The coordinator installed a LEaDing Fellows programme office which is responsible for the day-to-day management and execution of the programme. The programme office coordinates the management of the programme and takes care of the govenance of parties and bodies involved in the programme.
During the first reporting period all 3 calls have been launched. After a careful selection process 60 fellows have been selected from the 1st and 2nd call, of which 50 fellows have been appointed in the period covered by this report: 5 fellows started their activities at Erasmus Medical Center, 8 at Erasmus University Rotterdam, 11 at Leiden University, 9 at Leiden University Medical Center and 17 at Delft University of Technology. 10 candidates will start their activities after the reporting period, agreements have been made with regard to their start date. Each appointment is a result of a careful an strict evaluation and selection process in which a lot of (external) reviewers were involved. The selection process of the 3rd call is still in progress. The outcome of the 3rd call will be announced by 1st of May 2019.
The LEaDing Fellows Programme and all relevant information for applicants amongst which a comprehensive guide for applicants were published on a website: www.leadingfellows.eu. Each call was also advertised on jobboards of international journals and on a wide variety of relevant websites and networks to attract as many candidates as possible. Each fellow applied with a research proposal of their own design related to the research agenda of the potential host group.
For each batch of newly appointed fellows, a fellow meeting was organised. During these meetings fellows were informed about specific aspects of the LEaDing Fellows programme and the Marie Sklodowska-Curie programme in general. Part of these meetings were workshops on Intellectual Property and Intercultural Communication. These meetings also contribute to community building. The website contains an item 'Meet the fellows', where information about the fellows and their projects is available. It is difficult to describe each fellows' project and progress in general terms. However, fellows succeeded to produce journal articles and to submit draft articles, to establish new bottom-up collaborations and are involved in new grant applications. Fellows attend courses, colloquia and (international) conferences and carry out visits or internships to academic or industrial partners. This contributes to the enhancement of their career prospects.
During the period covered in the 2nd and final report (from January 2019 on), the selection process of the third call was completed and all fellows were appointed. Each appointment was the result of a careful and strict selection process in which the eligibility of the candidates was checked, as well as an extensive review of their CV, motivation letter, their research and training plan. After all fellows had been selected much effort has been put into monitoring the fellows, their projects and interactions with the host groups, organizing events for the fellows, managing the project budget and distribution of budget among the partners, preparing and submission of project deliverables and resolving unforeseen issues.
