Final Report Summary - AMAROUT-II (AMAROUT-II EUROPE) The AMAROUT II Europe Programme is a COFUND action developed by the network of IMDEA Institutes in Madrid, Spain, with two principal goals: contributing to the development of the European researcher labour market, and promoting Madrid as one of the top knowledge generation regions in Europe.The AMAROUT II Europe Programme has given an opportunity, from 2012 to 2017) to 81 fellows of diverse nationalities, selected from among 206 applicants, to join as incoming or reintegrating scientists one of eight Institutes from the IMDEA Network (Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados -- the Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies), operating in the following seven scientific areas: Software, Energy, Food, Materials, Nanoscience, Networks, and Water.The fellowship has included fair and attractive working conditions, with adequate and equitable social security provision. Besides, the fellows have been offered career development prospects.The Programme has been running a series of 12 successive open calls (with cut-off dates each three months) and an extra call more in the last quarter of 2016: - Call 01/2012: 33 applications, 12 fellows hired - Call 01/2013: 8 applications, 2 fellows hired - Call 02/2013: 13 applications, 3 fellows hired - Call 03/2013: 14 applications, 10 fellows hired - Call 04/2013: 9 applications, 4 fellows hired - Call 01/2014: 10 applications, 4 fellows hired - Call 02/2014: 10 applications, 6 fellows hired - Call 03/2014: 16 applications, 9 fellows hired - Call 04/2014: 12 applications, 1 fellow hired - Call 01/2015: 14 applications, 3 fellows hired - Call 02/2015: 13 applications, 3 fellows hired - Call 03/2015: 8 applications, 3 fellows hired - Call 01/2016: 46 applications, 21 fellows hiredThe final extra call (01/2016) opened on 1 October 2016 and was closed on 31 December 2016. Previously, the last of the regular calls (03/2015) was closed on 30 September 2015The distribution of applications and granted fellowships among the institutes was the following: - IMDEA Energy: 45 applications, 18 fellows hired - IMDEA Food: 22 applications, 4 fellows hired - IMDEA Materials: 42 applications, 25 fellows hired - IMDEA Nanoscience: 46 applications, 16 fellows hired - IMDEA Networks: 5 applications, 3 fellows hired - IMDEA Software: 20 applications, 13 fellows hired - IMDEA Water: 26 applications, 2 fellows hiredThe calls have attracted interest from an internationally diverse spectrum of applicants, whose nationality can be summarized as follows: - Africa: 9 applicants (4,4%) - Asia: 68 applicants (33,1%) - Spain: 55 applicants (26,6%) - European Union (except Spain): 53 applicants (25,7%) - South America: 6 applicants (2,9%) - Europe (except EU countries): 9 applicants (4,4%) - North America: 6 applicants (2,9%)To ensure top-level selection criteria, the selection committees have included, besides the Spanish members of the scientific boards, experts from other fourteen EU countries (Greece, Ireland, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Slovenia, Poland, Finland, and United Kingdom), as well as from other countries in Europe (Russia, Switzerland and Ukranie) and continents (Argentina, Israel, India, China, Israel, Iran, Algeria, Saudi Arab, Thailand, Canada and United States). A total of 495 experts were envolved in the AMAROUT II evaluation pannels.In terms of the gender structure, almost 78 % of the applications came from men against 22 % from women. Moreover, 66 out of 160 male applicants, or 67,4 %, were granted under AMAROUT II Programme, compared to 15 out of 55 female applicants, or 32,6 %. The AMAROUT II Europe Programme has contributed to the development and dynamism of the European researcher market by awarding fellowships to high-quality researchers whose previous residence was in: - European Union (outside Spain): 39 fellows (48,1%) - North America: 4 fellows (5%) - Asia: 18 (22,1%) - Spain: 8 fellows (10%) - Europe (except EU countries): 9 (11,1%) - South America: 2 (2,5%) - Oceania: 1 fellow (1,2%)These percentages also show that the Program has been successful in promoting Madrid as an important knowledge generating region of Europe, because the great majority (90%) of fellows were coming from countries other than Spain.During the period of the Programme, the fellows have produced altogether 528 scientific publications, with the following breakdown per institute:- IMDEA Energy: 80 publications- IMDEA Food: 8 publications- IMDEA Materials: 84 publications- IMDEA Nanoscience: 165 publications- IMDEA Networks: 72 publications- IMDEA Software: 152 publications- IMDEA Water: 16 publicationsA rough indication of scientific output (which may vary considerably across scientific areas due to differences in publication formats, venues and cycles) is approximately 7,12 publications per fellow for the duration of the Programme.More than a half of the fellows(64,1%) have successfully completed the 1st year of their Fellowship Programme. In addition, 47 of the 81 AMAROUT II fellows have been renewed once (37 of them successfully completed the 2nd year of their Fellowship Programme), and 29 have been renewed twice (16 of them successfully completed the 3rd year of their Fellowship Programme), which gives us a total number of granted fellowships up to 157. Compared to the total number of fellows, the percentage of those who have obtained a permanent position was 35,8%.The central project Web site is located at:http://amarout.imdea.org/The head office of the AMAROUT Europe Programme is located in:IMDEA Software Institute Campus Montegancedo s/n 28223 Pozuelo de Alarcon, Madrid SPAINTelephone: +34-91-101-2202 Fax: +34-91-101-1358Email: amarout.secretariat@imdea.org
