new skills.

Get the most out of it

“I think there are three important things to do during a Marie Curie Fellowship,” says Love. “First, aim to produce results that can be published in top-ranked scientific jour-nals. Second, make sure to learn additional skills. Third, take the opportunity to create an international scientific network by meet-ing and collaborating with other research-ers, because this will help you in the future to develop new ideas and projects.”

Love’s research was, and still is, focused on how species have responded to past changes in the environment. He analyses DNA from sub-fossil bones and teeth up to 50 000 years old, examining how popula-tions have changed in size through time

and when and where local extinctions oc-curred. “This research is important since it provides valuable information on how we can expect future climate change to affect different species,” he explains.

A�er Marie Curie, Love obtained a research fellowship from the Swedish Research Council, which led to a permanent research position at the Swedish Museum of Natural History. Together with Ian Barnes, who was the scientist in charge during his Marie Cu-rie Fellowship, Love also received funding under the EU’s ERA-NET scheme.

“These two grants have enabled me to build a research group at the museum, which currently consists of four PhD students and a postdoctoral researcher,” he explains. “We continue to work with scientific questions similar to those that I initially developed during the Marie Curie Fellowship.”

Love Dalén

Age: 36

Nationality: Swedish

Fellowship dates: March 2007 – March 2009



Royal Holloway University of London, United Kingdom



P o r t r a i t s o f M a r i e C u r i e F e l l o w s Conservation and Management of

Natural Resources 39


The Marie Curie Fellowship that took Amit Deshpande from India to France enabled him to join an established research group seeking to advance treatment for prostate cancer. The experience also broadened his horizons, and gave him the confidence to launch his own research business.

Amit’s Marie Curie research focused on finding and developing drugs for the treatment of prostate cancer. As of 2011, prostate cancer is the second most frequently diagnosed cancer and the sixth highest cause of cancer death in men worldwide. Promoting discovery

“Drug discovery is about the relentless efforts of visionaries and experts in the field,” says Amit. “With this Fellowship, I was given the opportunity to work with leading experts in the field of prostate cancer and drug discovery.”

The Marie Curie Fellowship enabled Amit to work at the IGBMC in Strasbourg, France – a hub for work on identifying and validating novel targets for prostate cancer. There he contributed to assays to find small molecules that inhibit a particular gene.

The constant exchange of thoughts, ideas and viewpoints got me inspired.

Advancing treatment for prostate cancer

Amit Deshpande


“Dr Bohdan Wasylyk’s Lab at the IGBMC works on the identification and validation of novel targets of prostate cancers,” explains Amit. “One such gene was TTLL12, which was found to be over-expressed in prostate cancer progression and metastasis.”

Working in a lab like the IGBMC also gives researchers a realistic impression of what it is like to work at the cutting edge of drug discovery. “Drug discovery is a time-con-suming process,” admits Amit. “To compen-sate for failures, it is very important to learn from mistakes and to constantly search for new targets and molecules.”

Thinking big

Amit believes that the Marie Curie Fellow-ship offers other long-term advantages to bright young researchers. “The constant exchange of thoughts, ideas and view-points got me inspired,” he says. “Excellent communication between various research groups helps a lot, and makes research a lot more interesting. The Marie Curie Pro-gramme is making a huge difference in the way research is being conducted in the academic arena. Frustrations? For me there were none. This Fellowship was just perfect for me.”

Amit says that while it was a little difficult to adjust in the beginning, the experience was still pleasurable. “From a scientist’s point of view, the experience is compara-ble to the difficulties and excitement faced when optimising a difficult experiment. I would say change is a good thing and one should embrace it.”

The best part of this programme, according to Amit, is that it gives you the opportunity

to think big. “I was impressed by the Can-cure Programme (a project funded by the EU’s Sixth Framework Programme), which has a vision to understand prostate can-cer and eliminate it,” he continues. “A lot of groups participate and work on various aspects of this united vision. This enables experienced researchers to make a differ-ence, and at the same time acts as a superb incubator for budding scientists, like me, to shape up.”

A�er completing his Fellowship, Amit es-tablished a contract research organisation called Deshpande Laboratories (DL), and currently serves as the managing direc-tor of the firm. DL is involved in develop-ing in vitro and in vivo assays to screen and evaluate anti-cancer drugs. “The scientific and networking skills I learned as a part of the Marie Curie Fellowship are among the indispensable key ingredients that helped me to become an entrepreneur,” says Amit. “I look forward to actively participating and collaborating with future Marie Curie pro-grammes.”

Amit Deshpande

Age: 31

Nationality: Indian

Fellowship dates: January 2007– January 2010

Contract number: MEST-CT-2005-020970


Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular

Biology (IGBMC), France

Research area: Medicine (cancer research)



Ageing PopulationPublic Health

41


Research on mycotoxic nephropathy, a disease affecting the kidneys, took Bulgarian professor Stoycho Stoev to South Africa. In addition to making some important findings, his experiences led to a deeper appreciation of how international research cooperation can advance scientific discovery.

Stoycho’s project addressed the cause of animal/human mycotoxic nephropathies – a kidney disease caused by fungi widely encoun-tered in Bulgaria and South Africa. “My initial intention was to visit South Africa in order to perform some target research, to establish the specific and unusual nature of animal/human nephropathy and to compare the situations in both South Africa and Bulgaria,” says Stoycho. “I chose South Africa as this is the country where all my-cotoxins suspected to cause this particular nephropathy (such as ochratoxin A and fumonisin B1) have been discovered.” Exceeding expectations

Looking back, Stoycho says that the experience exceeded his wild-est expectations. Within the framework of his Fellowship, he discov-ered that Bulgarian nephropathy may have a multi-mycotoxic ori-gin, because it cannot be explained by a concentration of mycotoxin ochratoxin A (OTA) alone. He went on to identify a possible syner-gistic effect between OTA and other mycotoxins, such as fumonisin B1, and Penicillic acid, which have been suspected of causing this nephropathy.

This Fellowship helped me to realise my scientific goals, and opened new career possibilities in terms of new collaborations.

Strengthening African – European research ties

Stoycho Dimitrov Stoev


The Fellowship also furthered his career in other ways. “I met the researchers working on some of the mycotoxins involved in this nephropathy, and forged several scientific partnerships with them. Also, I was invited to many international conferences or congress-es, and wrote some chapters for books and review papers in some reputable international journals.”

Indeed, many articles concerning Stoycho’s research in South Africa also appeared in the local press. And his work was highlighted on the European-South African Science and Technology Advancement Programme web-site, which aims to promote cutting-edge re-search in the country.

“This Fellowship helped me to realise my scientific goals, and opened new career pos-sibilities in terms of new collaborations,” ac-knowledges Stoycho. “For example, it helped me to receive a Professorship appointment at my own university.” Stoycho also feels that he was able to acquire a vast range of new skills in some cutting-edge areas, such as multi-mycotoxin extraction, fungal screening and identification using PCR (polymerase chain reaction) analysis.

Promoting scientific cooperation

While Stoycho was in South Africa, he discov-ered that he had received the country’s first Marie Curie Fellowship, and was therefore keen to promote the value of EU-South Afri-can co-operation. As a consequence, he was invited to open the Vet Africa 2007 Congress by the Board of Trustees of Animal Aid for Af-rica, and gave lectures at a number of South African universities and institutes. He was even invited by the South African government to participate in several strategic meetings.

“These included meetings with the Di-rector and Deputy Directors of Strategic Partnership and International Resources at the South African Department of Sci-ence and Technology,” Stoycho continues. “As a result of my work in South Africa, I was also involved in supervising some lo-cal PhD students as a co-supervisor, and participated in regular workshops, confer-ences and seminars on various subjects, which strengthened my research contacts in South Africa.”

Stoycho is currently a Professor at the Fac-ulty of Veterinary Medicine in Trakia Uni-versity, Bulgaria. He is also currently coor-dinating another Marie Curie project, this time involving several European, Asian and African countries.

Stoycho Dimitrov Stoev

Age: 51

Nationality: Bulgarian

Fellowship dates: January 2007 – January 2010



University of Johannesburg, South Africa

Research area: Veterinary medicine




Dolores Dominguez Garcia spent her Marie Curie Fellowship in the Netherlands assessing the impact of dairy farming on her home region of Galicia in Spain. She was able to build up a network of useful contacts, and advises future Fellows to do the same – while keeping an eye open for future opportunities.

Perhaps surprisingly, the socio-economic and environmental impact of dairy farm activity in Galicia, Spain, was what took Dolores – known as Lola – to the Netherlands for a Marie Curie Fellowship. It was a wise move – Wageningen has an international reputation for food research, and while there she built up new knowledge on how various styles of dairy farming had differing impacts on the region. “My Marie Curie project was important as it showed the mutual relations between the socio-economic and environmental domains of farm practices,” says Lola. “By assessing the different farming styles, my Marie Curie project resulted in a practical approach to sustainability.” A more rounded view

Lola believes that the Marie Curie programme can make a huge difference to the training of a young researcher. “It provides good socio-economic working conditions, and most importantly, enables knowledge exchange in different academic and non-academic en-vironments. Working within an interdisciplinary academic context has helped me to get a more global view of my research agenda,” she says.

European research projects are about getting to know different viewpoints.

A positive impact on your future career

Dolores Domínguez García


The Marie Curie programme has also pro-vided Lola with a Europe-wide network of contacts, which increases the likelihood of working on new and exciting projects in the future. She has also kept in touch with her colleagues at her host institute. “European research projects are about getting to know different viewpoints and benefitting from a wide range of knowledge among European colleagues,” she explains.

Appreciating value

Lola values her Marie Curie Fellowship, and fully supports the aim of creating a flexible and adaptable European pool of research-ers. However, she feels that appreciation and understanding of the programme should be more widespread.

“My Marie Curie Fellowship was a fantastic and valuable experience for me and will be valuable for any researcher,” she says. “How-ever, when I came back, my deepest worry came true; that my country of origin would not fully appreciate my experience and aca-demic network.”

Lola explains that a Marie Curie Fellowship takes you out of your context, which is added value for your academic training and personal experience. But this does not necessarily help you the moment you are back. “This is not to do with the Marie Curie Fellowship, but relates to the more general academic context and the environment in my home region, Galicia,” she explains.

More recently, the focus of Lola’s research has shi�ed to governance and learning processes as driving forces of territorial rural develop-ment. “In the coming period, my ambition is to combine these two orientations and con-tinue working on – and benefitting from – an interdisciplinary research approach. Recently I formed a new partnership for a project under the [EU’s] Seventh Framework Programme that will start soon, and I have been invited to participate and contribute to the process of writing two other research proposals under the same programme.”

Her advice to someone starting a Fellowship would be to work hard, but also to keep an eye on the future. “It is very important to build up a good network, and Marie Curie Fellows should take advantage of the possibilities of living and working in different places. I could have perhaps been more strategic, but I learnt by doing!”

Dolores Domínguez García

Age: 40


Fellowship dates: October 2004 – October 2006



Rural Sociology Group, Wageningen University, the

Netherlands

Research area: Agricultural economy


P o r t r a i t s o f M a r i e C u r i e F e l l o w s Food Security

Sustainable Consumption And ProductionConservation And Management Of Natural Resources

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Portuguese e-science expert Rui Pinto Guimaraes spent three years developing new innovative technologies for the medical profession at the IFF Fraunhofer in Germany. He found his Fellowship so fulfilling that he applied for a second, this time in Greece.

“My first application for a Marie Curie Fellowship came about through coincidence,” Rui explains. “My real interest was in the par-ticular research project on offer. However, I soon learnt how to take the best of what the Fellowship can provide, and things worked out, otherwise I would not have applied for a second one!”

During his first Fellowship at the Virtual Development and Training Center of the IFF Fraunhofer in Magdeburg, Germany, Rui helped to develop a new virtual surgery simulator for laparoscopy (keyhole surgery). “This will help to train better surgeons, as they will now be able to use simulation features not previously available,” he says.Rui’s second Fellowship, at the Institute for Language and Speech Processing in Athens, Greece (December 2009-November 2010) enabled him to add speech recognition technology to a so�ware tool that will help scientists develop new methods of magnetic res-onance scanning.

Science is not done by a single researcher. It is done by a community that needs to share and discuss its results.

Promoting international cooperation through medical innovations

Rui Pinto Guimarães


Be prepared

“There is no doubt the Marie Curie pro-gramme can make a difference through the career opportunities and support it offers,” says Rui. “It offers the possibility of interna-tional experience and networking opportu-nities that would be difficult to achieve by any other means.”

Rui also points out that moving to work in another country can be complicated, and Fel-lows should go prepared. The first thing a Fel-low should do, he says, is to fully understand the rules and the spirit of the Fellowship.

“The first frustration, which I think is com-mon to many Fellows, is understanding the rules of the grant,” says Rui. “Understand-ing what will be taxed, understanding which categories of the grant the Fellow should be in control of and so forth.” he says. “It is my belief though that these problems can be sorted out with the right political will of the participating countries.”

Rui also suggests that Fellows should con-tact previous Fellowship holders to hear about their experiences. “They will be able to tell you how to get the most out of the Fellowship, and tell you about common pit-falls,” he says. “One way to contact previous Fellows is to join the Marie Curie Fellows As-sociation, which is made up exclusively of Marie Curie Fellows with no attachment to the official organisation.”

Better networking

The emphasis of the Marie Curie Fellowship on research collaboration made Rui much more aware of this topic and its associated problems. “These experiences led me to work

in e-science,” he says. “It became clear to me that new information technologies can pro-vide answers that greatly facilitate research collaboration and management, but have not yet made themselves heard. Science is not done by a single researcher. It is done by a community that needs to share and discuss its results.”

Rui is now a specialist in e-Science at the Fac-ulty of Engineering at the University of Porto, and is currently developing tools that will al-low research units to collaborate with other organisations – and help them to disseminate the results of their work more effectively. His work is an interesting mix of two disciplines: informatics and medicine.

“It is my belief that much can still be done to improve how scientists work together with new information technologies,” he says. “I hope soon it will be clear how these new tools will benefit the scientific community.”

Rui Pinto Guimarães

Age: 33

Nationality: Portuguese


Fellowship dates: July 2006 – July 2009


Fraunhofer IFF, Magdeburg, Germany and Institute

for Language

Research area: Medical informatics




“Hey, this is exactly what I’m looking for,” was José Iglesias’ first thought when he found out – by chance – about the Marie Curie programme. It clearly suits him, as in the space of a few years he has gone from being a Marie Curie Fellow himself to hosting a Fellow within his research group.

Originally from Spain, José moved to Italy in 2007 to begin research in computer graphics and scientific visualisation. When his Fellow-ship came to an end, he was able to continue working in the same research group.

The group’s expertise is in developing powerful interactive tools for the scientific visualisation of huge, digital models, and José person-ally focuses on the visualisation of three-dimensional data com-ing from medical devices such CT or MRI scans. These visualisation tools have a wide range of applications, from industrial design to medicine and natural sciences. From supernova explosion to medical diagnosis

“Researchers, medical doctors and engineers frequently need to explore and manipulate huge models in real-time to, for example,

Visualising the future – multi-resolution models for medical diagnosis

José A. Iglesias Guitián

I went on multiple trips around Europe and realised that I wanted to live more of it.


study a complex natural phenomenon more closely or make an accurate medical diag-nosis. Here is where our research comes into play,” says José.

His job is to develop new, efficient data struc-tures and advanced rendering techniques that make it possible to deal with models of potentially unlimited size. “Our research results enable, for example, visualisation in real-time, with a single PC, of an animated simulation data set from a supernova explo-sion; the same techniques could be applied in medicine for a time-varying data set of a beating heart,” says José. “As you can imag-ine, the possibilities and applications of our techniques are various and enormous.”

José is also working on a new kind of 3D-display, enabling someone to see many more views of a particular scene without wearing glasses. “Roughly speaking, it looks like a gigantic, coloured hologram. In our prototype, objects appear to float in space and the main advantage with respect to previous existing technologies is that you get a very good perception of the object’s depth without image flickering or poor col-our intensity,” he says.

More Europe

It was a desire for international experience that led José to submit an application for a Marie Curie Fellowship. “I went on multiple trips around Europe and realised that I want-ed to live more of it. I wanted to learn new languages, be in contact with different cul-tures, have a wider overview of Europe and get international experience in research.” He says that the programme went well beyond fulfilling these expectations.

The experience provided a “magnificent and definitive impulse” to his research career. It enabled him to work in the private sector – within a computer graphics group – that is advancing the state of the art, attend interna-tional workshops and conferences, and create an international network; and all while receiv-ing a competitive salary under good contract conditions.

He sees the Fellowship as an opportunity to kick-start a research career – not only for those that wish to stay in academia, but also for those wishing to move into industry.

José has no regrets about accepting the Ma-rie Curie Fellowship, but it was not an easy decision to “abandon my life at the time for a new adventure in a different and unknown place”. While he is still far from his nearest and dearest, he says that he has made won-derful new friends and is considering oppor-tunities for further international experience before returning to his native Spain.

José A. Iglesias Guitián

Age: 31


Fellowship dates: May 2007 – May 2010



CRS4 – Centre for Advanced Studies, Research and

Development in Sardinia, Italy

Research area: Computer graphics

Contact: www.linkedin.com/pub/jos%C3%A9-a-

iglesias/2/35/433

Group website: http://vic.crs4.it/vic



http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jos%C3%A9-a-iglesias/2/35/433



http://vic.crs4.it/vic

The Marie Curie Fellowship is not only about broadening research horizons – it is also about broadening the mind. Romanian geoscientist Marian-Daniel Iordache found that working in a multicultural environment far from home provided the perfect start to his research career, and stimulated his personal development too.

“The opportunity to work on European projects of a high standard is a huge advantage – and challenge – for a young researcher,” says Daniel. “You feel a kind of pleasant responsibility, which gives you the certainty that your work is important. You have the chance to meet people placed at the highest level in your research area, and learn many things from their experience.” Opportunity knocks

These experiences can provide the vital kick-start to an ambitious researcher’s career. During his Fellowship, Daniel worked with hy-perspectral sensing, which involves looking at objects using a por-tion of the electromagnetic spectrum. This research has a variety of potential applications, such as vegetation monitoring, mineral mapping, fire detection and contamination monitoring.

“The Fellow has the opportunity to establish his own professional network, and being a Marie Curie Fellow is proof of professional quality,” Daniel continues. “The courses I followed in 2008 and 2009 were adapted to my research needs, which helped me to achieve my PhD degree a�er the end of the fellowship. My co-supervisors, Professor Jose Bioucas-Dias and Professor Antonio Plaza, strongly supported me.”

The opportunity to work on European projects of a high standard is a huge advantage – and challenge – for a young researcher.

Kick-starting your career abroad

Marian-Daniel Iordache


In Daniel’s case, the Marie Curie Fellowship helped him not only to find a job a�er his PhD studies, but also to achieve wider rec-ognition. Daniel won the ‘Romanian Student of the Year 2011’ award, presented by the League of Romanian Students Abroad.

Taking the plunge

Daniel would have no hesitation in recom-mending the Fellowship to other up-and-coming researchers. “I would advise them to take advantage of all the great opportunities offered by such a programme,” he says. “It is a great chance to attend a range of events, courses, trainings, summer schools, work-shops and conferences, meet people at the highest level in your research area, and all of these will contribute to their personal evolu-tion. I expected to evolve considerably both as a researcher and as a person. These expecta-tions were fully met and I can say that the Marie Curie experience even exceeded them.”

Daniel’s current research is very much a con-tinuation of the work he pursued during his Marie Curie Fellowship. Since February 2012, he has been working on a postdoctoral pro-gramme at the Flemish Institute for Techno-logical Research (VITO) in Mol, Belgium. This is part of a collaboration agreement between VITO and Spain’s University of Extremadura (UNEX). “I have a two-year contract with VITO, but I will spend a part of the time at UNEX,” he explains.

Daniel points out that the programme is also about life experiences, and has helped him to develop a truly European outlook. “The Marie Curie Fellowship, by definition, places you in a multicultural environment, and this was also one of my reasons for going. The most dif-ficult part was the distance to my family, but I visited them every time I had the chance, and kept in touch with friends back in Romania.

“But one of the things I liked most is to meet people and to learn and discover new things about cultures different from mine. I made great friends in Portugal and Spain, which is important when you are far away from your home. I o�en miss them, and I always look forward to any occasion where I might see them again.”

Marian-Daniel Iordache

Age: 29

Nationality: Romanian

Fellowship dates: February 2008 – January 2011



Instituto Superior Tecnico (IST), Technical University

of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal (February 2008 – July

2009) and University of Extremadura (UNEX),

Cáceres, Spain (August 2009 – January 2011)

Research area: Earth science (Geoscience)


P o r t r a i t s o f M a r i e C u r i e F e l l o w s Climate Change

Conservation And Management Of Natural ResourcesIncrease Of The Use Of Technology In Manufacturing Initiative

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Establishing himself as a primate brain specialist was what Olivier Joly envisaged for himself following his Marie Curie Fellowship. But fate had more in store for him, for it was also in the lab that he met a fellow PhD student who would later become his wife.

Coming from a background in computer science and physics, Olivier was ready for a new challenge and delved head-on into the depths of neuroanatomy when he began his Fellowship. He started to study brain functions, investigating how non-human primate brains pro-cess sensory information, namely visual and auditory signals.

Knowledge of the brain regions involved in sensory processing is crucial to understanding human cognition. As the visual system is very similar among primates, an insight into the brain networks engaged in visual processing in non-human primates is extremely helpful in understanding the role of the different brain regions in humans.

“Our senses are like interfaces with the real world and therefore the main source of knowledge about the surrounding environment. I focus on the mapping of cortical activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which is a non-invasive technique com-monly used in humans,” explains Olivier.

During my Marie Curie Fellowship I met many people from different nationalities and several colleagues also became good friends.

Rewarding workin primate brain science for French researcher

Olivier Joly


Challenges and rewards

For the first half of his Marie Curie Fellow-ship, Olivier studied the processing of bin-ocular vision. By fusing information from both eyes, the primate brain is able to improve perception of the 3-dimensional (3D) shape of objects. During the second half, he studied the brain regions involved in the auditory processing of vocalisations. This last part of the work was particularly challenging but its success was incredibly rewarding.

“The Marie Curie Host Fellowship for Early Stage Researchers is extremely successful from my point of view. Young Fellows are selected to enrol in a PhD programme in the best European laboratories. The qual-ity of the PhD training is critical as it is the main opportunity to acquire research meth-ods – crucial considering researchers must update their knowledge all the time,” says Olivier. “This programme gives Fellows the opportunity to visit different labs and learn from internationally renowned experts.”

Researcher mobility – a life-chang-

ing experience!

Olivier reports that although he sometimes found the pace of the research work too slow and that he and his PhD advisor disagreed about things from time to time, these difficul-ties were always ironed out in the interest of the scientific work they were conducting.

“Although it was obviously difficult to leave France and be far from family and friends for many years, during my Marie Curie Fellowship I met many people from different nationali-ties and several colleagues also became good friends. This experience abroad, so early in

the career of a young researcher, is surely an important aspect to his/her future success. It was also while I was in the lab that I met a Hungarian PhD student who became my wife last year!”

A�er his Marie Curie Fellowship, Olivier re-turned to his native France, taking up a post-doctoral position at NeuroSpin near Paris, where he worked in primate brain imaging. Today, Olivier is based at the Auditory Lab at the Institute of Neuroscience (IoN) in Newcas-tle-upon-Tyne in the United Kingdom and he also runs a business in 3D printing of objects modelled from medical imaging.

“My recent work is more closely related to the processing of sounds and rhythmic pat-terns. I hope these investigations will help us to better understand the human evolution of music.”

Olivier Joly

Age: 31

Nationality: French

Fellowship dates: October 2005 – September

2008



Faculty of Medicine, KU Leuven, Belgium

Research area: Neuroscience




Understanding the immune response to tumours and using this knowledge to design drugs that will benefit cancer patients is the ultimate objective for Vaios Karanikas. Two Marie Curie grants have helped him to travel the world doing it.

Following a PhD on models of auto-immune disease – to which the role of T-cells was central – Vaios Karanikas made his first ma-jor breakthrough while working as a post-doctorate scientist at the Austin Research Institute in Australia. He then set his sights on Europe and moved to the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Brussels to carry out his second post-doctorate, where he stayed for five years, before heading back down under to set up a small group of scientists to investigate the effects of vaccination on can-cer patients.

But Europe called once more when he was awarded a Marie Curie International Incoming Grant to work at the University of Thessaly, allowing him to get back in touch with his Greek roots. Vaios also went on to receive another Marie Curie grant.

I believe that when you know what you want to do, if you try hard enough you’ ll succeed.

Travelling the world doing the research he loves

Vaios Karanikas


Hellenic adventure

“I like building things and going to Greece was a fresh challenge,” he explains. “But I believe that when you know what you want to do, if you try hard enough you’ll succeed.

“I was invited to give talks at every uni-versity in Greece, and the Fellowships cer-tainly advanced my connections in Europe. Connections with other research institutes helped me maintain collaborations with other researchers,” he says.

Vaios mentions that although there were some administrative problems surrounding the implementation of his first Fellowship when he arrived in Greece, by the time he got his second grant these kinds of prob-lems had been ironed out.

“The Marie Curie programme is a high-profile Fellowship that helps you establish yourself as part of an institution,” he says. “I would have liked it to have been a bit longer though as two years proved to be quite short in the end. Nevertheless I was able to complement my Marie Curie funding with national grants, which were easier to obtain with the Marie Curie prestige on my CV.”

A globetrotter at heart

“For me, travelling and living in different places is incredibly important and I have a wife and two children who have followed me around the world throughout all these moves,” says Vaios. “For them it has been an incredible ex-perience as well, my children have had an in-ternational experience they just wouldn’t have had if we still lived in Australia. We’ve lived in four countries in the last 14 years.”

Now his research career has brought him to Switzerland, where since September 2011 he has been working as a Biomarker Experimen-tal Medicine Leader at the pharmaceutical company Roche in Zurich. Here he is able to put all the knowledge he has gathered over the last 20 years into practice.

Vaios still maintains his position as a Profes-sor at the University of Thessaly as an affiliate from a distance, and he supervises his PhD students on a voluntary basis. “Now I tell my own students that if they want to travel the world, extend scientific connections and build lasting friendships they too should apply to the Marie Curie programme!”

Vaios Karanikas

Age: 44

Nationality: Greek-Australian

Fellowship dates: International Incoming Grant:

December 2005 – November 2007

Contract number: MIIF-CT-2005-021795


University of Thessaly, Faculty of Medicine,

Department of Immunology, Greece

Research area: Cancer immunology




The development of high-yield, over-expression systems and protein engineering of several copper-containing proteins were the central thrust of Dorota Kostrz’ Marie Curie research. The results were used in preliminary experiments for application in biosensors. The goal, for Dorota and other members of the EdRox Marie Curie Network, was to develop an optical biosensor that employs the FluoRox concept.

“By using the FluoRox concept, it is possible to monitor the redox state of metalloproteins via fluorescence resonance energy trans-fer between a covalently attached fluorescent dye and protein’s re-dox active centre,” explains Dorota. “Applying this approach in opti-cal biosensors allows detection levels that are orders of magnitude lower than those provided by conventional electrochemical meth-ods. These can be used in medical and environmental monitoring.”

It is a really demanding job and it requires constant focus and attention to detail, as well as the ability to come up with new ideas and think outside the box.

An international experience like no other

Dorota Kostrz


A collaborative approach

“I believe that the Marie Curie programme is one of the best-designed programmes for young researchers,” says Dorota.

“As well as being a great opportunity to work at the highest level in well-established laboratories, the programme also empha-sises the importance of collaborative work and intense knowledge exchange. Network partners look at the main research target from different angles, for example from a biochemical or a biophysical approach.”

Dorota took part in EdRox network meet-ings twice a year and says that these were a great opportunity to get to know each other and discuss progress. She also had the op-portunity to spend six months at network partners’ institutes, where she received ex-tensive theoretical and hands-on training. This was coupled with several training ses-sions outside the network, which helped her to get her PhD off the ground.

However, Dorota does note that the three-year nature of the Fellowship makes it dif-ficult to carry out high quality research and take advantage of all the training oppor-tunities on offer. “As I tried to benefit from all the training opportunities available to me, this led to a significant overrun in the time I had to complete my thesis, and some universities, like mine, do not provide ad-ditional financial support for people in this situation.”

Overcoming research lethargy

“It is a really demanding job and it requires constant focus and attention to detail, as well as the ability to come up with new ideas and think outside the box, so at some point you do become tired and pessimistic about your work,” says Dorota. “Luckily having a good PhD supervisor and friendly relations within the group helped me to see the light at the end of the tunnel whenever I was in a rut.”

Dorota feels that living abroad and working in a multinational team is an unrivalled ex-perience, as well as one that gives research-ers’ career prospects a boost. “It was a real pleasure to meet and work with people from all around the world and to interact with them not only on a scientific level but also on a personal level,” reflects Dorota. “We have re-mained good friends and have kept in contact even though the network has finished. Last, but not least, my language skills have truly benefited from this international experience.”

Dorota is still in Newcastle and is now writ-ing up her PhD thesis. She hopes to continue working in the field in the future.

Dorota Kostrz

Age: 28

Nationality: Polish

Fellowship dates: October 2007 – October 2010


Institution where Fellowship was carried

out: University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, United

Kingdom

Research area: Biochemistry


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Natural Resources 57


Indian researcher Chandrashekhar Vishwanath Kulkarni had high expectations when he began his three-year Fellowship at Imperial College London. He is happy to report that these were met, and that he has since worked at some of Europe’s most prestigious research institutes.

“Some of the main expectations I had from the Marie Curie Fellow-ship were that I would be able to pursue a PhD at a top level univer-sity and, if possible, on a cutting edge research subject with a well-known and established research group,” explains Chandrashekhar. “I am happy to say that all of these expectations were met.”

Chandrashekhar adds that other aspects of the Fellowship – the issue of financing and funding for example – were also dealt with well. “I was expecting to be able to use the Fellowship to attend conferences and meet people working in advanced scientific re-search all across Europe,” he says.

“This was possible thanks to the availability of adequate funding and opportunities, some of which were created or partnered by Marie-Curie Actions.” For example, the Fellowship enabled Chandrashekhar to attend the Nobel-Laureate Conference in Lindau, Germany, and a conference in Switzerland specifically based on his research area.

Try to make most of your Fellowship; believe me it’s worth it!

Working at the cutting edge of European chemical biology

Chandrashekhar Vishwanath Kulkarni


Opening doors

Chandrashekhar’s research addresses the use of physical principles to understand biological structures and phenomena. “To better understand such complex pro-cesses, it is essential to start with less com-plicated model systems,” he explains. “My work is mainly focused on model lipid mem-branes based on planar to intricate geom-etries, whose structural hierarchy ranges from nano- to millimetre-length scales. I study their self-assembling (formation), phase behaviour and interaction with bio-molecules.

“I believe my work is important as it pro-vides insights into mimic bio-membranes and related phenomena, while also helping to develop nano / bio materials for biotech-nological and biomedical applications.”

Preparation for the future

Chandrashekhar believes that the Marie Curie programme provides researchers with everything they will need at various stages of their careers. “The programme covers different technical and economic aspects, in general,” he says. “The collab-orative nature of the projects automati-cally induces mobility, thereby offering international exposure.”

Furthermore, without national barriers, the Fellowship is an excellent way of at-tracting young talent from Asian coun-tries and giving them a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience advanced Eu-ropean research. The fact that the Marie Curie programme allows non-European students to join its actions – and this is not limited to just one or two European

countries – makes it unusual, says Chan-drashekhar.

The Fellowship also prepares researchers for unforeseen difficulties. “At the end of my second PhD year, my research group experienced technical difficulties with all our instruments, and I was worried wheth-er I would be able to finish my PhD in three years or not. But it turned out well, in the sense that I diverted my attention towards other techniques, which were crucial for getting the results in the end.”

Following his Fellowship, Chandrashekhar carried out his first postdoc work with a research group at the University of Graz in Austria – one of the pioneers in X-ray diffrac-tion studies. In early 2011, he moved to the University of Bayreuth in Germany to work on experimental biophysics, and has been at the University of Cambridge since January 2012. “Try to make most of your Fellowship; believe me it’s worth it,” he says.

Chandrashekhar Vishwanath Kulkarni

Age: 33

Nationality: Indian

Fellowship dates: February 2005 –February

2008



Imperial College London, United Kingdom

Research area: Chemical Biology




Nikolaos Laoutaris always thought he would return to his native Greece for a career in academia, but his Marie Curie research experience set his life on another course altogether!

Nikolaos’ Marie Curie research enabled him to look into technology that can monitor how people consume information on the Internet so that specific content can be pushed towards users automatically. “This is called intelligent content distribution,” he explains.

“As the network started to evolve from being simply a communi-cations medium to a medium for distributing content, I began to study mechanisms to make content distribution more intelligent by essentially letting the content automatically get closer to the us-ers that would consume it. The aim is to let the content track the demand,” continues Nikolaos. “Think of it as a kind of ‘tug of war’, where different user populations pull the rope in order to have the content hosted closer to them.”

Nikolaos’ Marie Curie Outgoing International Fellowship took him to Boston University for a year and saw him complete a six-month reintegration phase at the University of Athens. But it wasn’t long before he returned to the United States, working on a follow-up post-doctorate at Harvard University a�er his Fellowship.

The Marie Curie Programme totally changed my perspective on everything.

A “pure gold” opportunity that changed the courseof his career

Nikolaos Laoutaris


“I wanted to stay in Boston because I had started several research collaborations re-lated to the Fellowship as well as others that went beyond that,” explains Nikolaos. “My research collaborations were peaking in number, intensity, and quality. Seemingly diverse in the beginning, it all started com-ing together like a jigsaw puzzle as time went on. It was like a great conversation that everyone was drawing inspiration and ideas from.” Although he had imagined himself re-turning to academia in Greece, Nikolaos’ career took an unexpected turn when he was then offered a permanent position in a new industrial research lab set up by the telecommunications company Telefonica in Barcelona. Into the business world

“I continue my research in my current job where I focus on more applied research and products,” he says.

“I had spent my entire career in universities so coming to a company exposed me to a whole new universe: from operations peo-ple that do the actual installation of ADSL lines or cell towers to strategy and regula-tion groups that look at the big picture of the Internet. Suddenly I was in contact with real problems. I was exposed to the busi-ness of running a network.”

Life changing

“The Marie Curie programme was a wonder-ful opportunity and I am deeply grateful for it,” says Nikolaos. “It totally changed my per-spective on everything. I met amazing people, and gained a different mentality about doing

research and more opportunities were avail-able to me.”

Nikolaos’ only complaint relates to several bureaucratic and administrative complica-tions surrounding the dra�ing of his contract with his managing institution, which meant he wasn’t paid for several months. However, he praises the huge effort made by all the staff involved to solve the problem.

Nikolaos believes that if it was not for his Fel-lowship he would not be where he is today.

“For me, the Marie Curie Fellowship totally changed my career. I wanted to get a glimpse of what research was like outside my home country where I had done all my studies. I got that and so much more!

“It is the biggest opportunity I have been giv-en in my professional career so far and here I am, seven years later and still abroad and do-ing research for one of the biggest telecom-munications companies in the world!”

Nikolaos Laoutaris

Age: 36

Nationality: Greek

Fellowship dates: May 2005 – October 2006



Boston University, USA (outgoing host) and

University of Athens, Greece (return host)

Research area: Computer Science – Networks


P o r t r a i t s o f M a r i e C u r i e F e l l o w s Sustainable Consumption And Production61


An “enriching experience” for the triple Marie-Curie recipientA�er receiving not one, not two, but three Marie Curie grants, Piet Lens is well placed to reflect on how the programme can make a difference, both professionallyand personally.

A�er training in environmental sanitation, and obtaining his PhD in environmental engineering from Ghent University in 1993, Piet Lens le� his native Belgium to work in Ireland. This was thanks to support from his first of three EU-funded boosts: a post-doctoral position in a Research Training Network (RTN).

“Upon finishing my PhD, I could choose between the EU-funded Post-doc and a job in a Belgian company. I decided to take the post-doc position because I wanted a job where I could do high-level research, with a grant that fully supports this and even covers the salary and research costs,” says Piet. “Also, I thought that moving around as a young researcher would be a great way to broaden my horizons and move forward in my career.”

A�er his time in Ireland, in 1996 Piet took up his second post-doctoral position, this time with support from a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (IEF). This funded his work on Nuclear Magnetic Reso-nance imaging of transport processes in biofilms. Upon completion of this Marie Curie IEF, Piet worked as an Assistant Professor, and later as an Associate Professor at Wageningen University.

I think the Marie Curie programme really implements well the EU value of appreciating other cultures and breaking down barriers between different Member States.

Piet Lens


Fusing cultures and forging

friendships

“I would urge everyone to apply for a Ma-rie Curie fellowship as wherever you go and whatever you do a�erwards you’ll be richer for having carried out research under the Ma-rie Curie umbrella,” reflects Piet. “By moving to another country to carry out research you are forced to move out of your comfort zone and while this can be difficult in the beginning, you soon get used to it and learn how differ-ent academic and professional cultures work.”

Piet also believes that Marie Curie Actions can profoundly affect not just your professional career but your personal life too: “They can change the whole trajectory of your life. I met my wife in the Netherlands, for example, and I am still here! I think the Marie Curie pro-gramme really implements well the EU value of appreciating other cultures and breaking down barriers between different Member States. This is something to be applauded and supported.”

Consolidating career and

research lines

Seven years a�er finishing his Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship, Piet was back under the “Marie Curie umbrella” once again, this time heading his own team of PhD and post-doc researchers with the help of a Ma-rie Curie Excellence Grant (EXT).

“We investigated heavy metal transport and binding in biofilms and soils – the aim was to remove heavy metals from groundwater and wastewater,” explains Piet. “We looked at different heavy metal removal processes altogether, mainly bioprecipitation and bi-oreduction. The EXT grant allowed us to do

research from the molecular scale in the laboratory to the full scale on site at com-panies. Our research showed that heavy metals can be removed most effectively by bioprecipitation.”

The Marie Curie Excellence Grant also fos-tered Piet’s next career step: a nomination as a full professor at the UNESCO Institute of Hydraulic Engineering. Today, Piet contin-ues to work on removing heavy metals from wastewater with more and more emphasis on their recovery to address metal scarcity. “Now I am building on the work carried out as part of my Marie Curie Excellence Grant by expanding the research to biosorption and phytoremediation, while continuing work on bioprecipitation and bioreduction at the same time. This way we are developing both industrial recovery processes and low-tech environmental protection technologies for low-income countries.”

Piet Lens

Age: 46

Nationality: Belgian

Fellowship dates: January 2004 – December 2008

Contract number: MEXT-CT-2004-509567


Wageningen University/UNESCO Institute of

Hydraulic Engineering, the Netherlands

Research area: Environment – Environmental

Engineering

Contact: [email protected]; [email protected]

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Signal transduction pathways of eukaryotic cellsNarcisa Martínez Quiles always wanted to set up her own independent research group and it was thanks in part to her Marie Curie International Reintegration Grant (IRG) that she was able to make it happen when she returned to Spain a�er seven years working at a prestigious Children’s Hospital in the United States.

“I worked for five years as part of my post-doctorate and two more as an ‘Instructor’ at the Children’s Hospital Boston, a major paedi-atric teaching hospital affiliated with Harvard Medical School,” says Narcisa.

A�er completing her post-doctoral research, Narcisa was able to re-turn to Spain and set up her own research group at the University Complutense of Madrid a�er being awarded a prestigious five-year ‘Ramón y Cajal’ position funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education. It was then that she applied for a Marie Curie grant.

“Thanks to this financial support and the prestige of the Marie Curie IRG, I was able to follow my own lines of research,” she says.

Narcisa is studying the signal transduction pathways of eukaryotic cells, and how they are linked to the regulation of the cytoskeleton (this is the structure which shapes the cell and mediates several of its essential functions, like movement and division) during cell motil-ity. Her research group’s focus is on cortactin regulation and how this

When I obtained the Marie Curie IRG, I initiated a completely new line of research.

Narcisa Martínez Quiles


protein interacts with downstream signal transduction pathways under physiological and disease conditions. Despite its impor-tance in numerous cellular processes, many basic aspects of cortactin regulation remain a mystery to scientists. Published results

“When I obtained the Marie Curie IRG, I initiat-ed a completely new line of research to study the infection model of Enteropathogenic Es-cherichia coli, which adheres to cells by form-ing actin pedestals,” explains Narcisa. “So far this research has led to one publication, with two other papers forthcoming. I was also able to reanalyse unpublished experiments from my PhD studies about the role of the Major Histocompatibility Comples on Human Immu-nodeficiency Virus (HIV) vertical transmission. Then as corresponding author, I prepared a manuscript that was ultimately published in the journal Current HIV Research in 2009.”

Support that leads places

“I think the economic support available to Marie Curie IRG recipients is enough to fund the first two years of a modest research pro-ject. I’d advise Spanish researchers in par-ticular to use at least part of this funding to pay for a technician or a pre-doctoral fellow as obtaining funds for research personnel in Spain is very difficult for junior Principal In-vestigators.”

It was her grants and publications com-bined that helped Narcisa obtain a per-manent position as a professor at the Uni-versity Complutense of Madrid, where she continues to work.

Narcisa is clearly very positive about the ex-perience, but she does have one suggestion for improvement: “Whilst it might be a detail and not so relevant now, looking back I did find it quite frustrating to have a ‘scientist’ in charge of supervising my grant. I would suggest changing the terminology and no longer referring to grant recipients as ‘Fel-lows’ as o�en they have the experience to be Principal Investigators (PI) themselves. If the director of a department holds the ul-timate responsibility for the management of the grant, that makes us as ‘Fellows’, in some cases, less free to act with total scien-tific and economic independence. In my case when I received the IRG grant I think I was mature enough to act as a PI and to manage it in a responsible way. I think it should be the university or the institution who acts as the ‘supervisor’.”

Narcisa Martínez Quiles

Age: 45


Fellowship dates: January 2006 – December 2007

Contract number: MIRG-CT-2006-028995


University Complutense of Madrid, Spain

Research area: Molecular biology (Signal

transduction)



Public Health 65


Looking to the skies!John McKean’s passion for astronomy was a natural progression from his lifelong interest in maths and physics. And once he had got a taste for it, there was no stopping him; today he is at the forefront of European research on galaxy formation.

Studying the structure of galaxies and how they evolve over cosmic time is the focus of John’s research. He looks at the specific proper-ties of galaxies predicted using models of galaxy formation and tries to observe these properties using a special technique called gravita-tional lensing – the deflection of light from a distant galaxy by a more massive foreground galaxy.

“This type of research is important because it tests the basic princi-ples of how we believe our Universe formed and helps explain why we are here today,” John explains.

A�er a stint as a post-doc researcher in the United States, John was accepted into the Marie Curie Research Training Network ANGLES, where he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany.

John McKean

Being part of the Marie Curie Network helped me get to where I am today thanks to the connections I established.


Astronomy generation

John cites the mix of young and more ex-perienced researchers as a very positive as-pect of the network, and he believes it was instrumental in kick-starting many people’s careers. John praises the extra funding for travel offered by the Marie Curie programme, describing it as “crucial for giving researchers the freedom to go to international meetings without having to seek the funds from within their host institute”.

“Being part of the Marie Curie Network helped me get to where I am today thanks to the connections I established,” says John. “We are an entire generation of astronomy research-ers really. We all keep in touch by e-mail and support each other in our work, even if we don’t o�en work on the same projects.

“The only criticism I have of the programme is that due to local tax laws, some people got paid more than others for doing the same work,” John continues. “I’d also have liked it if my Fellowship could have lasted for three years instead of two, as although my host in-stitute extended my contract for a third year, I no longer had the same benefits as I did un-der Marie Curie.”

John says that although it can be difficult to settle into a new country, especially when friends come and go quickly, this is balanced out by having friends in lots of different plac-es and having the opportunity to travel.

At the forefront of radio

astronomy research

A�er his Fellowship, John took up a fixed term research position at the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy and is opti-mistic about his future in the field. He says he would relish the chance to work on the new Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope, soon to be the world’s largest radio tele-scope. Both South Africa and Australia are bidding to host the SKA, and a decision from the international astronomy community on which country will host the telescope is ex-pected soon.

“Regardless of whether it will be hosted in South Africa or Australia, it’s going to require a lot of expertise and experience to realise the full potential of the SKA – European scientists will play a leading role in defin-ing the telescope’s science programme and exploiting its capabilities to the very limit,” says John. “Radio Astronomy has a great his-tory in Europe, so Europe will definitely be at the forefront of SKA research for decades to come.”

John McKean

Age: 34

Nationality: British

Fellowship dates: October 2005 – December 2007



Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR),

Bonn, Germany

Research area: Astronomy


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A unique opportunity to carry out multidisciplinary researchRoman Nevshupa’s Marie Curie research resulted in a new technique for characterising the gas content in materials. But this was just the start, and several innovative products using this technology have recently been patented. This is an achievement to be proud of for the Russian materials scientist now living and working in Spain.

In a multidisciplinary area such as materials science, the opportuni-ty to work with experts in different areas – surface science, vacuum science and surface chemistry to name but a few – can really add value to the research experience. This was what winning the Marie Curie Fellowship meant for Roman Nevshupa.

His research focuses on the multidisciplinary phenomenon of Me-chanically Stimulated Gas Emission from materials and coatings. This phenomenon occurs when a minute amount of gas is dis-charged from materials under applied mechanical stress, deforma-tion or rubbing.

“We found that the gas emission is very sensitive to the initial stag-es of material damage like plastic deformation or fracture. It can be said that a material sends an alarm signal in the form of the gas emission when it is damaged,” explains Roman. “Learning this ‘language’ allows us to detect the failures of mechanical elements of space and vacuum systems at a very early stage, thus preventing significant economic and environmental consequences.”

Contact the Marie Curie Fellows association and you will find advice and help.

Roman Nevshupa


Roman also emphasises that by tailoring the emission response of materials to me-chanical deformation, new ‘intelligent’ and self-healing materials and coatings can be developed for tribological applications. Tri-bology involves the study of mechanisms of friction, lubrication, and wear of surfaces interacting while in relative motion.

Career catalyst

“The Marie Curie programme gave me an op-portunity to develop both personally and pro-fessionally, and to obtain new skills and ex-pertise,” reflects Roman. “The Fellowship also helped me improve my self confidence and my flexibility – both essential qualities when working in a group.”

The Fellowship was also an important cata-lyst for his career. A�er completing his Fel-lowship, Roman received another Marie Curie grant to return to his university in Moscow, the Bauman Moscow State Technical University. The results he obtained during his Fellowship formed the basis for his Habilitation thesis, and he was awarded a top faculty position.

Roman worked at the university for two years before he was invited to return to Spain to the Tekniker Research Foundation to continue sci-entific and technological development in the vacuum tribology field. In 2010 he obtained a ‘Ramón y Cajal’ position funded by the Span-ish Ministry of Science and Education at the Spanish National Research Council, where he continues to build on the research he carried out as part of his Marie Curie Fellowship.

Overcoming administrative hassles

“Unfortunately there were some administra-tive conflicts between the rules of the pro-gramme and the rules established at my host Institute,” explains Roman. “That was really surprising to me as I expected much more uniformity in terms of the financial, ac-counting and tax rules within the EU. In ad-dition for the first three months I had serious and time consuming problems with the ad-ministrative procedures involved in obtaining residence permission in Spain.

“I’d say to other Marie Curie Fellows who might be experiencing administrative prob-lems in their host country, don’t give up. You are not alone. Contact the Marie Curie Fellows association and you will find advice and help.”

Roman Nevshupa

Age: 41

Nationality: Russian

Fellowship dates: June 2006 – May 2008

Contract number: MIIF-CT-2005-022067


Institute of Material Science of Madrid (ICMM-CSIC),

Spain

Research area: Material Science


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Flexibility and adaptation, the way to successMarie Curie Fellows bring high expectations and enthusiasm to their respective academic projects, but they also have lives to live. Dorota Roberts wanted to be a wife and mother as well as a full-time research scientist. Her Fellowship allowed her to do that and she is now on her way to a promising professional career.

“I study the behaviour of proteins in aqueous solutions,” Dorota ex-plains. “It’s an exciting research area because our bodies are built of proteins; they are in our food and medicines, and their interactions can prevent diseases.

“When I became a Marie Curie Fellow, my objective was to obtain a PhD and become a valuable researcher for industry employers. But it wasn’t a straightforward affair,” she says.

My advice to future Marie Curie Fellows? Make the most of your Marie Curie programme!

Dorota Roberts


Surmountable obstacles

One year into the PhD project, Dorota and her husband became parents. “But being a mum is not necessarily a convenient thing for a woman engineer and scientist, because there are unwritten rules for women working in re-search and academia – there is no room or time for a baby in your life.”

When she returned from maternity leave, Dorota found some of her collaborators less than cooperative. “There is unfortunately still some old-fashioned thinking in the academic world,” she says. She discussed these matters with her project leader and was encouraged to continue her Marie Curie Fellowship under another supervisor for the remaining two years of the project.

Dorota restarted work towards her PhD, tak-ing an entirely new research approach.

“I had always been more interested in dy-namics, movement and fluid changes in time – that is what we call ‘rheology’. In my new research area I was more focused on ‘ther-modynamics’.

“This was a challenge to me as I had to learn completely new subjects. I organised my time effectively and kept a rigorous timetable, combining work and family duties. My new supervisor gave me a lot of support and op-portunities to develop my career.”

It can happen

Dorota says her expectations have been achieved. “I have my PhD and I learned how to lead projects. The Marie Curie programme allowed me to do research and study in another country, to understand how things work there and then take the best of these practices into my own future efforts.”

She finds one of the most important aspects of the Marie Curie Actions, compared to a ‘standard’ PhD programme, to be generous funding, “which enabled me to attend inter-national conferences and workshops. This helped me to develop a network with other young researchers in my field.

“My advice to future Marie Curie Fellows? Make the most of your Marie Curie pro-gramme! Make contacts in academia or in-dustry, either in your host country or in other countries. Build a network of professional contacts that will be useful to you in the fu-ture. And enjoy yourself!”

Dorota Roberts

Age: 34

Nationality: Polish

Fellowship dates: October 2006 – August 2010



University of Manchester, United Kingdom

Research area: Biochemical engineering,

biotechnology




Flying high in materials scienceWhen sending in his application for a Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher Fellowship, Manel Rodriguez Ripoll’s overarching aspiration was to carry out research at a top European institution. But he was equally eager to return to Germany where he had previously lived and improve his German language skills.

Tungsten is a material well known for its superb high temperature properties. It is used in the lighting industry for bulb filaments, and features prominently in many EU-funded Euratom Fusion Energy Programme projects. Manel’s research concerned the mechanical characterisation and the numerical simulation of the drawing pro-cess of tungsten wires.

“During the drawing process, tungsten wires fail by a mechanism known as wire splitting,” he explains. “With my research, I was able to gain a deeper insight into this mechanism that is also common to many other metals.”

High standards

“The scientific level of the Marie Curie Network was very high,” reflects Manel. “Every participant was led by world-recognised professors. It was very instructive to meet them regularly at network meetings and to learn from their experience during secondments.”

Manel Rodriguez Ripoll

My host institution was exemplary and every single detail was fulfilled according to the regulations.


Manel believes the Marie Curie grant money is well invested since in most cases relation-ships established during the network last long a�er the programme has finished. “I was able to establish contact and collabo-rate with top researchers across Europe,” he says. “These fruitful collaborations continue today and serve as an excellent network of key researchers in several countries. Many of the contacts I made during that time, includ-ing some Fellow colleagues, have obtained important positions at universities, research centres and in industry worldwide.”

Adapting to new environments

Manel admits that although moving abroad as a researcher is incredibly beneficial, it can put a strain on your relationships with loved ones back home: “The negative part about the Fellowship was that I could only see my wife Tina, my girlfriend at that time, sporadi-cally as she was studying in Ljubljana during my Fellowship. On the other hand, I immedi-ately started getting to know new people in my new host country. I was also very lucky as my host institution had a large and mul-ticultural group of young researchers so this made integrating much easier. “I am aware of Fellow colleagues who had problems with taxation and allowances but personally I never experienced any problems like that,” says Manel. “My host institution was exemplary and every single detail was fulfilled according to the regulations. Every-thing went smoothly.”

Brighter futures

A�er finishing his Fellowship as an Early Stage Researcher, Manel was offered a po-sition to stay on at Fraunhofer Gesellscha�

until the end of his PhD. He subsequently went on to join another Marie Curie Network in Slovenia, this time as an Experienced Re-searcher. It was thanks to these contacts and the knowledge he acquired as part of his Marie Curie experiences that Manel took up his current position as a Pool Leader at an Austrian research company in the field of Tribology, the study of the effects of friction on moving machine parts and of methods, such as lubrication, of doing away with them. He says his employers were impressed by his broad international experience, and that this has helped him garner more and more re-sponsibility.

Manel stresses how important the oppor-tunities available to Fellows outside their research work are when it comes to career enhancement. These include language, pro-ject management and presentations skills courses. These are incredibly advantageous for future career opportunities a�er the Network.

“I strongly believe that the Marie Curie pro-gramme is an essential instrument for the cohesion of European researchers and insti-tutions,” says Manel.

Manel Rodriguez Ripoll

Age: 34





Fraunhofer Gesellscha�, Germany

Research area: Materials Science



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Enzymes under the microscopeVinothkumar dreamed of establishing his own research programme when he applied for a Marie Curie Fellowship. This dream came true, and today Vinothkumar continues his research on intramembrane proteases in Cambridge, UK. These enzymes are implicated in a wide variety of diseases, including in Alzheimer’s, in cholesterol metabolism, and in the development of certain viruses.

By understanding how a certain family of proteins – intramembrane proteases – work, Vinothkumar is tackling a fundamental biologi-cal problem – how peptide bonds (the chemical bonds that make a protein) are cleaved with the addition of water in a hydrophobic environment. His major focus at present is a subfamily of intram-embrane proteases called rhomboids. Intramembrane proteases are implicated in a variety of diseases, including the onset of Alzheimer’s.

Residing in the membrane, these proteases cleave a substrate pro-tein, which when released leads to a cell signalling event that can affect the same or neighbouring cells. By selectively inhibiting these proteases, one can prevent the signalling process and thereby the biological function. “We are still learning what these proteases do in the cell and how they work, but there is a growing interest in design-ing novel drugs and initial results are promising,” says Vinothkumar.

Vinothkumar Kutti Ragunath

I wouldn’t have got the exposure in India that I get in Europe.


A made-to-measure research

programme

It was the opportunity to pursue this very specific research area that led Vinothkumar to apply for a Marie Curie Fellowship. “Usu-ally when you apply for a post-doc position, you join a project that is already ongoing. With the Fellowship, I was able to establish my own research programme, semi-independently. I have had tremendous support from my men-tors Drs Richard Henderson and Matthew Freeman, who not only sponsored my fellow-ship, but have also been instrumental in me developing into an independent scientist.”

It was the opportunity to delve deeper into membrane proteins – combined with a desire to raise his profile – that first brought Vinoth-kumar to Europe. “I come from a small town in southern India, and although science is de-veloping quickly there, I wouldn’t have got the exposure in India that I get in Europe.”

This exposure enabled him to secure a posi-tion as an Investigator Scientist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, where he continues his research today. The results are promising and there is a lot of interest in his work. All in all, it is a very exciting time to be involved in this field, he admits.

A career boost

Vinothkumar believes that the prestige at-tached to the Fellowship is well appreci-ated by his peers. “And it does boost my CV.” For anyone considering applying, he suggests that the Fellowship “provides an illuminating path for a future career in sci-ence. Marie Curie is one of the few scien-tists to have received a Nobel Prize in two different fields; to get a fellowship with her name is prestigious.”

Does Vinothkumar have any plans to return to India? Not in the near future. He feels very comfortable in Europe and denies ever hav-ing experienced a culture shock. “Frankfurt is a very cosmopolitan city and there, like in England, it’s possible to do the same things as I would do in India.”

Europe is also the place to be for profession-al reasons. While his research continues to go well, he is also applying for group leader positions. Ultimately, “this area of research is easier to follow in Europe, and I will be very glad if my research could provide some ben-efits to humanity.”

Vinothkumar Kutti Ragunath

Age: 35

Nationality: Indian

Fellowship dates: April 2007-February 2009



MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge,

United Kingdom

Research area: Life Sciences



Public Health, Ageing Population 75


Taking fuel combustion expertsto TurkeyEveryone is familiar with the need to slash carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles – it is one of the 21st century’s key challenges. Hakan Serhad Soyhan is making his own, significant contribution to emissions research by investigating the effects of combustion chamber deposits (CCD) that build up on the combustion chamber of an engine.

“In general, the lower the surface temperature, the greater the growth of combustion chamber deposits,” says Hakan. He explains that these deposits can change the thermal environment of the engine and effect auto-ignition, thereby impacting combustion effi-ciency. The project carried out under the auspices of the Marie Curie Fellowship allowed Hakan to study this process, and he believes the knowledge gained will help scientists dramatically reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions caused by transportation.

What does industry want?

In addition to these technical advances, Hakan’s project was also aimed at transferring knowledge between universities and an indus-trial partner, namely Shell. “As an academic, it was a great experience to hear industry’s expectations and try to meet them,” he comments. It was also good to be in such an industrial working environment. “With the help of the Marie Curie programme, I had a chance to work in an international group, containing Fellows from all over Europe, to learn about their individual experiences in my area and also to get to know their cultures,” says Hakan. “In return, these experiences broadened my

It was good to be in such an industrial working environment.

Hakan Serhad Soyhan


mind and my career and I was chosen as an advisor for many international projects a�er my return.”

International conference

The international experiences gained during and a�er the Fellowship have clearly been of major importance to the Turkish scien-tist. Hakan explains how he invited many of the Fellows he met during the Marie Curie programme to Istanbul and started organising a regular international confer-ence on fuels and combustion in engines (FCE) in 2008.

“We organised the third FCE conference in January 2012 and invited scientists from across the European Union, for example the Netherlands, Greece, and the UK, to share with us their experiences and knowl-edge,” says the scientist. “We also had in-dustrial visitors from leading petrochemi-cal companies such as Shell and Tupras, and various car manufacturers’ research and development centres, notably Renault, Otokar and Fiat,” says Hakan. “So our net-working started by the Marie Curie pro-gramme is now extending to new networks consisting of scientists and researchers working in industry,” he says proudly.

Sharing life and science

A�er his Fellowship, Hakan returned to his home country.” He began working as an assistant professor at the University of Sa-karya, where he currently has a permanent position as an associate professor and his own research group. He recently sent one of his PhD students to Lund University, Sweden, to carry out research on chemical mechanisms governing exhaust emissions from cars for one year. “So the Marie Cu-rie chain still continues,” he says happily, exalting future programme Fellows “to be collective not only on sharing knowledge, but also on learning about other lifestyles and cultures”.

Hakan Serhad Soyhan

Age: 41

Nationality: Turkish

Fellowship dates: February 2007 – October 2007

Contract number: MTKI-CT-2004-509777


Shell Research Centre, United Kingdom

Research area: Mechanical engineering

Contact: www.hsoyhan.sakarya.edu.tr


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http://www.hsoyhan.sakarya.edu.tr

Organic materials for electronic circuitsGreening Europe’s industry to meet current and future environmental and industrial challenges is at the forefront of the European Commission’s political agenda. Claudia Custodia Delgado Simão is hoping to contribute by leading efforts to move electrical companies towards more environmentally friendly means of production with her research into new lightweight, organic materials.

“My research focused on designing and synthesising novel organic materials and their application as molecular wires and switches in electronic circuits,” explains Claudia. “Molecular electronics is an exciting field that is seeking not only more powerful but also more efficient electronics.”

Claudia describes how scientists in this field want to find the best ways to “substitute expensive materials such as silicon and copper in the electronics industry with lightweight, cheap, low power con-sumption organic materials”. According to the young scientist, the use of these materials, for example in circuits, wires and transis-tors, should encourage the move towards a more environmentally friendly industry.

Overwhelmed by the possibilities

Claudia is clearly passionate about her subject and says she was simply “excited about the chance to continue working as a chem-ist in materials science” when she was initially awarded the Marie Curie Fellowship. And as time went by, she was “overwhelmed” by the opportunities offered by the programme.

The Marie Curie scheme is a synonym of a career by itself.

Claudia Custodia Delgado Simão


“The network that you are brought into is so extensive and robust, that you feel ex-tremely supported and feel that you can – and should – do your best.” Indeed, Claudia believes that the scheme is “more than a Fellowship – it is known around the world and accepted as one of the best Fellow-ships available. It is a synonym of a career by itself.”

Creating jobs

For Claudia, “one of the most important and subtle characteristics of a Marie Curie Fellowship is the support that this network brings to former Fellows”. She appreciates the availability of grants to help reinte-grate former Fellows, either in their own country – or elsewhere if they prefer. She believes that this level of concern for the scientists’ futures will have a significant impact on stopping brain drain from poor-er to more affluent countries. Claudia adds that this extra financial backing will also “help create more jobs” – an important is-sue in the current economic downturn in which unemployment across the EU, espe-cially among young people, is growing at an alarming rate. The young scientist had already worked abroad prior to gaining the Fellowship, spending one year as an undergraduate student in a company in Ghent, Belgium, as part of her Masters of Science (MSc) de-gree. “When you have to go abroad, it will always have an impact on your personal life, but the first impact is readily substi-tuted by the rewarding experience of living outside your country,” she insists.

Unsurprisingly, given the richness of her experiences, she would advise anyone wanting to continue their scientific stud-ies to apply for a Marie Curie Fellowship, touting it as “a turning point in your life – for the better”. A�er finishing the scheme, she was awarded a post-doctorate posi-tion “almost immediately” at the Institut Catala de Nanotecnologia. She admits, “I did not even manage to have a holiday, but it was an exciting job and I did not want to miss the opportunity. I felt it was the right next step.”

Claudia Custodia Delgado Simão

Age: 29

Nationality: Portuguese

Fellowship dates: January 2007 – January 2010



Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona

(ICMAB-CSIC), Spain

Research area: Nanotechnology

Contact: http://claudiasimao.org/


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http://claudiasimao.org/

Building virus scaffolds and cross-culture bridgesViral nanotechnology sounds both exciting and intriguing. For Nicole Steinmetz, it is like building structures out of Lego. The German scientist is thankful to her international experience for enabling her to follow her dreams and keep on building.

Viruses are o�en used in materials science as scaffolds. Nicole ex-plains that her research involves “performing chemistry using a vi-ral protein scaffold”. This means “establishing various principles to chemically modify plant viral nanoparticles with molecules called chemical modifiers, which are used in electrochemical sensing [the extraction of information by measuring an electronic parameter] and data storage drives”. She also uses them as “building blocks – like plastic Lego bricks – to assemble higher order structures”.

Nicole is confident that nanotechnology has the potential to take virus technology into an entirely new direction and make possible a wide range of applications, including electronics, far beyond the traditional areas of biology and medicine.

Personal and professional gain

Carrying out her studies under the aegis of the Marie Curie Fel-lowship allowed Nicole to have “a terrific time working on a fan-tastic project with a great team of advisors”. Indeed, she singles out two of her mentors – Professors Evans and Lomonossoff for

The world is small in the scientific world.... like under the microscope.

Nicole F. Steinmetz


a special “thank you”! She says that she met many friends and collaborators dur-ing the programme and emphasises the importance of being able to travel both for personal and professional gain. “In the boundary-free environment of modern sci-ence, where diverse scientific fields merge and new ones are born, interdisciplinary and international training is an essential requirement for a young scientist and a critical skill set for effective collaboration,” she comments.

Nicole insists that she is not looking at the Fellowship through rose-tinted glasses, admitting that “of course, it is not always easy being away from family and friends”. But she talks happily about how she has “made so many new friends, who are now all over the world” and how they all remain in close contact via internet platforms, conferences, invited seminars, and re-search visits. “The world is small in the sci-entific world.... like under the microscope,” she says.

The Marie Curie scheme allowed Nicole to follow her dreams. A�er finishing her Marie Curie Fellowship at the John Innes Centre in the UK, she was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at the Scripps Re-search Institute in the US. Then in 2010, Nicole launched her “independent career” as professor in biomedical engineering at Case Western Reserve University, a lead-ing American college.

Medical applications

At Case Western she is “leading a research laboratory focused on the research and development of viral nanoparticles as tools for applications in medicine”. Her cur-rent projects focus on cancer imaging and therapy as well as cardiovascular disease. She says that her vision is to “drive this technology toward potential clinical ap-plications”.

For Nicole, this research is particularly ex-citing as it is not where she expected to end up. “I did not start out in nanotech-nology or nanomedicine, but in the field of molecular biotechnology, specifically in molecular farming using plant viruses,” she explains. “During my undergraduate studies, I attended a lecture on the use of plant viruses in molecular biotechnol-ogy and I have been fascinated with plant viruses ever since. I have always been in-trigued by nature and how nature orches-trates complex processes. Using nature, or more specifically plant viruses, for applica-tions in pharmaceuticals, other medicines or materials is an exciting field.”

Nicole F Steinmetz

Age: 32

Nationality: German

Fellowship dates: October 2004 – September 2007



John Innes Centre, Norwich, United Kingdom

Research area: Nanobiotechnology




On a mission to help treat neurodegenerative diseasesWork hard, believe in yourself and the Marie Curie Fellowship will make your dreams come true, promises Bulgarian scientist Irina Stoyanova. For her, the scheme furthered research into new therapeutic approaches to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

The behaviour of neurons in the brain cortex or in cell cultures was the focus of Irina’s Fellowship. “This has clinical relevance because neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s lead to deteriorated cognitive abilities, which have been related to im-paired neuronal network connectivity and activity,” explains Irina. Her findings could lead to the development of new therapeutic approaches to these disorders and others such as epilepsy and strokes, says Irina.

Dynamic international experiences

According to Irina, the Marie Curie Fellowship was everything that she hoped for. “It gave me the opportunity to put my ideas, knowl-edge, and skills into practice, and to perform high level research,” she says. “The programme is based on the principle of mobility and research training, and offers intensive and dynamic interna-tional experiences, opportunities to exchange knowledge, develop your career and expand your professional network.”

Success is the result of persistence, not simply talent, of steadfast belief, not merely brains or brawn.

Irina Ivanova Stoyanova


Irina split her Fellowship between two dif-ferent institutions, spending one year at the University of Trakia in her home coun-try of Bulgaria, before transferring to the University of Twente in the Netherlands. Her research there has been so successful that the University of Twente extended her contract until December 2013.

“Trakia was an official partner in the Neu-roVers-IT Marie Curie project, the main goal of which was to make a proper con-nection between artificial devices, like prosthetic limbs, and the peripheral nerv-ous system a�er injuries or amputations,” explains Irina. “When the project started I was an associate professor in the depart-ment of anatomy, histology, embryology and our aim was to create an interface be-tween cultured cortical neurons and elec-tronic devices.” It was during the project that she came up with “a new idea on how to tackle a specific scientific problem: how to communicate with a larger number of neurons for a longer period of time. How-ever, there was no appropriate equipment for performing this kind of research in Tra-kia, and in January 2008 I was recruited by a team at the University of Twente.”

As well as the professional advantages of-fered by the scheme, Irina also highlights the huge personal benefits. “I made many new friends,” she recalls, and experienced no real problems during to the Fellowship. “On the contrary, I received a lot of under-standing and support.”

Dream big

Irina is obviously delighted with the outcome of her Fellowship, and believes that anyone who is tempted by the scheme should go ahead and apply. “Remember that success is the result of persistence, not simply tal-ent, of steadfast belief, not merely brains or brawn,” she insists. Irina encourages her fellow scientists to dream, and more impor-tantly to “dream big”, adding that if they do this and “they are also hard-working, a Ma-rie Curie Fellowship will make your dreams come true”.

Irina had dreamed since childhood about be-coming a doctor. “I have always been eager to explore things, to understand how they work. I found the human body fascinating, and I found most fascinating the nervous system – how it is organised, the reasons why it sometimes malfunctions and how we can change that.” But as she has come to realise, medical research is much more than second best. “I wanted to be able to help oth-er people, but I realised that as a researcher and university teacher my contribution could be even bigger [than that of a medical doc-tor]. My work is like a mission for me”.

Irina Ivanova Stoyanova

Age: 53

Nationality: Bulgarian

Fellowship dates: January 2008 – July 2009


Institutions where Fellowship was carried out:

University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands

Research area: Neurobiology


P o r t r a i t s o f M a r i e C u r i e F e l l o w s Ageing Population

Public Health 83


Understanding immune cells through international collaborationLena’s research is quite literally a matter of life and death. Supporting her quest to find answers on immune cells, a Marie Curie Fellowship enabled her to work with leading names in her field. In addition to valuable knowledge, the time in London also instilled in Lena the confidence to set up her own research group.

“My research was, and still is, to understand the mechanisms be-hind how immune cells migrate,” says Lena. “For a functional im-mune system, the white blood cells need to be able to migrate upon a cue from infectious intruders and defeat these,” she adds. If this does not happen, “we will be ill and in the worst case sce-nario, it can lead to death.”

Like a dream come true

“I have always been fascinated by how things work and in particu-lar by our bodies work,” says the Swedish researcher. “To be able to combine cell biology with fun technical devices like microscopes and therefore see how things work in real time is like a dream come true for me.” She adds, “The immune system is complex and a fast-moving field and takes part in most of the body’s functions and diseases. This complexity is what attracted me in the first place to this field.”

To combine cell biology with fun technical devices like microscopes, and in real time see how things work, is like a dream come true.

Lena Svensson


Lena wanted a Marie Curie Fellowship so as to progress and mature as an independent scientist and gain further knowledge in the field of immunology and in particular cell migration. She also hoped to meet other scientists in the field and build up a net-work for future collaborations. “All of these expectations were exceeded,” she says.

Gaining international perspectives

Lena pinpoints the programme’s capacity to “enable us young scientists to gain research experience in another country and therefore let us gain international perspectives and mature as a scientist” as one of its most val-uable aspects. And she credits the scheme for allowing her to become an independent scientist with the opportunity and creden-tials to start her own research group.

Lena found that the Fellowship provided her with an independent standing in the lab that allowed her to follow her specific research interest, meanwhile equipping her with new knowledge that she could transfer to her home country. She also appreciated having the same social security entitlements as fel-low citizens while in the UK.

Lena is now an associate professor at Lund University, Sweden, where she has run her own independent research group since late 2010. “I hope to be able to figure out more about what goes wrong with the body’s mechanism when cells migrate uncontrolled like metastases, and use different imaging techniques to be able to show this in real time,” she says. The scientist hopes to build a life-long career in the field of cell migration and immunology. “Hopefully one day I will have a permanent position, which will enable me to focus on research but still be able to teach undergraduate students.”

Lena Svensson

Age: 38

Nationality: Swedish

Fellowship dates: December 2006 – November

2008



London Research Institute, United Kingdom





Reaching for the starsHaving been passionate about astronomy and astrophysics since early childhood, Ovidiu Tesileanu welcomed the opportunity to delve deeper into the subject through a Marie Curie grant. The Fellowship took him from Romania to Italy on a mission to investigate the stellar jets emitted from stars.

“My passion for astronomy and astrophysics began as a young child and so it was natural for me to study these subjects during my undergraduate years at the University of Bucharest, where I had the chance to meet a bright professor in this field, namely Pro-fessor Mircea Rusu,” says Ovidiu. Thanks to his encouragement, the young Romanian scientist applied to continue his studies in Italy with the backing of the Marie Curie programme.

His expectations when applying for the programme were “quite high, and they were all met and even exceeded”. Ovidiu explains: “I expected an international working environment, a good salary and competitive science – and these were all there.”

The international experience acquired during his Fellowship gave his career a great boost and was “very useful when returning to Romania”, says Ovidiu. “The recognition that comes from having worked in a competitive international team of scientists, and the experience of participating and presenting this research in various meetings and conferences, was important in obtaining a research grant in Romania and then my current position,” he explains.

I hope [the Marie Curie Actions] or a similar initiative will continue in the next Research and Innovation Programme.

Ovidiu Tesileanu


Better personal relations

For Ovidiu, the Fellowship also “made a difference in a very basic way”. By the time he was accepted, he was already married and with two children. ”With a normal, na-tional PhD scholarship there was no way I was able to go to Italy with my family.” There were other personal benefits too. The chance to travel and to get to know many people from many different places was “a great personal experience that changed me a little in a positive way. Now it is easier for me to communicate, and this helps with personal relationships.”

A�er the Marie Curie Fellowship, Ovidiu re-turned to Romania, to the University of Bu-charest, and received a two-year research grant to continue the work begun during his time in Italy. He combined this with teach-ing, and then in mid-2011 joined the Ex-treme Light Infrastructure team at the In-stitute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering.

“This is a large, challenging European pro-ject aimed at establishing a new, top-class infrastructure to study the interaction of radiation with matter, with scientists based in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania,” says Ovidiu, describing his cur-rent work. He is responsible for the team’s EU funding applications – “a challenging, but rewarding job”.

Preparing Europe for the future

He believes this success is largely thanks to his experiences during the Fellowship, which he regards as “a great experience that I will remember all my life”. He advises future Fel-lows to concentrate on their work, but also to take advantage of the fact that they are in a foreign country, and have the opportunity to travel a lot, and learn a lot.

Ovidiu has only glowing praise for the Fel-lowship scheme: “It is a great initiative that helped not only a few tens of thousands individuals follow their dreams, but helped create research communities and the mo-mentum Europe needs to succeed in the fu-ture knowledge-based society. I hope this or a similar initiative will continue in the next Research and Innovation Programme.”

Ovidiu Tesileanu

Age: 31

Nationality: Romanian

Fellowship dates: November 2005 – November

2008



University of Turin, Italy

Research area: Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics


P o r t r a i t s o f M a r i e C u r i e F e l l o w s Energy87


Improving auditory experiences – from education to entertainmentThe Marie Curie Fellowship was as rewarding for his young family as it was for him, according to Greek scientist Panagiotis Tsakalides. While he concentrated on finding ways to allow sound artists and engineers to step up their creativity, his sons had fun learning English with their new school friends.

“Our research aimed to further the basic so-called ‘wireless sen-sor networks theory’ and understanding of problems related to it,” says Panagiotis. This meant using a combination of disciplines, in-cluding “signal processing, wireless communications, information theory and data acquisition”. But Panagiotis and his team did not want their research to be merely theoretical, and so they tested the theories and heuristics they developed in immersive multime-dia environments.

Sensor networks for immersive multimedia

“Art, entertainment and education have always served as unique and demanding laboratories for information science and ubiqui-tous computing research,” explains Panagiotis. His team therefore explored the fundamental challenges of deploying sensor net-works for immersive multimedia, concentrating on multi-channel audio capture, representation and transmission.

Establish collaborations that will enrich you as a scientist and a citizen of the world.

Panagiotis Tsakalides


According to the scientist, the techniques developed in this project will “help improve people’s auditory experiences, their inter-action and perception, and will ultimately enhance the creative flexibility of audio artists and engineers by providing addi-tional information for post-production and processing”.

Group of excellence

“Our expectations when applying for a Marie Curie Fellowship were to establish a group of excellence in the field of signal process-ing at the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas, Institute of Computer Science (FORTH-ICS), based on the island of Crete,” says Panagiotis. He notes that he and his team were “successful in doing so” and insists that the Marie Curie programme was “instrumental” in establishing the signal processing laboratory, which he now heads. The Fellowship provided the financing to attract international post-doctoral fellows from New Zealand, India, Romania, Spain, Finland and the US. It also enabled FORTH-ICS researchers to be seconded to partner institutions in the US and Spain.

Panagiotis highlights how the relative isola-tion of the research foundation on an island on the edge of the European Union means that none of this would have been likely to happen without the backing of the scheme. Moreover, since he finished his Fellowship, his team has been successful in applying for funding from the Marie Curie scheme for other projects, and says that this backing has been “helping to sustain our research ef-forts and international collaborations”.

Family fun in the US

Panagiotis adds that in addition to person-al career advancement, “I was fortunate enough to be able to take my family – my wife and two young boys, aged five and seven – with me to the US”. He says that his family also benefited greatly from living for an extended period of time in a foreign coun-try, and that his children learnt English by at-tending school there.

The scientist denies that he experienced any frustrations during his Fellowship and would encourage future Marie Curie Fellows to “be open to new experiences when doing re-search abroad, both scientific and every-day life”. He urges them to “establish collabora-tions that will enrich you as a scientist and a citizen of the world”.

Panagiotis Tsakalides

Age: 44

Nationality: Greek

Fellowship dates: January 2008 – September 2008

Contract number: MTKD-CT-2005-029791


University of Southern California, USA and FORTH CS,

Crete, Greece

Research area: Electrical engineering

Contact: www.ics.forth.gr/~tsakalid/


European Energy-Efficient Building Initiative 89

http://www.ics.forth.gr/~tsakalid/

Culturally enriched chemical engineeringArjen van Miltenburg is grateful to his Marie Curie Fellowship not only for furthering his career, but for teaching him the importance of being aware of other cultures, and for the ability to work confidently alongside people from different backgrounds. He has plenty of advice for scientists planning to apply for a Fellowship!

Arjen dedicated his post-doctoral research to the study of molec-ular transport in nanoporous materials, examining how this was enhanced when additional pores were introduced into these ma-terials. “This resulted in nanoporous materials with faster adsorp-tion or desorption and reaction rates,” explains Arjen. “These ma-terials would allow smaller, less costly and more efficient chemical processes,” for example for use in the production of feedstocks for various plastics and polymers.

New ways of thinking

The Fellowship exceeded Arjen’s expectations, giving him the op-portunity to work in an international environment, with “multiple opportunities for international cooperation and the possibility to expand my professional and personal networks with new interna-tional contacts”. He comments that “living in another country not only gives junior researchers direct exposure to other European cultures and other ways of life, but may also change their way of thinking as a scientist”. These experiences “could lead to new ideas for solving research questions”, believes Arjen.

The sense of urgency is sometimes perceived differently in other countries.

Arjen van Miltenburg


Arjen also appreciated the opportunity to work outside a university environment, in a commercially orientated research insti-tute like SINTEF, although Arjen also spent two short periods at the Czech Republic’s Academy of Sciences during his Fellow-ship. For global companies like his cur-rent employer, international petrochemical company SABIC, “cultural awareness and international cooperation in diverse teams are and will remain very important skill sets for their employees”.

Cultural frustrations

While most of these cultural differences were enriching, Arjen admitted that they were also sometimes the source of slight ir-ritations. For instance, “the sense of urgency is sometimes perceived differently in other countries,” he notes. This meant that the writing of joint publications was sometimes frustrating. “As an example, a�er submit-ting our initial part of the publication to the second co-author, we received a completely revised final version back. The total manu-script, including our own section, was com-pletely rewritten and contained many incor-rect English sentences, and the submission deadline was the next day!”

A�er finishing the Fellowship at the end of 2008, Arjen moved back to the Netherlands and worked for about a year as a process engineer before moving to Maastricht and joining the SABIC Technology Center as a process development engineer.

Arjen would advise future Marie Curie Fel-lows to spend time learning the local lan-guage when abroad as it “allows you to in-teract more easily with ‘the locals’ in their

language and at work during the coffee and lunch breaks. Also you will meet many new international friends in the classroom that you didn’t meet at work”. He also ad-vises Fellows to always keep some money reserved in case family matters require an urgent trip home.

Using social networks

On the professional front, he suggests that Fellows working on projects involving several Marie Curie students set-up a LinkedIn group and perhaps arrange a team meeting at the end of the project, inviting not only the lat-est but also former members of the Marie Curie training network. This would allow both junior and senior researchers to “keep track of former Fellow team members and their current careers – giving the last junior re-searchers indirect contact points with future employers. It would also allow for possible future cooperation,” says Arjen.

Arjen van Miltenburg

Age: 34

Nationality: Dutch

Fellowship dates: October 2006 – September 2008



SINTEF, Oslo, Norway and J. Heyrovský Institute of

Physical Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the

Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic

Research area: Chemical engineering

Contact: http://nl.linkedin.com/in/arjenvanmiltenburg


Sustainable Consumption And ProductionIncrease Of The Use Of Technology In Manufacturing Initiative

91

http://nl.linkedin.com/in/arjenvanmiltenburg

Understanding childhood cancer Four years a�er the completion of his Marie Curie Fellowship, Francisco Vega is using results gleaned from his research into breast cancer for translational research into a tumour affecting children. Now back in his home country – Spain – Francisco currently has a research contract and is applying for a longer term position.

Understanding the basic mechanism behind metastasis – or how cancer spreads from one organ or organ part to another – has been the focus of Francisco’s research since he started his post-doctoral research in London. During his Marie Curie Fellowship, his basic research centred on cell biology.

He began working with clinicians towards the end of the Fellow-ship, when his laboratory was moved to a campus linked to a hospital. Today, Francisco continues to collaborate with clinicians, applying what he learnt during his Fellowship. His ultimate goal is to understand how cancer cells behave in children that have developed a neuroblastoma tumour. “This is obviously a very long process, but the results are promising,” he says.

Francisco Vega

For many Fellows, it is the first time their research career is properly recognised at international level.


Opening doors

The Marie Curie Fellowship not only helped Francisco to focus on his specific area of interest, but also contributed to him being accepted at the highly competitive Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. He particu-larly appreciated that his application was judged on the basis of the research pro-posal itself and not only on how many pub-lications he had to his name.

Francisco is able to reel off a long list of personal and professional benefits that he attributes to the Fellowship. Profession-ally, he gained from working in a different environment, in a different way, and with international experts in his field of work. He was also able to build up a network of contacts, some of which were from anoth-er EU-funded project.

Francisco was also asked to represent his research group in meetings with oth-er groups – the first time he had done this at such a level, and “a very valuable experience”. Recognition at last

“I think the programme is making a dif-ference by allowing mobility, especially from countries where science is not so well funded,” says Francisco. “For many Fellows, it is the first time their research career is properly recognised at international level, in terms of salary, evaluation and professional consideration.”

On a personal level, Francisco appreciated the exposure to a different culture and the opportunity to improve his communication skills and his English.

That is not to say that everything was smooth sailing during the Fellowship. “The Marie Curie scheme has very strict rules on how the money should be spent – it should be spent on the project and the Fellow’s ca-reer.” In the past, it was not uncommon to have to argue with host institute adminis-trators to ensure that the money was spent appropriately, says Francisco. “But this has been addressed by the EU and the situation is much better now,” he adds.

Francisco’s other frustration was the length of the Fellowship – two years. “It is very diffi-cult to complete a competitive project within two years – in your second year you already need to start thinking about securing funding to continue your research,” he says. On the other hand, Francisco believes that the fact that he had a Marie Curie Fellowship helped him to secure funding from a breast cancer charity for the three years following the Fel-lowship and to “finish the work started”.

Francisco Vega

Age: 36


Fellowship dates: April 2006 – March 2008



Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research – UCL and

King’s College London, United Kingdom





“Truly independent” studies of the immune systemThe Marie Curie Fellowship is offering EU scientists an alternative to joining the brain drain and moving across the Atlantic, says Admar Verschoor. He thanks the scheme for offering him the chance to carry out “truly independent research” and for minimising the personal disruptions generally associated with the life of a researcher.

Constantly exposed to microbes and viruses, our immune system has developed to provide a certain level of protection from this con-tinuous onslaught. But in some cases, the immune system can turn against us, explains Admar. His research focuses on the so-called complement cascade system that normally helps protect against in-fection, and is associated with recurring bacterial infection and auto-immunity when it stops working properly.

During his Marie Curie-funded project, Admar investigated the role of the complement system in autoimmune diabetes. In this disease, the immune system misguidedly attacks cells within the pancreas that produce insulin and regulate sugar metabolism – an important part of our energy balance, says Admar. “We found strong indications that the complement system plays an important role in the disease pro-cess, and its identification may therefore provide a target for thera-peutic interference,” explains the scientist. Ticket home

Admar studied for his PhD at Harvard Medical School in Boston, US, and welcomed the chance to return to the EU to continue his research. “I had the choice of continuing my research in the US or returning to Europe,” says Admar. “The Marie Curie Fellowship enabled me to make an edu-

One could say that the Marie Curie Fellowship was my ‘ticket back home’.

Admar Verschoor


cated decision between the two systems, as it allowed me to transfer my research projects to Zurich, to the laboratories of Hans Hengartner and Nobel laureate Rolf Zinkernagel.” He sug-gests therefore that the Fellowship was his “ticket back home”. The European Commission “can be content if one of its aims is to curtail the dreaded brain-drain”, quips Admar.

He also congratulates the programme for pro-viding not only a salary for researchers at a key moment in their career, but also a small budget for laboratory equipment. “Laboratory-based research can generate substantial day-to-day costs compared to office-based theoretical re-search,” comments Admar. Indeed, he makes a plea for the EU to “expand its budget for ex-perimental and laboratory-based researchers”.

An investment

Scientists today o�en “lead an uprooted life, moving countries on a regular basis, which of course affects personal relationships back home”, as well as financial security and ca-reer development, says Admar. He le� his home country – the Netherlands – for Lon-don, UK, before moving on to Santiago de Compostela – Spain, Boston – US, Zurich – Switzerland, and finally arriving in Munich – Germany a�er his Fellowship.

He recognises that the Marie Curie Fellowship tries to reduce the negative consequences of so much upheaval, but acknowledges that it cannot totally eliminate them. “Although the Commission laudably tries to minimise risks for the Fellow by for instance demanding a true ‘employer-employee relationship’ from the host institution, unwelcome surprises re-main, and I would rank these as a source of ‘frustration’ for Marie Curie Fellows,” he says.

Among these unwelcome surprises, he lists the differences in social security and pension rights in different countries. “As a newcomer to a country, you o�en find out about important aspects of insurance, social benefits, rights and obligations by bumping one s head against a brick wall, rather than through proactive informa-tion,” he comments wryly. “Even when such information exists in several lan-guages, it o�en turns out to be applicable and understandable primarily to those who grew up and will stay under the sys-tem, rather than fit the exceptional and complicated situation of the Marie Curie Fellow,” he explains.

But in spite of practical obstacles and impacts on personal relationships back home, Admar also found the Fellowship to open doors to international networks and new friendships. He thus regards interna-tional experience as a sometimes difficult investment, but one with the potential to offer valuable returns to the Fellow, sci-ence and society at large.

Admar Verschoor

Age: 38

Nationality: Dutch

Fellowship dates: September 2007 – August 2009



Institute of Experimental Immunology, University

Hospital Zurich, Switzerland

Research area: Medicine


www.mikrobio.med.tu-muenchen.de/project-admar-

verschoor/

HealthP o r t r a i t s o f M a r i e C u r i e F e l l o w s95


The origins of obesity“I really benefitted from my Marie Curie Fellowship – even more than most,” says Nadine Zeeni as she reflects upon the path that took her from Lebanon to France to the UK and then back to Lebanon, where she established a nutrition department at the Lebanese American University.

For the full-time academic position that Nadine coveted and now has, she needed a PhD from outside Lebanon as the Lebanese American University – one of the country’s top two universities – and Lebanese universities prefer to hire candidates with PhDs from reputable insti-tutions abroad, she explains.

“I wanted to come back to my country because I love it,” says Nadine. So towards the end of her Fellowship, she began travelling back-wards and forwards for interviews. Four months before graduating, she got her current job and she started three days a�er handing in her thesis. “They were waiting for me to start the research pro-gramme,” she says.

“I really couldn’t ask for better. And I had other offers too, so I had the luxury of choosing,” enthuses Nadine.

It’s much less dull than a regular PhD!

Nadine Zeeni


Obesity: causes and consequences

During her Fellowship, Nadine studied obesity as part of the EU-funded research project ‘Nutrient Sensing in Satiety Con-trol and Obesity’ (NuSISCO). She looked into both the causes of obesity and the consequences for the body of carry-ing excess weight. One potential cause is stress – “Food tends to be seen as an emotional reward for those under stress,” she explains. This could explain why obe-sity tends to be more prevalent in lower socio-economic groups.

The consequences include a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and can-cer – and as a result, increased healthcare spending.

Nadine’s particular focus was satiety, and how satiety signals might change in someone who is obese.

Her findings were striking. Through Magnet-ic Resonance Imaging (MRI) studies on rats and mice, Nadine discovered that long-term exposure to a high-fat diet reduces feelings of fullness. “You get used to a high-fat diet and it becomes harder to stop eating – you just don’t feel full anymore.”

These results could be used for further clinical studies investigating the effects of satiety signals as anti-obesity drugs. And through illustrating the consequences of a long-term, high-fat diet, they are also im-portant for those working on obesity pre-vention strategies.

The highs and lows of mobility

This research would simply not have been possible in Lebanon at the moment – the cost of an MRI scanner is prohibitively high. Without the international experience, Nadine would also have found it much more difficult to build up a network of contacts. Indeed, the six-month stint at Imperial College in London meant a lot of moving around between 2006 and 2009. Nadine says that she complained every time. “But I met so many scientists and became familiar with different labs and dif-ferent cultures!” she says. “And now, I can re-fer my students to so many people.”

Nadine has only encouragement for anyone else considering a Marie Curie Fellowship – “It really makes a difference, and it’s much less dull than a regular PhD!” she says. “A�er-wards, you’re just going to be working in one institute, so you should make the most of this unique opportunity for networking and mobil-ity first.”

Since returning to her home country, Nadine has broadened her research to encompass the herbs used as remedies in some parts of Lebanon, as well as eating disorders.

Nadine Zeeni

Age: 28

Nationality: Lebanese

Fellowship dates: November 2006 – October 2009



AgroParis Tech, Paris, France

Research area: Biology/nutritional sciences



Public Health 97


Organic contaminants under the microscopeIt was a desire to work in an international environment and to familiarise himself with more advanced knowledge and techniques that first brought Chinese environmental scientist Zulin Zhang to Europe. Eight years later, Zulin is still in the UK, investigating organic pollutants.

When Zulin arrived in England in 2004, it was not the first time that he had been to Europe; he had previously attended several interna-tional conferences. But as he admits, this only partially prepared him for a move to the UK: “It is totally different when you live there for a long time. Obviously the UK and China are very different, including in culture and in daily life. So it took me a few months to get used to life in the UK.”

But the transition was clearly not too difficult, as Zulin stayed on a�er his Fellowship, accepting a post at the James Hutton Institute in Scotland. He is currently head of the organic section within the environmental and biochemical sciences group. From development to application

Today Zulin is applying techniques that he developed during his Marie Curie Fellowship. In Sussex, Zulin was building new moni-toring and analytical techniques for measuring the presence in water of emerging organic contaminants – such as those in per-sonal care and pharmaceutical products.

I would say the Fellowship is a really good opportunity, particularly at the early stage of your career.

Zulin Zhang


The techniques were designed to help re-searchers investigate environmental be-haviours, as well as the effects and risks of organic contaminants in the ecosystem – which is one line of Zulin’s research today.

Zulin also spends his days trying to iden-tify new organic contaminants (such as those in emerging pesticides and endo-crine disrupting compounds including oestrogens, bisphenol A and phthalates) and persistent organic pollutants.

“Once these substances are excreted into the environment, they enter soil, water, air and transport or accumulate in plant, aquatic and terrestrial organisms,” ex-plains Zulin. “This will affect the quality of water, air and food that animals rely on, and hence lead to numerous adverse effects for wildlife and humans.”

Experience: the best teacher

Zulin believes that he is where he is today because of his Marie Curie Fellowship. In ad-dition to introducing him to an international research environment, the experience also helped him to advance his analytical tech-niques through the use of modern instru-mentation such as ultra-performance liquid chromatography and gas chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry.

The Fellowship also gave the scientist experi-ence of working independently on a project, and getting published in renowned, interna-tional journals. And of course it helped Zulin to improve his English.

“I would say the Fellowship is a really good opportunity to go abroad and be exposed to an international environment, to explore your own research and to build up your research areas, particularly at the early stage of your career,” says Zulin.

As for the future, Zulin is unsure as to whether he will stay in Europe or return to China. “There are lots of factors to be considered, such as family, job, working and living conditions, friends and so on. All I can say now is that, at the moment, I pre-fer to stay in the UK or Europe.”

Zulin Zhang

Age: 36

Nationality: Chinese

Fellowship dates: December 2004 – June 2007

Contract number: MKTD-CT-2006-042707


Sussex University, United Kingdom

Research area: Chemistry, biology and

environmental science


P o r t r a i t s o f M a r i e C u r i e F e l l o w s Public Health

Conservation And Management Of Natural Resources 99



Acronyms

General

RTD: Research Technology and

Development (also used to indicate

the Directorate General for Research &

Innovation)

FP6: Sixth Framework Programme for

Research and Technology Development

MC: Marie Curie

MCA: Marie Curie Actions

REA: Research Executive Agency

ERC: European Research Council

ICPC: International Cooperation Partner

Countries

Type of Marie Curie fellows

(based on experience):

ESR: Early Stage Researcher (less than

four years in research, without PhD)

ER: Experienced Researcher (between four

and ten years in research, or less than four

years in research but with PhD)

MER: More Experienced Researcher (more

than ten years in research)

Host-Driven

Marie Curie Actions:

RTN: Research Training Network

EST: Early Stage Research Training

ToK-DEV: Transfer of Knowledge –

Development Scheme

ToK-IAPP: Transfer of Knowledge –

Industry-Academia Strategic Partnership

Scheme

SCF & LCF: Conferences and Training

Courses

Individual-Driven

Marie Curie Actions:

EIF: Intra-European Fellowship

OIF: Outgoing International Fellowship

IIF: Incoming International Fellowship

IIFR: Incoming International Fellowship –

Return Phase

ERG: European Reintegration Grant

IRG: International Reintegration Grant

Excellence promotion and

recognition grants

EXT: MC Excellence Grants

EXA: MC Excellence Awards

EXC: MC Chairs

P o r t r a i t s o f M a r i e C u r i e F e l l o w sP o r t r a i t s o f M a r i e C u r i e F e l l o w s101

European Commission

EUR 12569 — From face to face - Portraits of Marie Curie fellows

Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union

2012 — 104 pp. — 14.8 x 21.0 cm

ISBN 978-92-79-23909-0doi 10.2777/87638

How to obtain EU publications

Free publications:

Priced publications:

Priced subscriptions (e.g. annual series of the Official Journal of the European Union and reports of cases before the Court of Justice of the European Union):

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Documents

From face to face...From Portraits of Marie Curie Fellows face face to EUROPEAN COMMISSION Directorate-General for Research and Innovation 2012 Marie Curie Actions EUR 12569 EN EUROPE