Madrid becomes top researcher hotspot
Apart from being a beautiful city to visit, Madrid is known for its high level of education, boasting some of the finest institutions in southern Europe. It is home to many public and private universities, some of which are among the oldest in the world. One initiative that emphasises this reality is the IMDEA Network (Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados – the Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies), helping to build a critical mass of top-notch researchers in the city. In this context, the EU-funded project AMAROUT (AMAROUT Europe) contributed to developing the European researcher labour market and reinforced Madrid's role as a world-class destination for knowledge generation. In its four-year mandate, the project gave 66 fellows (chosen from 248 applicants from different countries) the opportunity to become scientists in one of the IMDEA Network's 7 institutes. The positions covered disciplines related to energy, food, water, nanoscience, software, networking and materials, offering good working conditions, social security and career development. In all, the project comprised 11 open calls to attract the applicants, with 15 fellowships out of the 66 falling under nanoscience and 14 under materials. Also noteworthy was the number of foreign applicants that applied from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the United States. Accepted fellows from beyond Spain represented almost 90 % of the total number of fellows, successfully positioning Madrid as a hub for knowledge generation. Attesting to the global dimension of this endeavour, selection committees hailed not only from Spain but also from six other EU countries, as well as from Argentina, India, Israel, Russia and the United States. During the 4-year project period the fellows produced over 500 scientific publications on the different topics, with nanoscience taking the lead at 112 publications. This was followed with 90 publications for software and 86 publications for materials. Almost 80 % of the fellows successfully completed the fellowship programme and about half of these have gained permanent positions in host institutes. Through this well-designed programme, Madrid has solidified its position as a region for knowledge generation. A follow-up project (AMAROUT II) has recently been launched, and will continue this trend for one of Europe's most prestigious and noble cities.