CNIC IPP · CNIC International Postdoctoral Programme

CNIC International Postdoctoral Programme

The CNIC International Postdoctoral Programme (CNIC IPP) was aimed at supporting trans- national mobility of young postdoctoral researchers and broadening their individual competence, particularly in terms of acquisition of complementary skills needed to become an independent group leader in the future. The CNIC IPP offered a total of 39 positions with the maximum duration of 3 years in the incoming mobility type. All positions were advertised by 5 international calls published in international scientific journals, web portals, and CNIC´s website. Independent experts were contracted for evaluation of the candidates in order to ensure a fair selection process. The researchers must have complied with two rules in order to be eligible for the CNIC IPP programme. Firstly, hold a PhD degree awarded no more than five years prior to the application deadline and secondly, not have resided or carried out their main activity in Spain for more than twelve months in the three years immediately prior to the application deadline. During the application process the fellows were free to propose a research project of their interest in coordination with the CNIC research group of their choice. The projects were tailored to the needs and experience of the researchers to allow them to achieve a well-defined objectives in terms of gaining working experience necessary in order to obtain group leader positions in the future. 15 fellows were recruited within various CNIC research groups, and 13 completed their allowed maximum fellowship time. 10 fellows gained positions within CNIC´s laboratories after the end of the project and are incorporated within 7 highly competitive research groups, which demonstrate their scientific excellence by numerous publications in high quality journals, and participation in competitive grants (4 out of 7 supervising group leaders are ERC grant beneficiaries, and all the supervising group leaders count with experience of participation in FP7 or H2020 projects). Working in such a competitive environment, the fellows are provided with the opportunity to form part of excellent research, to further deepen their scientific knowledge and technical skills, to increase their professional connections, and to work towards their professional independence. All researchers at CNIC are encouraged to apply for competitive sources of funding from national and international sources and many CNIC IPP fellows have received the support from CNIC with their first applications. Two of the fellows were successful in gaining independent funding from national competitive grants, and another two from international sources. The fellows attended to international conferences, and published their work at international level. 31 publications (10 of them with fellows a as first author) were already published, and more are expected to be published this year as a result of the experiments carried out within COFUND IPP. The feedback collected after the end of the project indicated that the impact of the programme for the participating fellows has been positive in terms of gaining an employment stability, working experience, creation of professional contacts at national and international level, and broadening further career perspectives with the ultimate aim of allowing the young researchers to become independent group leaders in the future.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз