I know that I’m not coming to visit very often, and the conference discussions have been helpful, the ones on facebook more so than the ones here, but I wonder about any other uses that we may have for this that facebook isn’t fulfilling.

Any thoughts, or maybe just leave a comment if you see this at all and how often you actually come to visit.

Get the skills you need for your career! Come to the Marie Curie workshop and register to ESOF2010!

Tomorrow’s researchers should not only be excellent in science but need to have key additional skills in order to:

- Communicate and “sell” their research to public stakeholders and politicians to generate support
- Develop collaboration with private companies to enhance the use of fundamental research
- Foster creative partnerships with other research fields
- Be their own boss – spinning out research ideas into business
- Be informed about funding opportunities

This is what the Marie Curie conference offers to Marie Curie Fellows:
a day and a half of training on essentials skills for excellent researchers.

Specialists from academia and private companies, consultants and the EU Marie Curie team will train you and you will be able to interact with them and benefit from their advice and best practice.

It will also be a unique opportunity for you to practise new skills and gain visibility in the research community with your posters and oral presentations dedicated to communication, or private/academic collaboration. You will also have the opportunity to share your dissemination success stories and explore how to reach out and create synergies with other scientific fields.

The conference also includes:

- Workshop on how to access EC funding
- Workshop on how to write successful grant proposals
- A series of workshops on how creative academics can exploit their research potential in the private sector, how to exploit their fundamental research, and how to communicate to a nonspecialised audience.

Opportunities in alternative careers and skills needed by researchers will be discussed with specialists. More experienced fellows will also give guidance on making a success of your career in Academia.

POSTER AND ORAL PRESENTATIONS

What type of Poster should I make?
Posters will not just be regular scientific posters but should instead reflect your capacity to sell your own research to scientists from other fields, or be an example of best practice in private/academic collaboration, and/or in public dissemination.
Poster themes could include:

- fostering creative collaborations with other scientific fields
- best practice in dissemination
- exploiting your research results with the private sector
- success stories in research careers

Important! The purpose of these posters is to give you the opportunity to practise these new skills, so if you feel you are too early in your career or you are not sure about the content, just give it a try and do your best! By performing this exercise, you will benefit even more from the advice given by the speakers.

How to submit? At the time of registration, fellows will be requested to submit the abstract for a poster or an oral presentation in the round tables on the themes of the conference. The abstract should have a maximum of 200 words, with font Times New Roman 12 and no figures.

Who will give oral presentation?
The best abstracts submitted will be selected by a scientific jury and the winners will be invited to give an oral presentation during the MC conference.

ATTENDANCE OF MARIE CURIE FELLOWS:

The Marie Curie Conference is organized by the European Commission and the Research Executive Agency as a training event for Marie Curie Fellows. It is also a means of monitoring the progress of funded Fellows and assess whether they are receiving diverse training. For all these reasons, Marie Curie Fellows are strongly encouraged to attend the meeting.

Check it out: http://designcalls.wordpress.com/

All the best,

Balder