Final Report Summary - U-MOBILITY (FOSTERING RESEARCHER MOBILITY IN UNIVERSIDAD DE MALAGA)
The main objective of the U-Mobility programme “Fostering researcher mobility in Universidad de Málaga” is to foster trans-national mobility and international cooperation of the local and regional research communities by promoting the professional development of experienced researchers in an international environment in collaboration with Universidad de Málaga (UMA).
U-Mobility is UMA’s first post-doctoral mobility programme. It consists in an open merit-based competition to recruit up to 12 researchers to carry out a research project in two phases: an outgoing phase (18-24 months) in research institution outside Spain, and a return phase (9-12 months) at Universidad de Málaga.
A single call for proposals was launched at the beginning of the programme, describing the general conditions and the application and selection processes, and including all the necessary templates, supporting documents and contact details to submit a proposal. The call was published in the programme website (http://www.umobility.uma.es/index.php/en.html) and widely advertised through promotional material, e-mails to partner institutions, Euraxess and other relevant websites, social media and an information event.
The U-Mobility programme received 48 applications, 44 of which passed to the evaluation stage. These 44 proposals were remotely evaluated by 27 independent international experts distributed in 4 panels. The distribution of proposals per research discipline were: 43% in experimental sciences, 34% in engineering, 18% in social sciences and humanities, and 5% in economic sciences. There were not a speficic number of fellowships allocated per research are: all the proposals were ranked according to their average score and the 12 top-ranked ones were selected. The fellows signed a full-time employment contract with UMA to carry out the following research projects:
1. Interaction between rational homotopy and deformation theories: Rational homotopy type of moduli spaces and its applications (RHDT).
- Outgoing host institution: Institut de Recherche en mathématique et physique, Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium)
- Return host institution: Departamento de Álgebra, Geometría y Topología, Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
2. Cooperative spectrum-sharing systems: Performance Limits under reAlistic constraints (COPLA)
- Outgoing host institution: Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University (USA)
- Return host institution: Departamento de Ingeniería de Comunicaciones, Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
3. Controllability under Adversarial Influence in Critical Information Infrastructures (CAIN)
- Outgoing host institution: Information Security Group, Royal Holloway, University of London (United Kingdom)
- Return host institution: Departamento de Lenguajes y Ciencias de la Computación, Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
4. Development of a novel, web-supported fungicide resistance monitoring program for pathogens affecting strawberry and technology transfer to support producers in Spain (PROFILE STRAWBERRY)
- Return host institution: School of Agricultural, Forest and Environmental Sciences, Clemson University (USA)
- Outgoing host institution: Departamento de Microbiología, Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
5. Biofunctionalization of silicon surfaces (Biosurfaces)
- Outgoing host institution: Department of Chemistry. College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University of Houston (USA)
- Return host institution:Departamento de Química Orgánica, Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
6. Local interactions during cardiomyocyte differentiation: translating embryonic signalling to human embryonic stem cell culture (CARDIODIFFCULT)
- Outgoing host institution: Afdeling Anatomie en Embryologie, Leids Universitair Medisch Centrum (Netherlands)
- Return host institution: Departamento de Biología Animal, Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
7. The Role of Translational Regulation In Plant Hormonal Responses (Ribosome Footprinting)
- Outgoing host institution: Department of Genetics, North Carolina State University (USA)
- Return host institution: Departamento de Biología Molecular y Bioquímica, Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
8. Mechanisms of neuroprotection mediated by acylethanolamides in an animal model of perinatal brain hypoxia (NEUROPROTACYL)
- Outgoing host institution: Instituto de Investigación Prof. Dr. Alberto C. Taquini (ININCA), Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina)
- Return host institution: Departamento de Psicobiología y Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
9. Carbon Nanostructures for Application to Molecular Photovoltaics (CNAMP)
- Outgoing host institution: Lehrstuhl für Physikalische Chemie I, Department Chemie und Pharmazie, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (Germany)
- Return host institution: Departamento de Química Física, Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
10. Theoretical study of PHotoinduced processes ANd Their Spectroscopic Marks. A quantumdynamical approach applied to DNA photophysics (T-PHANTASM)
- Outgoing host institution: Istituto di Chimica dei Composti Organo Metallici, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (Italy)
- Return host institution: Departamento de Química Física, Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
11. Development of intelligent tools to characterize, evaluate and manage traffic-impacted soundscapes (ITTSoundscapes2011)
- Outgoing host institution: Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, University of Southampton (United Kingdom)
- Return host institution: Departamento de Tecnología Electrónica, Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
12. Specificity Interactions of the Host Ubiquitin/Proteasome system during uncoating of the Tcomplex (Tcomplex)
- Outgoing host institution: Biochemistry and Cell Biology Department, State University of New York at Stony Brook (USA)
- Return host institution: Departamento de Biología Celular, Genética y Fisiología, Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
The standard outgoing period was of 24 months, while the return period varied between 4 and 17 months, as some early terminations allowed the use of the funds for the other fellows. These terminations were mainly due to fellows taking up another research position in the EU before the end of their fellowships.
During the execution of the programme, the individual projects have been monitored via progress reports and interviews. Details about the fellows and their research results can be found at http://www.umobility.uma.es/index.php/en/u-mobility-fellows.html.
By the end of this programme in September 2016, all the 12 researchers still were working in research in a European institution. Moreover, 8 of them have been recruited as PhD Assistant professor or have been awarded a research grant in very competitive and prestigious research programmes such as Ramón y Cajal or Juan de la Cierva in Spain.
For UMA, U-Mobility has been a complete success as demonstrated by its capacity to attract talent, contribute to the researchers’ career development and create and strengthen its international dimension.
U-Mobility is UMA’s first post-doctoral mobility programme. It consists in an open merit-based competition to recruit up to 12 researchers to carry out a research project in two phases: an outgoing phase (18-24 months) in research institution outside Spain, and a return phase (9-12 months) at Universidad de Málaga.
A single call for proposals was launched at the beginning of the programme, describing the general conditions and the application and selection processes, and including all the necessary templates, supporting documents and contact details to submit a proposal. The call was published in the programme website (http://www.umobility.uma.es/index.php/en.html) and widely advertised through promotional material, e-mails to partner institutions, Euraxess and other relevant websites, social media and an information event.
The U-Mobility programme received 48 applications, 44 of which passed to the evaluation stage. These 44 proposals were remotely evaluated by 27 independent international experts distributed in 4 panels. The distribution of proposals per research discipline were: 43% in experimental sciences, 34% in engineering, 18% in social sciences and humanities, and 5% in economic sciences. There were not a speficic number of fellowships allocated per research are: all the proposals were ranked according to their average score and the 12 top-ranked ones were selected. The fellows signed a full-time employment contract with UMA to carry out the following research projects:
1. Interaction between rational homotopy and deformation theories: Rational homotopy type of moduli spaces and its applications (RHDT).
- Outgoing host institution: Institut de Recherche en mathématique et physique, Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium)
- Return host institution: Departamento de Álgebra, Geometría y Topología, Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
2. Cooperative spectrum-sharing systems: Performance Limits under reAlistic constraints (COPLA)
- Outgoing host institution: Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University (USA)
- Return host institution: Departamento de Ingeniería de Comunicaciones, Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
3. Controllability under Adversarial Influence in Critical Information Infrastructures (CAIN)
- Outgoing host institution: Information Security Group, Royal Holloway, University of London (United Kingdom)
- Return host institution: Departamento de Lenguajes y Ciencias de la Computación, Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
4. Development of a novel, web-supported fungicide resistance monitoring program for pathogens affecting strawberry and technology transfer to support producers in Spain (PROFILE STRAWBERRY)
- Return host institution: School of Agricultural, Forest and Environmental Sciences, Clemson University (USA)
- Outgoing host institution: Departamento de Microbiología, Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
5. Biofunctionalization of silicon surfaces (Biosurfaces)
- Outgoing host institution: Department of Chemistry. College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University of Houston (USA)
- Return host institution:Departamento de Química Orgánica, Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
6. Local interactions during cardiomyocyte differentiation: translating embryonic signalling to human embryonic stem cell culture (CARDIODIFFCULT)
- Outgoing host institution: Afdeling Anatomie en Embryologie, Leids Universitair Medisch Centrum (Netherlands)
- Return host institution: Departamento de Biología Animal, Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
7. The Role of Translational Regulation In Plant Hormonal Responses (Ribosome Footprinting)
- Outgoing host institution: Department of Genetics, North Carolina State University (USA)
- Return host institution: Departamento de Biología Molecular y Bioquímica, Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
8. Mechanisms of neuroprotection mediated by acylethanolamides in an animal model of perinatal brain hypoxia (NEUROPROTACYL)
- Outgoing host institution: Instituto de Investigación Prof. Dr. Alberto C. Taquini (ININCA), Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina)
- Return host institution: Departamento de Psicobiología y Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
9. Carbon Nanostructures for Application to Molecular Photovoltaics (CNAMP)
- Outgoing host institution: Lehrstuhl für Physikalische Chemie I, Department Chemie und Pharmazie, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (Germany)
- Return host institution: Departamento de Química Física, Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
10. Theoretical study of PHotoinduced processes ANd Their Spectroscopic Marks. A quantumdynamical approach applied to DNA photophysics (T-PHANTASM)
- Outgoing host institution: Istituto di Chimica dei Composti Organo Metallici, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (Italy)
- Return host institution: Departamento de Química Física, Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
11. Development of intelligent tools to characterize, evaluate and manage traffic-impacted soundscapes (ITTSoundscapes2011)
- Outgoing host institution: Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, University of Southampton (United Kingdom)
- Return host institution: Departamento de Tecnología Electrónica, Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
12. Specificity Interactions of the Host Ubiquitin/Proteasome system during uncoating of the Tcomplex (Tcomplex)
- Outgoing host institution: Biochemistry and Cell Biology Department, State University of New York at Stony Brook (USA)
- Return host institution: Departamento de Biología Celular, Genética y Fisiología, Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
The standard outgoing period was of 24 months, while the return period varied between 4 and 17 months, as some early terminations allowed the use of the funds for the other fellows. These terminations were mainly due to fellows taking up another research position in the EU before the end of their fellowships.
During the execution of the programme, the individual projects have been monitored via progress reports and interviews. Details about the fellows and their research results can be found at http://www.umobility.uma.es/index.php/en/u-mobility-fellows.html.
By the end of this programme in September 2016, all the 12 researchers still were working in research in a European institution. Moreover, 8 of them have been recruited as PhD Assistant professor or have been awarded a research grant in very competitive and prestigious research programmes such as Ramón y Cajal or Juan de la Cierva in Spain.
For UMA, U-Mobility has been a complete success as demonstrated by its capacity to attract talent, contribute to the researchers’ career development and create and strengthen its international dimension.