Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions - Beyond 2020

Project Information

MSCA 2018

Grant agreement ID: 811208

DOI

10.3030/811208

Project closed

EC signature date 8 May 2018

Start date 1 March 2018

End date 31 December 2018

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 237 500,00

EU contribution

€ 150 000,00

Coordinated by

BUNDESMINISTERIUM FUR WIRTSCHAFT, ENERGIE UND TOURISMUS
Austria

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MSCA 2018 (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions - Beyond 2020)

Reporting period: 2018-03-01 to 2018-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The organisation of MSCA 2018 under the Austrian Council Presidency is to be seen as a continuation of successful MSCA related conferences (Trento, 2014; Luxemburg, 2015; Brussels, 2016; Valletta, 2017; Tallinn, 2017). In general, MSCA 2018 will analyse the current state of play, the challenges, the new trends, and the proposal for the post 2020 programme. Moreover, the conference will come up with conference conclusions in order to facilitate further developments in areas such as prioritising, widening, financing and governing MSCA to meet today´s and tomorrow´s challenges. New and complementary approaches need to be tailored according to the nature of MSCA. In order to foster inter- and multidisciplinary, to widen the applicants´ communities and to exploit innovation and excellence further the conference will also deal with questions related to oversubscription, new career paths, further development in offering training for researchers designed on purpose. MSCA 2018 will enable participants to network and exchange experiences as well as identify common areas of collaboration at international and European level.
In a year when core strategic objectives will be discussed in the EU research and education policy areas, the MSCA 2018 will serve as a key event in the RTI and HE events calendar of the Austrian EU Presidency to highlight the importance of human resources, their training and career development as well as scientific excellence.
The MSCA 2018 will gather relevant experts and stakeholders from Europe and beyond. They will discuss the challenges in acquiring and developing competent R&I human resources and emerging as well as future needs in skills and training. The conference will discuss how these challenges could be tackled by strategic international, intersectoral and interdisciplinary exchanges and cooperation between European organisations and their international counterparts.

In particular, MSCA 2018 will

• Strengthen the awareness of the important relevance of human resources, the promotion of early stage researchers and support for experienced researchers and for further benefit of excellent research in a European context by addressing this topic in a dedicated session of the event and presenting successful projects as well as organising a prize competition beforehand and an award ceremony during the conference.

• Improve the understanding and importance of intersectoral mobility by addressing this topic in a dedicated session of the event.

• Build on widening participation and fostering international cooperation by inviting international as well as widening institutions and leave floor for discussion and networking.

• Contribute actively to the discussion on the draft of the next Framework Programme and the role and impact of MSCA and bring forward thoughts and comments on possible issues.

• Contribute to a better understanding and visibility of MSCA which still seem to be seen by some stakeholders as a mobility programme only. MSCA are much more than that.

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

Next to organisational issues the organiser was till now mainly focussing on the invitation policy, the drafting of the agenda and the personal contact of the potential speakers, chairpersons and rapporteurs.
The processing of the preparations was indeed challenging and diverse. So many things had to be taken into account. It was a fruitful and interesting work as the different speakers, chairs, rapporteurs had to be invited and sometimes even be convinced of their participation.
The most important issue during the preparation before during and after the conference was and is communication between the different stakeholders, between EC services and the organisers, between the coordinator and the project partner and of course the communication with participants, researchers, awardees and the invited speakers, chairs and rapporteurs.
After having prepared a draft agenda it was easier to describe the conference and its goals and expected outputs. The main issue was to have experts on board who could provide some new ideas to the EU and the promotion of young researchers. The chairs and rapporteurs were chosen and invited according to their expertise in the main fields of the workshops.

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)

After setting the frame of the conference the main issue is currently to motivate speakers to attend.
A milestone on the side of the organisers was the editing of the programme, finalising the input to the conference website and to compile the speakers booklet.
The cooperation with the chairs and rapporteurs was intense while preparing the workshops. The EC was really helpful especially I introducing the latest developments and ideas on MSCA within Horizon Europe.

It was great fun to set the MSCA award 2018 as For the first time in the story of the MSCA Awards the applicants were not invited to send their written application but to send their videos or selfies illustrating their research project and their creative approach.
WHAT WERE THE CRITERIAS FOR THE SHORTLIST?
Based on the applications of around 106 MSCA fellows which represented highly competitive grant schemes and addressing different subject areas a shortlist was set during a virtual panel meeting connecting the experts in Brussels and Vienna using the following selection criteria:
The CV and track record of the MSCA fellow
Category chosen
Gender Diversity and geographical spread
Creative approach
Research topic

WHO SELECTED THEM?
The selection panel was composed by experts of the European Commission and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research.

WHO ARE THE FINALISTS SELECTED FOR THE AWARDS?
Category I: Outreach of the MSCA Project:
Beatriz Rodriguez Alonso, University College Dublin, Ireland
Gwendolyn Bailey, KU Leuven, Belgium
Adrien Donneaud, Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences, Germany

Category II: Meeting societal challenges
Alejandro Catalá, Research Center on Information Technology of the University Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Elias Munthali; Catalan Institute for Water Research, Girona, Spain
Deepak Palaksha, University of Science and Technology Trondheim, Norway

Category III: Bridging (career) paths
Francisco Marcus Gonçalves, Centre for Psychological Research and Social Intervention, ISCTE-Lisbon University Institute, Portugal
Susana Ladra González, University of Coruna, Spain
Enrico Risaliti, Siemens PLM Software, Leuven, Belgium

AWARD CEREMONY
The audience had the opportunity to see the videos at the MSCA Conference on October 1, 2018. The winners were awarded at the conference dinner.

Logo specifically designed for the conference