It has become widely acceptable to assume that the most efficient path to economic growth rests squarely with the quality and frequency of scientific research, especially when it is competently managed and used to develop know-how and new technologies. Science has become a forceful tool in attaining prosperity for citizens, with the stimulation of scientific research often being the fulcrum of economic policy in many states world-wide. Both scientific and technical advancements have become valuable assets in today's world because they generate innovation, the basis for a dynamic economy, built on higher competitivity and power.
In its struggle to become more competitive, the EU sees the need for highly trained and qualified researchers if it is to improve the wellbeing of society and increase economic growth and become in its own right, a viable contender in the global market. Its aim therefore, is to increase the competitivity of SMEs, industry and the efficiency of the public sector so as to increase the standard of living and improve the socio-economic status of all EU citizens.
In a bid to do just that, the EU has developed the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), the funding instrument dedicated to research and technology with a budget of €54 billion between 2007 and 2013. It covers all scientific fields, from health to the environment and ICT to the humanities.
Europe's ideal of becoming an attractive continent that supports innovation and knowledge creation and that encourages researchers to stay, has prompted the need for the People Programme, a scheme that funds research projects that cater for the mobility of researchers, implemented through the Marie Curie Actions. These aim to improve on the quality of human resources in scientific research through the transfer of knowledge.
The first action is the Initial Training Network (ITN), which aims to improve career prospects for young researchers. The idea is to ensure postgraduate students or researchers with up to four years of experience acquire a sound and comprehensive training, within the context of a network-wide scientific target.
Training, therefore, does not simply involve the teaching of research practices since the EU strongly encourages the inclusion of complementary skills such as research management, entrepreneurship, financial and legal issues, etc. The consortium typically includes partners from both business and academia that must all contribute to the training of these researchers.
The European Commission puts up €3 million in funds for a four-year project under such Marie Curie actions. This action funds the recruitment of researchers to be trained for the duration of the project, the recruitment of senior visiting researchers for up to two years, networking costs and organisation of short training events such as workshops, seminars, summer schools and conferences.
Another important action is the Intra-European Fellowships for Career Development (IEF). This action supports the career development of the more experienced researchers, who are either in possession of a doctoral degree or those who have at least four years' full-time equivalent research experience. The IEF actions seek to enhance the researcher's individual competence diversification in terms of skill acquisition at a multi or interdisciplinary level through intersectoral experiences.
Financial support in this action provides for individual research projects presented by experienced researchers from member states or associated countries in liaison with a host organisation from another EU country, for a period of one to two years. The host organisation selected by the researcher should agree to accept the researcher and to pay the Marie Curie action salary levels.
The funds go towards advanced training and transnational mobility and in particular the researcher's salary and a contribution towards research-related costs.
A possibly more relevant action, which would appeal to a wider section of the population and can help Maltese SMEs, is the Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways (IAPP). An IAPP is a two-way partnership between academia and private commercial enterprises in two different member or associated countries.
The projects must work towards increasing the exchange of skills between the two sectors through the transfer of knowledge. This is achieved by the fixed-term transfer of employees on a secondment basis and can target both early stage or experienced researchers and can also include technical and research managerial staff.
Private sector partners must be organisations operating on a commercial basis, i.e. companies gaining the majority of their revenue through competitive means with exposure to commercial markets they can include incubators, start-ups and spin-offs, venture capital companies etc.
Academia stands to gain valuable commercial experience from industry and exposure to the market, while SMEs and other businesses will secure insight into the latest research developments and the opportunity to train their employees.
Funding from the European Commission (EC) covers salaries for both seconded and recruited individuals which includes, living expenses, mobility, travel and a career exploratory allowance; lump sums for research and networking activities; costs related to the temporary hosting of experienced researchers recruited from outside the partnership and the organisation of workshops and conferences. For SMEs, the EU has also added a new clause that allows for the purchase of new equipment which should not exceed 10 per cent of the requested EC contribution.
Although many in Malta have connections with research organisations in the EU and the need for training and career development is acute, few have opted to apply for these funds in previous programmes.
Mobility, to many a Maltese researcher, unfortunately means a one-way ticket to a foreign destination - making brain-drain the inevitable outcome. Helen Grech from the Communication Therapy (CT) Division within the Institute of Health Care of the University of Malta, however, has beaten the odds and has been working on a Marie Curie project for nearly four years.
The project was conceived to strengthen the CT Division's research capabilities and has been instrumental in making the division a competitive pedagogical and research institution in European.
The project has contributed to the hosting of a more experienced researcher within the CT Division, who could provide the expertise and knowledge required in research management.
Training of staff, speech-language pathologists and students was also a priority if the project was to yield long-term benefits. This was achieved through a series of workshops related to clinical research. The project financially supported the mobility of an experienced researcher from the CT Division in Malta who was given the opportunity to receive intense training in research management in a partner institution in Europe.
The project has allowed for the development of assessment tools that can identify developmental communication disorders in the Maltese population. The plan is to standardise these assessments for the use of local clinicians. An epidemiological study on communication disorders in the Maltese islands is also underway as part of this EU project. This will be compared to the referral incidence of children referred for assessment of communication disorder to the local speech and language therapy service.
The mobility funds have been essential in reinforcing and developing the research and training capacity within the CT Division, while contributing to strengthening collaboration with other EU institutions and providing a unique insight into research related to bilingual populations with communication disorders, in partner institutions in the EU. Participating in the FP project also helped place the CT Division on the map as it is now represented in the Multilingual Affairs Committee of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics, a committee that encourages and promotes interest and research in communication disorders in bilingual/multilingual populations.
Dr Grech believes that Malta's diminutive size need not be an obstacle. She found that child language researchers and other experienced researchers who study disordered language are very interested in the research data of small populations like Malta, where specific languages or dialects and multilingualism are used. Data on small populations can be collected within a relatively short time for cross-linguistic analysis. This is true for most fields of scientific research; in health, for example, when collecting data from a small genetic pool in a restricted area, it can be a very effective means of obtaining the required data.
• Ms Fiorini is the National Contact Point for the Seventh Framework Programme at Malta Council for Science and Technology. For further details, contact Anthea Frendo, the National Contact Point for the FP7 People Programme at anthea.frendo@gov.mt or on tel: 2360 2141.
http://www.mcst.gov.mt
The Marie Curie actions in the EU's FP7 have been set up to encourage people to follow a career in research and provide the foundations for an open labour market. The FP7 People Programme budget is almost €5 billion. This programme does not impose any restriction on the research domain.
In its struggle to become more competitive, the EU sees the need for highly trained and qualified researchers if it is to improve the wellbeing of society and increase economic growth and become in its own right, a viable contender in the global market. Its aim therefore, is to increase the competitivity of SMEs, industry and the efficiency of the public sector so as to increase the standard of living and improve the socio-economic status of all EU citizens.
In a bid to do just that, the EU has developed the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), the funding instrument dedicated to research and technology with a budget of €54 billion between 2007 and 2013. It covers all scientific fields, from health to the environment and ICT to the humanities.
Europe's ideal of becoming an attractive continent that supports innovation and knowledge creation and that encourages researchers to stay, has prompted the need for the People Programme, a scheme that funds research projects that cater for the mobility of researchers, implemented through the Marie Curie Actions. These aim to improve on the quality of human resources in scientific research through the transfer of knowledge.
The first action is the Initial Training Network (ITN), which aims to improve career prospects for young researchers. The idea is to ensure postgraduate students or researchers with up to four years of experience acquire a sound and comprehensive training, within the context of a network-wide scientific target.
Training, therefore, does not simply involve the teaching of research practices since the EU strongly encourages the inclusion of complementary skills such as research management, entrepreneurship, financial and legal issues, etc. The consortium typically includes partners from both business and academia that must all contribute to the training of these researchers.
The European Commission puts up €3 million in funds for a four-year project under such Marie Curie actions. This action funds the recruitment of researchers to be trained for the duration of the project, the recruitment of senior visiting researchers for up to two years, networking costs and organisation of short training events such as workshops, seminars, summer schools and conferences.
Another important action is the Intra-European Fellowships for Career Development (IEF). This action supports the career development of the more experienced researchers, who are either in possession of a doctoral degree or those who have at least four years' full-time equivalent research experience. The IEF actions seek to enhance the researcher's individual competence diversification in terms of skill acquisition at a multi or interdisciplinary level through intersectoral experiences.
Financial support in this action provides for individual research projects presented by experienced researchers from member states or associated countries in liaison with a host organisation from another EU country, for a period of one to two years. The host organisation selected by the researcher should agree to accept the researcher and to pay the Marie Curie action salary levels.
The funds go towards advanced training and transnational mobility and in particular the researcher's salary and a contribution towards research-related costs.
A possibly more relevant action, which would appeal to a wider section of the population and can help Maltese SMEs, is the Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways (IAPP). An IAPP is a two-way partnership between academia and private commercial enterprises in two different member or associated countries.
The projects must work towards increasing the exchange of skills between the two sectors through the transfer of knowledge. This is achieved by the fixed-term transfer of employees on a secondment basis and can target both early stage or experienced researchers and can also include technical and research managerial staff.
Private sector partners must be organisations operating on a commercial basis, i.e. companies gaining the majority of their revenue through competitive means with exposure to commercial markets they can include incubators, start-ups and spin-offs, venture capital companies etc.
Academia stands to gain valuable commercial experience from industry and exposure to the market, while SMEs and other businesses will secure insight into the latest research developments and the opportunity to train their employees.
Funding from the European Commission (EC) covers salaries for both seconded and recruited individuals which includes, living expenses, mobility, travel and a career exploratory allowance; lump sums for research and networking activities; costs related to the temporary hosting of experienced researchers recruited from outside the partnership and the organisation of workshops and conferences. For SMEs, the EU has also added a new clause that allows for the purchase of new equipment which should not exceed 10 per cent of the requested EC contribution.
Although many in Malta have connections with research organisations in the EU and the need for training and career development is acute, few have opted to apply for these funds in previous programmes.
Mobility, to many a Maltese researcher, unfortunately means a one-way ticket to a foreign destination - making brain-drain the inevitable outcome. Helen Grech from the Communication Therapy (CT) Division within the Institute of Health Care of the University of Malta, however, has beaten the odds and has been working on a Marie Curie project for nearly four years.
The project was conceived to strengthen the CT Division's research capabilities and has been instrumental in making the division a competitive pedagogical and research institution in European.
The project has contributed to the hosting of a more experienced researcher within the CT Division, who could provide the expertise and knowledge required in research management.
Training of staff, speech-language pathologists and students was also a priority if the project was to yield long-term benefits. This was achieved through a series of workshops related to clinical research. The project financially supported the mobility of an experienced researcher from the CT Division in Malta who was given the opportunity to receive intense training in research management in a partner institution in Europe.
The project has allowed for the development of assessment tools that can identify developmental communication disorders in the Maltese population. The plan is to standardise these assessments for the use of local clinicians. An epidemiological study on communication disorders in the Maltese islands is also underway as part of this EU project. This will be compared to the referral incidence of children referred for assessment of communication disorder to the local speech and language therapy service.
The mobility funds have been essential in reinforcing and developing the research and training capacity within the CT Division, while contributing to strengthening collaboration with other EU institutions and providing a unique insight into research related to bilingual populations with communication disorders, in partner institutions in the EU. Participating in the FP project also helped place the CT Division on the map as it is now represented in the Multilingual Affairs Committee of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics, a committee that encourages and promotes interest and research in communication disorders in bilingual/multilingual populations.
Dr Grech believes that Malta's diminutive size need not be an obstacle. She found that child language researchers and other experienced researchers who study disordered language are very interested in the research data of small populations like Malta, where specific languages or dialects and multilingualism are used. Data on small populations can be collected within a relatively short time for cross-linguistic analysis. This is true for most fields of scientific research; in health, for example, when collecting data from a small genetic pool in a restricted area, it can be a very effective means of obtaining the required data.
• Ms Fiorini is the National Contact Point for the Seventh Framework Programme at Malta Council for Science and Technology. For further details, contact Anthea Frendo, the National Contact Point for the FP7 People Programme at anthea.frendo@gov.mt or on tel: 2360 2141.
http://www.mcst.gov.mt
The Marie Curie actions in the EU's FP7 have been set up to encourage people to follow a career in research and provide the foundations for an open labour market. The FP7 People Programme budget is almost €5 billion. This programme does not impose any restriction on the research domain.