News section – Two Alumni awarded monthly prize!

“Back to basics”

Gemma Giménez Papiol, the author of “Back to basics”, tells us about her experience of changing research topic within the marine environment and aquaculture field. She explains with a lot of humour that she had to cope with a new environment and new terminology that seemed very obvious for her colleagues…but not to her. She makes a convincing case for empathy between researchers.

“Networking, Collaboration and Vision: Mantras for Success for bench-to-market”

In his article “Networking, Collaboration and Vision: Mantras for Success for bench-to-market”, Shikhar Aggarwal shares his experiences of the second edition of the Biotechnology Leadership Camp (which took place from 15-17 December 2014 in Milan, Italy). The event targeted early-stage researchers in Milan, Italy. He explains how participants were divided into groups of six and asked given to draw up a business plan for a new diagnostic kit for Alzheimer’s disease. He very much enjoyed the experience and recommends attending next year’s edition.

How are the articles selected?

All submitted articles are assessed by an editorial assessment committee chaired by Bhavna Rani Singh.

The articles are submitted via the online form available on the website.

They first go through an initial selection process (carried by two members of the Communication working group and two representatives from the contractor), who assess the articles according to the following criteria:

All articles should:

• Concern a topic of general and/or practical interest to other MCAA members (e.g. Scientific achievements; Intellectual Property Rights; Pension Rights; Research Ethics; etc.) – be creative!
• Communicate a simple message in a clear manner, and be concise and focused in order to maintain reader interest throughout – be interesting!
• Be written in good-quality English (additional language-versions may be added if you want) – be intelligible!
• Be the original work of the contributing MCAA member (or group of members) and free of any copyright issues – no plagiarism!
• Must not include any aspect that may be offensive (e.g. on grounds of religious, ethnic, or gender discrimination) or which may incite hatred, or which may encourage or condone illegal actions.
• By submitting a text, the member concerned is assuming full individual responsibility for the opinions and content, including any potential legal liability (e.g. copyright issues, plagiarism issues, etc.). Neither the MCAA, nor the European Commission, nor the contractors appointed by the European Commission, can be held responsible or liable for published articles, nor for any consequences arising from the use or misuse of the information they may contain.
• The MCAA reserves the right to refuse, and if necessary delete, any contribution deemed not to comply with the rules and/or contrary to the spirit and purpose of the MCAA.

The articles selected undergo a proofreading process (carried out by two members of the Communication working group) and then a final selection committee (gathering three members of the Communication Working group and one person from the contractor).

Both winners will receive a prize of €50 in the form of Amazon vouchers.

We congratulate the winners and encourage all the Alumni to submit an article! Maybe you’ll be the next winner?