GREEK CHAPTER ANNUAL REPORT OF ACTIVITIES

Transcription

1 GREEK CHAPTER ANNUAL REPORT OF ACTIVITIES Year of activities: Author of the report: Ioanna Evdokia Galani - Chair of the Greek Chapter Date: TP_ EAC_03_2012

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents... 2 Message of the chair... 3 Membership & Communications... 4 Chapter s activities... 6 Calendar of events Budget Chapter s contribution for MCAA mission

3 MESSAGE OF THE CHAIR As Chair of the Greek Chapter, I am happy to announce that the first year of activities of the Greek Chapter has been completed with great success! The establishment of the Greek Chapter initiated on April 2015, motivated by the initiative of Dr. Angel Medina-Vaya and Francesco Sanna, members of the Events and Network working group at that time. Francesco Sanna assisted in the organization of a get-to-know-us event for the MCAA in Athens, hosted by the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens on April 24 th The event was supported by several local MCAA members myself included and was a big success with great participation that led to the expression of interest by several MSC alumni to get actively involved in the organization. Indeed, the excitement for organizing a local community of MSC alumni soon led to the accepted proposal for the creation of the Greek Chapter in June 2015 ( with 18 MCAA members actively contributing as founding members. Since then, it is fortunate to say that, during the reporting period ( ), the members of the Greek Chapter have reached up to 37, with a steady increase in recruitment after every activity that the Greek Chapter organized or participated. These included presentations of MCAA actions in events organized by Euraxess and the National Contact Point, the Annual Greek Chapter MCAA meeting, as well as participation at the MCAA General Assembly in Venice. These activities allowed the better interaction of the local MCAA community, as well as the dissemination of MSC actions to a broader audience. Moreover, the announcement of a yearly award for the Greek Alumni of the year gave the opportunity to the alumni to present their achievements during the last Chapter year to their MCAA fellows, while further giving a motivation for excellence. With 346 alumni of Greek nationality being currently subscribed at the MCAA portal, our goal for next year is to recruit more members and to further disseminate MSC and MCAA actions! Ioanna Evdokia Galani Chair of the Greek Chapter 3

4 MEMBERSHIP & COMMUNICATIONS During the reporting period ( ), which was also the first year of establishment of the Greek Chapter, we were able to double our members who reached 37, from initially 18 founding members. In detail, these members have a gender and location distribution as follows: GREEK CHAPTER Number of members: 37 The male members of the Greek Chapter apparently exceed the female participants, that include however 4 founding members, as well as the Chair of the Greek Chapter. Among the Greek Chapter Alumni, a significant ~1/3 of the members is residing and working abroad (35%), while the majority is currently located in Greece (65%). It is of interest however that these include 5 members of foreign nationality, who have chosen Greece as host country for their outgoing MSC fellowships. Further statistics on field of interest or type of fellowship was not able to be performed due to incomplete profiles of several of the Chapter s members. The successful recruitment was achieved by initiatives such as: - Events organized by the Greek Chapter, such as our Annual meeting (for details, see section Chapter s Activities). In these events, members of the Greek Chapter, as well as attendants who expressed their interest for MSC actions took part. Of importance, these meetings included excellent presentations by successful MCAA members who have benefited in their careers by MSC actions and are now actively participating in the Greek Chapter. These meetings promoted our activities and arose interest for participating at MCAA and the Greek Chapter. - Presentation of MCAA activities in events organized by Euraxess and the National Contact Point (NCP) (for details, see section Chapter s Activities). In these events, the Chair of the Greek Chapter was invited to give presentations on MCAA actions and the 4

5 local organization of the Alumni in the Greek Chapter. These events were very useful as they advertised MSC actions to a broader audience beyond MCAA members, but also assisted in attracting new members in the Chapter. - By word of mouth among the Alumni in their working environment. Alumni who were not able to attend any of the events organized, were contacted personally by MCAA colleagues and asked to join the Greek Chapter. - Active recruitment during the Annual MCAA General Assembly in Venice. The Annual MCAA General Assembly 2016 was a great opportunity for members of the Greek Chapter to interact with the international community of MCAA, and to meet in person the Board members and the contractor s representatives who greatly assisted in the work of MCAA. More importantly, the General Assembly gave the opportunity for new member recruitment. It is of interest that while 4 active members enrolled to participate at the meeting, 4 new members were recruited during the event. Moreover, by consistently advertising MCAA benefits, such as funding opportunities, e.g. micro grants, offered discounts, available job portal and net-working opportunities, we have not yet had any request from members to unsubscribe from the Chapter. Further, by establishing a yearly award - funded by our yearly budget - to reward scientific or career achievements during the active Chapter year, we give motivations for excellence and for actively participating in the activities of our Chapter. With 334 MSC fellows currently subscribed at the MCAA portal, we anticipate that our steady recruitment of alumni after every dissemination activity will successfully continue over the next period! Statistical data on nationality of the subscribed MCAA members as provided at the MCAA web portal. Greece holds the 6 th place of subscribed users at MCAA with 334 members. 5

6 CHAPTER S ACTIVITIES Chapter management and organization: The MCAA Greek Chapter at the time of the reporting period includes 37 members, of which 18 are founding members and among whom one person was elected Chair. All members of the Chapter are informed about the activities of the Chapter via the official Chapter s webpage ( or if necessary by bulk . The founding members in particular have major contribution in important activities of the Chapter, such as the writing of the Greek Chapter proposal, the set-up of the webpage and the organization of events. The elected Chair is responsible for informing the members for any relevant issues, and for representing the Chapter in MCAA activities. Since our Chapter dates only one-year of existence that largely comprised the recruitment of members and the setting up of the Chapter, we anticipate that the next year will allow us to achieve a higher level of organization. We therefore aim for an internal structure that resembles the MCAA board, including a Chair, Vice-Chairs, Secretary, Treasurer and Ordinary Members. Chapter s activities during the reporting period: Promotional MCAA event held in Athens on April 24 th 2015 and hosted by the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens. The aim of this event, co-organized with members of the Events and Network working group, was to advertise MCAA activities to the Greek Alumni and to motivate local organization. The event was attended by ~50 participants, including MSC fellows, MCAA members as well as future applicants of MSC fellowships. The program included presentations from representatives of the NCP, Euraxess, and the National Patent Office, all greatly received by the audience. Moreover, a poster session with a prize awarded allowed the alumni to better interact and to advertise their scientific work. 6

7 Proposal submission for the establishment of the Greek Chapter on May After the successful initial gathering of the Greek Alumni, 18 members collectively took the initiative of submitting a proposal for the establishment of the local organization of MCAA members with connections to Greece, setting the basis for the establishment of the Greek Chapter. Athens candidacy for hosting MCAA General Assembly On August 2015, Athens submitted its proposal for hosting the MCAA General Assembly The Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens (BRFAA), with its state-of-the-art facilities, was suggested as Venue. The candidacy was warmly supported by the Scientific Director of the Institute, as BRFAA is a research institute that hosts several MSC alumni, as well as the Chair of the Greek Chapter. Athens proposal was overbidded by Venice application, who hosted an excellent event. As the local community greatly supported such an initiative, and as several of the Greek Alumni attended the GA 2016 in Venice, we hope that Greece will be able to host such an event in the future. Presentation of MCAA activities at Euraxess Roadshow Athens. Athens was one of the cities that participated at the Euraxess Roadshow, this pan-european information campaign that aims to help researchers seek careers abroad. The local 7

8 organizers invited the Chair of the Greek Chapter to participate at the event by presenting the local organization of the MSC fellows. The event was advertised at the official MCAA webpage ( as well as the Greek Chapter webpage ( where alumni could also find information on the program and location (held in Greek language). Unfortunately, due to extensive strikes of the public means of transportation, in combination with bad weather on the day of the event, the attendees were limited to about 50, although the expectations were for a much greater audience. MCAA and Greek Chapter as partner organization to the ITN proposal 'P4-Asthma'. In January 2016, the MCAA Board took the decision to support the application of the MSC Initial Training Network of the Horizon 2020 P4-asthma, as partner organization. MCAA agreed to contribute to the Consortium with its specific expertise about net-working and career prospects of early-stage researchers and by advising the Supervisory Board of the project. The Chair of the Greek Chapter agreed to be directly involved in the implementation of all the above activities. Unfortunately, although the proposal received a very high score, it did not reach the threshold for being funded. Nevertheless, due to its excellence, the proposal has the opportunity to be resubmitted next year. We, thus, aim to the continuous support of the MCAA Board to such initiatives that promote science in Greece. Participation at the MCAA General Assembly 2016 in Venice. The MCAA General Assembly 2016 excellently hosted in Venice was warmly supported by Greek fellows. Overall, 12 MCAA members of Greek origin participated at the event. Four members of the Greek Chapter (Greek and non-greek) attended, while during the event 4 new members were recruited at the Chapter. Several more members had expressed their interest to attend the GA, however they were not able to find funding to cover their travel expenses. One great initiative that took place in Venice was to approach MCAA fellows of Greek-Cypriot nationality, who expressed their 8

9 interest in becoming members of the Greek Chapter. As Cyprus does not currently have its own Chapter, we discuss creating a common Greek/Cypriot Chapter for the next year of activities. Members of the Greek Chapter participating at the MCAA GA 2016 in Venice. From left to right: Alexios Tamparopoulos, Alexandros Petropoulos, Charalambos Frantzis, Efstratios Fonias, Ioanna Galani (Chair of the Greek Chapter), Nicolas Das Neves. Presentation of the Greek Chapter in an event organized by the NCP on Marie Sklodowska Curie actions. In March 2016, the Chair of the Greek Chapter was invited to give a presentation on the Greek MSC Alumni organization in an event aiming to inform the general public about funding opportunities under the MSC actions. The event was attended by approximately 100 participants who had the opportunity not only to be informed about the MSC fellowships, but also the continuous benefits that the MSC Alumni have via their participation in the MCAA. The event was held in Greek language, while all the presentations are available online at the official webpage of the NCP ( Annual Greek Chapter meeting. On May 22 nd 2016, the Greek Chapter organized its annual meeting, co-hosted by the National Contact Point, on an event focusing on MSC Actions and their importance in motility and career development of researchers. The list of presentators included Maria Tsivertara, DG for Education and Culture of the EC, who informed the audience about funding opportunities under the MSC Actions of the Horizon2020 program. The event was a great success, attended on-site and by live web-streaming by over 100 attendees. One of its highlights was the panel of MCAA fellows all members of the Greek Chapter that 9

10 presented to the audience how their career was benefited by MSC funding opportunities. The event was held in Greek language, while all the presentations are available online at the official webpage of the NCP ( Highlights from the Annual meeting of the Greek Chapter, co-hosted with the NCP, as transmitted via live web-streaming. On the left, a panoramic view of the auditorium, where the meeting took place, during the presentation of Maria Tsivertara, DG for Education and Culture of the EC (right panel). Final Chapter Report. The present report aims to document the first year of activities of the Greek Chapter. Its role is to inform all members about the activities of the Greek Chapter during the previous reporting year, and to motivate them to participate in the activities of next year. Most importantly, the report aims to inform the EC about the many initiatives the Greek Chapter took during the last year in order to promote MSC and MCAA actions in the Greek scientific community, as well as to a greater audience. Having the excellent experience of the first active year of the Greek Chapter, we hope for a renewal of our funding from the EC, with the scope to assist the implementation of our goals set for the coming year. 10

11 CALENDAR OF EVENTS The table below summarizes all the important events where the Greek Chapter participated during the reporting period: Date Activity 24 April 2015 Promotional MCAA event held in Athens, hosted by the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens. May 2015 Proposal submission for the establishment of the Greek Chapter. August 2015 Athens candidacy for hosting MCAA General Assembly October 2015 Presentation of MCAA and Greek Chapter activities at Euraxess Roadshow Athens. January 2016 MCAA and Greek Chapter as partner organization to the ITN proposal of Horizon 2020 'P4-Asthma'. 4-5 March 2016 Participation at the MCAA General Assembly 2016 in Venice. 15 March 2016 Presentation of the Greek Chapter in an event hosted by the NCP about MSC fellowships. 22 May 2016 Annual Greek Chapter meeting co-organized with the NCP. July 2016 Annual Greek Chapter report. 11

12 BUDGET Funding awarded by the MCAA 1000 EXPENDITURES Promotional material for advertisement of MCAA actions. Expenses covering the events held by the Greek Chapter (Booking of auditorium and catering). Budgeted (as in initial activity plan) Executed Travel expenses refund Greek Alumni of the year Award REVENUES TOTAL OF EXPENDITURES Budgeted (as in initial activity plan) Executed «Description» xxx xxx «Description» xxx xxx «Description» xxx xxx «Description» xxx xxx TOTAL OF INCOMES 0 Add as many rows as needed 12

13 CHAPTER S CONTRIBUTION FOR MCAA MISSION The MCAA Greek Chapter dates only one year of activities; we are proud though to say that it has been a very fruitful year, with the organization and attendance in several events. Most importantly, the Greek Chapter achieved in fulfilling MCAA overall goals, such as: 1. Bring together former and present MSC fellows. With the establishment of the Greek Chapter, the local community of MSC fellows in Greece gained access to an online platform where they could interact and exchange knowledge. This proved to be particularly useful for new MSC members who had questions about their fellowships, and could be offered assistance by former alumni. 2. Promote networking with MCAA international community. The Greek Chapter includes members of non-greek nationality that chose Greece as their host for their outgoing fellowships. The on-line platform gave them the opportunity to interact with their Greek fellows. Moreover, the participation at the MCAA GA 2016, gave the Greek alumni the opportunity to interact with the global MCAA community. 3. Advertise MSC and MCAA actions. During the first year of activities, the Greek Chapter organized and participated in several events that aimed to advertise MSC fellowships and MCAA benefits. Via these activities, a general audience was informed about the motility opportunities that MSC actions offer to fellows, and the continuous support that MCAA offers to the alumni. 13