Individual Fellowships at the Université libre de Bruxelles

Project Information

IFatULB

Grant agreement ID: 801505

DOI

10.3030/801505

Project closed

EC signature date 22 May 2018

Start date 1 September 2018

End date 31 May 2024

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 8 920 800,00

EU contribution

€ 4 460 400,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITE LIBRE DE BRUXELLES
Belgium

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - IFatULB (Individual Fellowships at the Université libre de Bruxelles)

Reporting period: 2020-09-01 to 2024-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

IF@ULB is a European postdoctoral programme, COFUNDed by the Université libre de Bruxelles and the European Commission within the framework of MARIE SKŁODOWSKA-CURIE actions (H2020). The programme aimed to recruit 63 international postdoctoral researchers between 2018 and 2024, over three calls. For each call, ULB planned to offer 21 positions in one of the ULB research centres. The positions were open to researchers in all fields, according to a bottom up approach.

This comprehensive fellowship programme aimed at providing to excellent Experienced Researchers the opportunity to conduct frontier research and receive broad training in an environment of scientific excellence, under the supervision of renowned academics.

At the level of ULB, IF@ULB's goal was to reinforce the international character of the university, strengthen human resources at both national and european level and enhance in-house staff expertise in career development.

IF@ULB has been designed to give to the fellows an extensive support to maximize the impact of their research by bringing Research & Innovation (including social innovation) results closer to industrial exploitations and/or societal applications. IF@ULB also aimed at communicating the activities of individual research projects to non-scientific audience and at promoting public engagement.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

To maximise visibility of the project and insure the recruitment of top level international researchers, ULB created a dedicated website containing a description of the IF@ULB programme and its objectives and all the information relevant for applicants and potential supervisors. The program and the calls were also advertised through a wide communication campaign. The results of the communication efforts were up to our expectations : 63 fellows have been recruited trough 3 calls between 2018 and 2024. The countries of origin cover a wide geographical area with 15 different countries inside and outside Europe.


Several communication actions were also lauched to increase the visibility of the fellows through 1) a dedicated space on the IF@ULB website to showcast each individual project 2) individual interviews published on the IF@ULB website and the University website 3) the organization of 3 transdisciplinary scientific events dedicated to the fellows' projects.

Fellows have also benefited from an extensive training and career development programme, which responded to the specific needs of postdocs. Activities have been performed at the level of both their research unit and the university:

• Individual career development support and coaching
• Research-based training
• Transferable soft skills training

A hundred and sixty eight hours of training were offered within the programme. Moreover, the fellows have received an extensive support to maximize the impact of their research by bringing Research & Innovation (including social innovation) results closer to industrial exploitations and/or societal applications. IF@ULB enabled in-house staff to enhance their understanding of the specific needs of international postdoctoral researchers and thus improve our general training programme.

ULB is fully dedicated to its third mission, Service to Society. IF@ULB fellows have been offered support to strengthen the societal impact of their research project through training on topics such as science communication, intellectual property and spinoff creation, and the organization of two symposia covering the societal impact of research. Both conferences were followed by debates with other researchers and/or representatives of civil society.


More than 95% of the fellows who answered our follow-up questionnaires sent after the end of their fellowship have been able to secure new positions inside or outside academia. 12 obtained a new funding to pursue their research activities at ULB after the end of their fellowship, thus maintaining the international character of their host team. Lastly, a survey sent to the fellows after the end of the program has shown that the respondants have pursued their career in 16 different countries and are still in contact with their colleagues at ULB.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The fellows' projects have led to the publication of around 142 scientific papers in open access.

One patent was obtained : Garcia-Pino, A.; Govaerts, C.; Ainelo, H.; Tamman, H.; Hauryliuk, V.; Pardo Carasco, L.; Matsoukas, M. T. (2021) entitled “Rel/RelA/SpoT Small Molecules Modulators and Screening Methods”, covering the method of designing targeted drug candidates in Europe, the US and Japan. This patent is a foundation the creation of the spinoff below.

One Spinoff was created : “Santero therapeutics”, a start-up biotech in the field of antibiotics discovery developing first-in-class, novel generations of drugs to fight multiple resistant pathogens.

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