From face to Portraits of Marie Curie Fellows face Research and Innovation Sans titre-a5.indd 1 11/07/12 10:50 EUROPEAN COMMISSION Directorate-General for Research and Innovation Directorate R— Resources Unit R6— Marie Curie Actions-FP6 E-mail: [email protected] Contact: Sergio DI VIRGILIO European Commission B-1049 Brussels E-mail: [email protected] [email protected] Sans titre-a5.indd 2 11/07/12 10:50 EUROPEAN COMMISSION From face to Portraits of Marie Curie Fellows face Directorate-General for Research and Innovation 2012 Marie Curie Actions EUR 12569 EN EUROPE DIRECT is a service to help you find answers to your questions about the European Union Freephone number (*): 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11 (*) Certain mobile telephone operators do not allow access to 00 800 numbers or these calls may be billed LEGAL NOTICE Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use which might be made of the following information. The views expressed in this publication are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission. More information on the European Union is available on the Internet (http://europa.eu). Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2012 ISBN 978-92-79-23909-0 doi 10.2777/87638 © European Union, 2012 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. Images © provided by the researchers interviewed 5 Foreword 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 oen come from unforeseen breakthroughs or the new appli- cation of existing or emerging technologies. 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 aer 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. Máire Geoghegan-Quinn Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science From face to face 6 Table Of Contents Foreword 5 Introduction 9 Portraits Amin Ameri Ghasrodashti 18 Ergin Atalar 20 Ulrich Blum 22 Zeev Bomzon 24 Michael Boutros 26 Alicia Boyano 28 Michelangelo Campanella 30 Roberta Carafa 32 Tomasz Ciamulski 34 Dennis Claessen 36 Love Dalén 38 Amit Deshpande 40 Stoycho Dimitrov Stoev 42 Dolores Domínguez García 44 Rui Pinto Guimarães 46 José A. Iglesias Guitián 48 Marian-Daniel Iordache 50 Olivier Joly 52 Vaios Karanikas 54 Dorota Kostrz 56 Chandrashekhar Vishwanath Kulkarni 58 Portraits of Marie Curie Fellows 7 Nikolaos Laoutaris 60 Piet Lens 62 Narcisa Martínez Quiles 64 John McKean 66 Roman Nevshupa 68 Dorota Roberts 70 Manel Rodriguez Ripoll 72 Vinothkumar Kutti Ragunath 74 Hakan Serhad Soyhan 76 Claudia Custodia Delgado Simão 78 Nicole F Steinmetz 80 Irina Ivanova Stoyanova 82 Lena Svensson 84 Ovidiu Tesileanu 86 Panagiotis Tsakalides 88 Arjen van Miltenburg 90 Francisco Vega 92 Admar Verschoor 94 Nadine Zeeni 96 Zulin Zhang 98 Acronyms 101 From face to face 8 Portraits of Marie Curie Fellows 9 INTRODUCTION When the European Commission decided in 1996 to name its programme for researcher mobility aer 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. From face to face 10 Figure 1: Overall mobility comparing origin of Fellows and countries hosting Fellows Mobility of Marie Curie Fellows It should not be forgotten that Fellows needed to overcome a number of obsta- Analysis of the results of the FP6 MCAs cles to be able to move to another country. reveals the distribution of Fellows across The main obstacles were administrative Europe. In the map shown in Figure 1, the and legal aspects, and family commit- darker the shading, the higher the number ments as illustrated in Figure 2. 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. Portraits of Marie Curie Fellows 11 Percentage of answers Not defined Little Much in this category Very little Fair Very much 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Lack of Admin Legal Recog & Valid Lang & Cult Family Information Aspects of Mob of Host Coun Reasons Type of obstacle Figure 2: Obstacles to the mobility necessary to participate in Marie Curie Actions Peer-reviewed publications One of the outputs, papers in peer-re- viewed publications, is illustrated in the In the third Century BC, Archimedes said: graph in Figure 3. The numbers are based “Give me a place to stand, and I shall move on follow-up questionnaires filled in by the Earth with a lever.” He was describing Fellows two years aer the completion the incredible strength that one could exert of their Marie Curie project. On average, with a simple lever: one would be able to each Fellow was involved in at least three move the Earth. scientific publications and was the main author of around two. This is the result Are we not also making the world move for- of Fellowships lasting, on average, 20 ward when we innovate? Are we not helping months. The total number of papers pub- to move the world with scientific progress? lished by funded researchers during the A huge effort was made by scientists across FP6 MCAs was more than 45 000, which the lifespan of the FP6 MCAs, and the re- considering the funding represents on av- sults – many of them very significant – have erage EUR 40 000 per publication. helped to move the frontiers of knowledge. From face to face 12 Average no of publications 10 10 9 9 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1 267 74 7 56 143 79 53 200 611 69 1000 1184 626 3117 3743 0 0 IIF AII EIF IIFR OIF ERG IRG EXC EXT EST RTN TOK-DEV TOK-IAP Host actions Peer-reviewed publications in journals Individual actions As main author Figure 3: Average number of publications per Fellow Questionnaires on Employability Employability data – as extracted from the follow-up questionnaires – tell us that al- The questionnaires provided very useful feed- most 90% of the Fellows were employed back.