Autumn 2017: What's on the MCAA agenda?
Autumn 2017 is looking promising for the MCAA! Brian Cahill, Chair of the MCAA, gave us a sneak preview of what’s coming up for the Association.
Supporting ESOF Session proposals
The sessions focus particularly on researcher mental health, pensions and researchers from the humanities field. I am waiting on a response from a professor in Ghent to see if she will join the MCAA’s proposal. Her paper says the prevalence of mental health issues among PhD candidates in Flanders is much higher than among comparable groups.
Kick-off for the Irish Chapter
This will be a relatively big event in October, and we have already asked many of the people involved in research funding from the host UCD, NCP, Enterprise Ireland and so on. Ireland has 9 COFUND projects from H2020 and some of them will be quite big with up to 90 Fellows. We envision the Irish Chapter growing quite quickly due to the large number of current Fellows and also information from the NCP, funding advisors and so on about Alumni.
There seems to be a growing perception
in the making in Ireland that the value of taking part in associations such as MCAA and EU Advisory Boards is beneficial.
The new Irish NCP, Elena Martines, is a member of the MCAA. She previously worked for Science Foundation Ireland. Enterprise Ireland awarded all MSCA Fellows at the ‘Champions of EU Research’ event in June.
In another example, one MCAA Alumni, Prof. William Gallagher of UCD, was on the Discussion Panel of that event, and mentioned that his activity in the Marie Curie Fellowship Association, nearly 20 years ago, built a network that helps him to win funding now: his spin-off Oncomark won an award for winning H2020 funding too.
European Researchers’ Night
Brian Cahill will take part as a Jury member at the Falling Walls Event during the European Researchers’ Night in Brussels in September. Angela Bellia of our Events and Networking
Group will promote the MCAA from the EU Corner.
Career Day
The MCA Chair, Brian Cahill, is involved in the organization of the Career Day on Research Funding at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg on 20 October. The plenary speaker will be Stefan Hell, Nobel Prize Laureate and Marie Curie Alumnus. Alessandra Lucchetti of the Commission will speak on the MSCA. MCAA member Juliane Sauer (former Swiss NCP) will give advice on writing proposals.
Standing up for Science EU
In June 2017, MCAA joined the first ‘Standing up for Science EU’ workshop in Brussels, to give early career researchers the tools and insights to inform policy, and have a stronger voice within the EU. After the over-subscription and success
of the workshop, the MCAA is participating in a second ‘Standing up for Science EU’ workshop, at the University of Warsaw, on Friday 10th November 2017.