Chairman’s letter

Dear members and friends of the Marie Curie Alumni Association,

I am honoured and humbled to serve as the Chair of an association bringing together so many inspiring researchers and alumni. This magazine aims to engage with some of the issues and topics that are relevant to, and interest, our wider membership.

Currently many of our members living in the UK are unsure of their future because of the uncertainty regarding the decision of the British people to leave the European Union. We urge all partners in this process to prioritise the residence rights of EU citizens in the UK.

We believe that our members are not only the outstanding academics of the future, but also the excellent young people who will impact on society in many different ways, including entrepreneurship. Our Vice Chair Marco Masia reports on leaving academia to become CEO of a start-up.

Mobile researchers obtain pension rights in multiple countries. In many cases our members work in three or more countries in the course of their career. Such mobility currently results in much lower pension payment during retirement and much more complicated administrative requirements. We present the view of normal researchers, the Chairman of the RESAVER consortium, a representative of FindYourPension and an MCAA member who organised a workshop about pension rights for mobile researchers.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is anything that makes machines act more intelligently. AI is currently changing the world in many fields: Big Data, Bioinformatics, Internet of Things, Industry 4.0, and Smart Sensors. These developments provide opportunities to researchers from many fields to work at the cutting edge of research.

Researchers from the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) make up almost 11 % of our members. Many of the researchers from these diverse fields contained within SSH carry out research with great societal impact. MCAA supports their work and encourages the future EU Framework Programme to prioritise funding for research in SSH.

Many top universities currently provide open access to Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). These online courses not only provide traditional course materials such as lectures and exercises sets, but often interactive elements to enhance the online learning experience as well.

Warm regards,

Brian Cahill

Chair of Marie Curie Alumni Association