Results of the HCM Fellowship Rostock Conference

For the duration of the Commission's Human and Capital Mobility (HCM) programme (DG XII), some 2,500 young European researchers received a research training grant, supporting their scientific work in a laboratory outside their own countries. In October 1994, 120 of these fell...

For the duration of the Commission's Human and Capital Mobility (HCM) programme (DG XII), some 2,500 young European researchers received a research training grant, supporting their scientific work in a laboratory outside their own countries.

In October 1994, 120 of these fellows who had received a grant to work in research institutions in Germany gathered in Rostock to discuss with regional, national and EC officials how far the fellowship had been beneficial to their training in research and where the implementation of the programme could and should be improved.

The following conclusions were drawn:

- The smooth implementation of the fellowship scheme requires improved information and communication measures with regard to the fellows as well as to the host institutes;
- Rules and regulations setting out rights and obligations of both the fellows and the host institutes need to be transparent and consistent over time;
- Efforts should be made to give a proper profile, continuity and prestige to a scheme which has become one of the biggest providers of research training grants to young scientists worldwide;
- Efforts should be made to increase the awareness of young scientists of the European dimension and origin of the HCM programme.

A full report of the Rostock conference, published by the programme's national contact point in Germany, will soon be available.