MCCA Magazine - IRRADIUM Foreword MCAA News Interviews Research 3 The Marie Curie Alumni 5 Snežana Krstić – MCAA Chair 11 Horizon 2020 – A Association (MCAA) has ‘societal challenge’ in the been running for one year! 6 Axelle Viré – Vice-Chair of the spotlight – Climate Action, MCAA, Chair of the BeNeLux Environment, Resource Chapter Efficiency and Raw Materials 7 Wuraola Akande – Ordinary Board member, Chair of the Events Communication Working Group, African Chapter 13 Progress at Lima United Nations Climate Conference, 9 Riccardo Biondi – Chair of Next Stop Paris the MCAA Austrian Chapter 10 Shikar Aggarwal – MCAA Northern Italy Chapter Alumni Funding 15 Two voices 21 The benefits of Co-funding – Beatriu de Pinós Programme 20 Opportunities after a Marie Curie Fellowship and the coordination of a Marie Curie project – Why not a Nobel Prize? Projects Action 23 Discover a Marie Curie 27 Looking forward to being project – FlowAirS awarded a Marie Skłodowska- Curie Action 24 An interview with Francesco Sanna – Marie Curie Fellow working on the FlowAirS project 25 An interview with Dr. Joachim Golliard – Francesco Sanna’s supervisor 26 An interview with Dr Yves Aurégan – Coordinator of the FlowAirS project IRRADIUM — MCAA Magazine February 2015 1 MCCA Magazine - IRRADIUM Foreword Dear MCAA Members, We are pleased to present the very first issue of the • Progress at the Lima United Nations Climate Marie Curie Alumni Magazine – IRRADIUM. Conference, Next stop Paris. Presents what was at stake in Lima, and how the results set the The name of the magazine, IRRADIUM, is a nod to scene for climate change talks in Paris. Marie Skłodowska-Curie’s great discovery (Radium) with a suggestion of irrigation and radiation – rather • “Two voices” – Gender issues in research. fitting terms for a publication that we hope will sow Two members of the MCAA, Gianna Avellis and new ideas through the sharing of information … we Antonia Hadjimichael, discuss the state of play hope that you like it! for gender issues in research and how concerns could be tackled. The aim of the MCAA magazine is to provide an over- view of the purpose, activities and achievements of • Opportunities after a Marie Curie Fellowship the MCAA. To make navigation user-friendly, it has and the coordination of a Marie Curie project been divided into seven themes: – Why not a Nobel Prize? A look at success of Stefan Hell and Edvard I. Moser, awarded Nobel • MCAA prizes in chemistry and in medicine. What are the secrets behind their success? • Actions: • The benefits of Co-funding – Beatriu de Pinós • Projects Programme. An Alumnus, Ferran Macia, ex- plains the advantages for a researcher of diversi- • Funding fying funding sources. • Events • Discover a Marie Curie project – FlowAirS. This project aims to reduce noise pollution. Learn • Research more about it by reading interviews with Frances- co Sanna, Marie Curie Fellow; Yves Aurégan, the • Alumni coordinator of the project; and Joachim Golliard, Sanna’s supervisor. Here is an overview of this first issue: • Looking forward to being awarded a Marie • The MCAA has been up and running for one Skłodowska-Curie Action. The Alumnus Chris- year! We have created a timeline which sums up tos Apostolakis presents the project he hopes will the key developments over the MCAA’s first year. be funded as an MSCA under Horizon 2020. You’ll also find interviews with Board members and Chairs of Chapters and/or Working Group: Snežana Krstić, Axelle Viré, Wuraola Akande, Riccardo Biondi and Shikar Aggarwal. • Horizon 2020 – A ‘societal challenge’ in the Yours, spotlight – Climate Action, Environment, Re- source Efficiency and Raw Materials. An intro- The MCAA team duction to the European Commission’s tools in the fight against climate change. IRRADIUM — MCAA Magazine February 2015 2 MCCA Magazine - IRRADIUM MCAA News section The Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA) has been running for one year! The MCAA Board was officially elected during August 2014: Creation of new Working Groups the first MCAA General Assembly, which took and Chapters place on 23 November 2013 in Brussels, Bel- gium. Below is an overview of what has hap- As of August 2014, the MCAA has new Working pened in your association since then. Check out Groups and Chapters, as follows. the timeline! Seven Working Groups: February 2014: The MCAA is a legal entity • Grants and Awards (chaired by Anett Kiss) In February 2014, the MCAA was established as a • Events and Networking (chaired by Francesco non-profit organisation (an AISBL – Association In- Sanna) ternationale Sans But Lucratif – under Belgian Law. The head office is registered as Avenue des Arts 24 in • Communication (chaired by Wuraola Akande) Brussels, Belgium. • Policy on Successful Researchers (chaired by April 2014: Definition of Association articles and Marco Masia) constitution of the association • Information and Data access (chaired by Mauricio A first version of the Association articles was pre- Manfrini) sented at the first General Assembly on 23 Novem- ber 2013. Following this, the articles were further • Internal Governance and Chapter Management revised with the support of Belgian lawyers, and in Team (chaired by Kiran Kumar Chereddy) cooperation between the European Commission and the MCAA Board Members. On 17 January 2014, the • Gender Equality for Mobile Researchers in Sci- deed of constitution was signed. Following these legal ence (GEMS) (chaired by Giovanna Avellis) formalities, the royal decree recognising the MCAA was signed on 7 February. On 7 April, the associa- Thirteen Chapters: tion’s charter was published in the Moniteur Belge. • Austrian Chapter (chaired by Riccardo Biondi) June 2014: the MCAA attended ESOF 2014 in Copenhagen • BeNeLux Chapter (chaired by Axelle Viré) Snežana Krstić (Chair of the MCAA), Roy Someshwar • Croatian Chapter (chaired by Robert Vianello) (Treasurer), Anett Kiss (Grants and Awards Working Group Lead) and Maria-Antonietta Buccheri (Secre- • Israeli Chapter (chaired by Sharon Snitzman) tary) represented the Marie Curie Alumni Association at ESOF 2014, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Members • Balears Chapter (chaired by David Sanchez)Pars of the association organised activities during this six- & Île-de-France chapter (Chaired by Andrea Re- day event, such as a poster session, the “We built smini) bridges” promotional event and an MCAA internal meeting. An MCAA stand displaying leaflets and post- • Sicily Chapter (chaired by Luigi Caranti) cards was also available for the entire duration of the event, from 21 to 26 June. You can read more about • United Kingdom Chapter (chaired by Enrique this in the special coverage of the MCAA at ESOF Jose Gallego Colon) 2014 in the fifth MCAA newsletter. IRRADIUM — MCAA Magazine February 2015 3 MCCA Magazine - IRRADIUM MCAA News section The Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA) has been running for one year! • Northern Italy Chapter (Chair to be elected) Throughout 2014: Contacts with several external organisations • Spain/Portugal Chapter (Chair to be elected) The MCAA has established contacts with external • African Chapter (Chair to be elected) organisations to explore possible cooperation and synergies: • Nordic Chapter (Chair to be elected) • Science Europe: • Argentina Chapter (Chair to be elected) • European Association of Research and technolo- gy Organisations (EARTO) October 2014: The MCAA has a logo! • European Cooperation in Science and Technolo- gy (COST) A variant of the Marie Curie Programme was set up as the MCAA official logo: • European Science Foundation (ESF) • League of European Research Universities (LERU) • Erasmus Student Network (ESN) The MCAA is currently working on several follow-up actions with these organisations, including coopera- tion in research, reciprocal dissemination of informa- The Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market tion or joint promotion through websites and social (OHIM) issued the registration certificate in October media platforms. 2014. As you can see, 2014 has been fruitful for the MCAA, November/December 2014: the MCAA communi- but much more is coming... stay tuned! cation Working Group (CWG) launched a video competition Until 17 November, members had the opportunity to vote for the video they considered to best illustrate excellence achieved by Marie Curie Alumni. The win- ner is the producer of the “GNSS Meteorology: Ex- plained” video, which received the largest number of votes from Alumni and the Jury combined. The sec- ond prize goes to the producer of “Getting Students Engaged in Science!”. IRRADIUM — MCAA Magazine February 2015 4 MCCA Magazine - IRRADIUM Interview Snežana Krstić MCAA Chair 1. Ms Krstić, you were elected Chair of the Asso- ciation on 23 November 2013. How would you describe your first year? The first year is always the most difficult and de- manding period for any association, especially for the Board and Executive Committee. We were faced with a huge amount of administrative work. I approached my first year with much enthusiasm and hard work, and then joy after every success that the association achieved. Besides the administrative work, I invested much energy in other activities for the benefit of our members, and contributed to the visibility and rep- utation of the association. I delivered presentations at several events and organised MCAA sessions at ESOF, giving our members an opportunity to present Snežana Krstić their work and achievements. 2. How did you organise your work and collabo- 4. What activities are foreseen for the MCAA for ration with