During the lifetime of the project, the consortium took practical steps in training and education of researchers, while JSI staff invested extensive efforts into establishing a community of practice in the domain of advanced mass spectrometric and related techniques. MASSTWIN was designed in such a way as to promote and increase the visibility of the department so that the benefits of the project would continue into the future. Details on networking and training activities can be found in submitted deliverables and in the annual reports of the project.
During the project period, 35 exchange visits in laboratories of MASSTWIN partners took place. During the project period, 35 exchange visits in laboratories of MASSTWIN partners took place: 11 expert visits of 8 researchers from partner institutions at JSI for 121 days, and 24 visits of 17 JSI researchers in partners’ laboratories for 235 days. Three exploratory workshops and one summer school were successfully organized. Four group training course also engaged senior and early stage researchers.
In total 142 scientific papers were published in SCI journals and work was presented at 70 events with over 150 presentations. Two patents were obtained and two special issues are under the guest editing stage. Numerous other dissemination events were also organised at the national and international level.
So far 11 doctoral theses have been completed at the Department of Environmental Sciences at Jožef Stefan Postgraduate School (JSIPS) under supervision of JSI researchers, while there are 20 on-going doctoral studies at JSIPS. In addition, 4 doctoral theses of the Masstwin partners have been completed where JSI researchers were members of PhD committee, while JSI is acting as co-supervisor in one ongoing doctoral study. This is great contribution to the education process of young researchers, and collaboration between the Masstwin partners and significantly contributes to the sustainability of Masstwin project. Moreover, in collaboration with collaborating partners and University of Ljubljana and International Postgraduate School Jožef Stefan agreements were signed for postdoctoral courses where JSO-O2 researchers will be active in the future.
Beside technical skills of researchers, the full integration of JSI-O2 into the national and international research area and collaboration with national and international stakeholders was expected to be strengthened to such a level, that the JSI-O2 would achieve sustainable funding for its growth. Moreover, the department has become not only a valued team member, but a team leader in international project consortia in health, food and environmental research.
To develop human resources and assure organisational framework for generating new knowledge, we put efforts into preparation of project proposals responding to national and international calls, in collaboration with MASSTWIN partner and beyond these partnerships. As a result, the number of active projects has already increased, and several more are under evaluation or in the pipeline to be submitted this year. As a step forward, the JSI-O2 took the initiative and acted as initiator and coordinator of international project consortia rather than a project partner, and our ambition on the long run is to increase the number of international projects led by our researchers.
The education activities are built on engagement of JSI-O2 researchers as teachers and mentors of graduate and post-graduate students at the J. Stefan International Postgraduate School (IPS) and Slovenian and foreign Universities. Taking advantage of international networks of these institutions and their institutional links with industry, the department benefits from two-way exchange visits of guest professors and experts, and collaboration with industrial partners of IPS in terms of research contracts and common research projects. On the other hand, recruitment of the best students as early stage researchers in facilitated.
To assure sustainability of research infrastructure – considering the limited national resources for acquisition of new instruments – the efforts have been made to pave the way to the membership in dispersed research infrastructures, where we already have become partners in some RI projects. At the same time, increased number of contracts with industry will assure autonomous funding for keeping the department’s instrumentation up to date.
Last but not least, outreach activities taken in the framework of ERA Chair and Twinning projects, proved to be efficient not only in increasing visibility and communicating science to the general public, but also to raise more interest among students seeking their degrees in food – health – environmental science and among stakeholders for seeking advice and collaboration.
