Mobility support for Tecnalia
Spain's Tecnalia Research and Innovation Foundation is a private organisation for applied research. Created in 2010 from the merger of smaller organisations, Tecnalia's 1 500 employees address 5 major research themes, including health, industrial technology and sustainable development. The EU-funded 'Tecnalia's international fellowships for experienced researchers – TIFER' (TIFER) project is administered under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) as a Marie Curie Action. The programme fosters the European Research Area (ERA) by attracting and assisting talented researchers, and TIFER offers incoming and outgoing support schemes for ERs. The four-year project concludes in late 2015. The scheme will offer 61 fellowships for incoming researchers. The researchers will pursue projects of their choosing, compatible with the organisation's profile, over an average of 23 months. An outgoing scheme will support 24 one-year fellowships, plus a return period of 6 months. A transparent selection process offers equal opportunities. During the first reporting period, two out of three planned calls were published. The second is currently being evaluated. The project acknowledged a lack of candidates. Eight were selected for the incoming fellowships and five for the outgoing. The project took corrective action, including re-evaluation of its dissemination activities. TIFER is expected to foster 85 temporary exchanges to and from Tecnalia. The result will be consolidation of the ERA.