The activities planned to be developed within IMpaCT were severely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020, requiring mitigation actions to ensure their implementation. This involved a 6-month extension of the project, with an adapted Action Plan and budget adjustments as specified in a Grant Amendment.
Three workshops were carried out (Figure 1), open to Early Career Researchers (ECRs) from all partners as well as independently funded external users. We highlight that the second and third workshops, initially planned to take place onsite during 2020, had to be delayed and replanned due to the health and travel restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.
All six planned exchange visits of UNL ECRs to the partners (Figure 2) visits were conducted, and it was possible to include a seventh short visit.
UNL received 5 expert visits by the three partners and one Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) member. Besides delivering seminars, these experts also interacted with ECRs to discuss ongoing CryoEM projects and provide advice. The final three visits coincided with the installation of the new Cryo-TEM, and these experts also discussed best practices for the implementation of the new facility with the local INL staff.
CryoEM expert scientists were invited to present 6 seminars (Figure 3), four of which were delivered in virtual format. For both onsite and virtual visits, there were opportunities for interaction between the guests and the ECRs at UNL. The virtual seminars were advertised on the IMpaCT web site and social media and had a broad audience included participants from the all the partners in the consortium as well as attendants from all over the world.
Several courses for the professional and career development of ECRs (Figure 4) were organized and held mainly online (due to the COVID-19 outbreak), open to IMpaCT members as well as other UNL (ITQB NOVA) participants and provided participants with important soft skills to help them improve their publication and grant writing skills.
Four visits by UNL Research Support Staff elements to the UH and CNB-CSIC partners were carried out as planned.
Several activities were organized to make ECRs aware of the potential value of their research, and which steps should be taken to protect and exploit any IP that might arise from their results. These included a Mini-symposium and seminars in virtual mode (Figure 5), to promote closer interactions between academia and industry, foster potential collaborations with stakeholders outside of academia and to promote a possible future exploitation of project results. These activities provided ample opportunities for ECRs to interact with CryoEM researchers in the industrial sector, as well as with specialists in IP protection and creation of start-up companies.
Dissemination activities during IMpaCT consisted mainly of scientific communications (in either oral or poster formats) at national and international scientific meetings (Figure 7). Several scientific publications are lined up, ready for journal submission a few months after the end of IMpaCT.
IMpaCT was present in social media, its activities were disseminated on the website (www.itqb.unl.pt/impact) Twitter (@ICryoem) and two Instagram hastags #IMpaCT_team and #cryoem_impact were used.
CryoEM dissemination to the public and to students was accomplished by several outreach activities (Figure 8), such as visits to schools and higher education institutions, but also OpenDay/OpenLab activities, in which the public/students visited us.
