Live from the MCAA Annual Conference (Sunday, March 27th)

Welcome to day 2 of our Annual Conference! You can catch up on yesterday’s jam-packed schedule here, and follow along with today’s updates right here on our live blog and on Twitter following the hashtag #MCAACONF2022.

• ** This live blog is updated on March 27th during the Conference by the Communications Workgroup, you can find their bios and the end of this post. Sessions appear in reverse chronological order***

Closing ceremony

Mostafa Moonir Shawrav, Chair of the Marie Curie Alumni Association since 2020, closed the session with the Closing keynote.

In this session, we were truly honoured to be joined by:
Anna Panagopoulou, European Commission / Director
Themis Christophidou, Director-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, European Commission
Maria da Graça Carvalho, European Parliament / MEP
José Paulo Esperança, Vice President of the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)

Themis Christophidou opened the final session but mentioning of how much things change since the last MCAA in person Conference which took place in Vienna in 2019: “We lived in a different time, there was no Covid-19 and we were not expecting to live in a continent with a war. Nowadays, everything has changed.”

She focussed her talked on the situation which is taking place in Ukraine, and on the importance of science in this highly challenging times.
Moreover, she explained the intense work the EU commission is taking in creating new guidelines on supervising, sustainability and the key role that science communication plays in this time.

Maria da Graça Carvalho take over and discuss about the great opportunity that ERC and the MSCA have created within the last year.
Moreover, she focussed her talk on all the difficulties that researchers had to go through during the pandemic and on how the collaboration with the MCAA has helped in trying to find new solution and support these researchers who were struggling.
She concluded her pitch by underling the importance of diversity and the need to keep fighting for gender equality.

Anna Panagopoulou talked about the work that the EU has done in creating a new framework for researchers’ careers and on how there is the need to create more sustainable working conditions and adequate instruments in support of these careers.
She underlined also the importance of creating new initiatives to attract new talents in EU and the needs to make the universities and the industries to dialogue even more.

José Paulo Esperança closed the final Keynote by underlining the importance of science, policy, mentoring and sustainability. He was happy to have seen all these topics covered during the Conference and he underlined on the importance to keep working on innovation & research.
He described all the struggled caused by the pandemic, but he also underlined on how the pandemic fostered the interaction between researchers, scientists, academics & business people, highlighting the need of keep working for the same objectives.

Mostafa decided to close the conference with a special mention to to the Ukrainian situation and stating that the MCAA will always try to support as much as possible.

He then thanks all the participants, volunteers, session organisers, editors, speakers, sponsors for making the MCAAConf2022 another successful event.

He finally invited all the MCAA members to join the General Assembly that will take place this afternoon.

In this section, you will read the Live blogging of the Second 4 parallel sessions.

Parallel Session 13 —Creating Research Environments that foster Mental Wellbeing
Parallel Session 14 —How to be an entrepreneurial researcher
Parallel Session 15 — Science Diplomacy for Sustainable Development
Parallel Session 16 — Support Ukraine Now: Urgent Needs and Proactive Responses

Parallel Session 13 — Creating Research Environments that foster Mental Wellbeing

Moderator: Mayya Sundukova: Open Life Science / Mentor and Facilitator
Fundación Biofísica Bizkaia (FBB)
Brian Cahill: Information Centre for Science and Technology (TIB Leibniz) / Scientific Employee
Gabor Kismihok: MCAA/Information Centre for Science and Technology (TIB Leibniz)
Darragh McCashin: Dublin City University / Assistant Professor in Psychology
Janet Metcalfe: Principal, Vitae (https://www.vitae.ac.uk/)

Janet Metcalfe: Covid-19 restrictions have a significant negative impact on the researcher’s mental health and wellbeing. Quite shocking!
Researchers are doing the job they are passionate about and choose to do. Then, why it Is impacting? Why is mental health and wellbeing so poor in academia? The drivers of research integrity have a negative impact on mental health and wellbeing,
If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. To start being the solution, do not ask which journals are they publishing but What they publish.
Researchers must take positive action towards maintaining their wellbeing and mental health.

Open dialogue helps to get rid of imposter syndrome.
Finding a Safe place often release that pressure out of you.
look after yourself and see what makes you happy and healthy

Darragh McCashin: Think about what I can do to bring a change in research culture. Empathy vs Sympathy. Sympathy is tokenistic, and empathy is to put ourselves in their shoes.

Brian Cahill: To reduce stress during doctoral education, students need to be
aware of the criteria required to graduate. Often doctoral students’ stress comes from the lack of these criteria. If the PI/institute engage in the conversation from the early times, stress can be avoided.

Gabor Kismihok: Stressors do not always come from work. Have an open dialogue and find the reasons for stress: research environment, family problems, work-life balance .. ? Doctoral research is about establishing yourself out to the public. You need to perform. Have an open dialogue and find ways to deal with the stress. If you are not engaging in an open conversation, it is difficult to solve the problem.

Open dialogue and offload your stress.
Completing the PhD in three years is almost a Mission Impossible task. Engage in open dialogue with PI and have early interventions to the problems you may have in supervisor-supervisee relationship, doctoral education progress, and graduation.

Parallel Session 14 — How to be an entrepreneurial researcher

Roberto Merino Martinez is an assistant professor at Delft University of
Technology
Mathew Tata is the Engagement and Policy Project Manager at Vitae
Mario Roccaro is the Programme Manager Education at EIT Food
Marco Masia is the technology transfer manager at University of Vienna and he is moderating the session.

Marco begins the session introducing himself and with an important question — Why there is so much talk about entrepreneurial researchers?
Mathew Tata introduces himself and VITAE. He talks about what vitae offers to budding entrepreneurial researchers.
He then talks about distinct aspects of research and development framework be it engagement, knowledge, research and person effectiveness. Also talks about different lenses in research such as such as employability, engineering, etc. He talks about importance of seeking new challenges and taking risks in order to achieve a safe environment for researchers.

Marco poses same question to Roberto and Mario.
Roberto first introduces himself and focuses on his experience of combining
academia and industry. His work is mostly on acoustics. In his opinion, academia gives you the flexibility of research while industry provides you with more challenges and also talks about real goals in terms of products.
Mario starts with his introduction. He works for European innovation and
technology’s food department. They also support start ups as well. It works on the crisis we are facing at the moment. There is a huge demand for finding solutions for the planet and how food, health and climate change are 3 big challenges for the this era.

He tells about the why should people apply for Innovator fellowships and its
benefits. There is an impending call until 31st May 2022. Then, he talks about
framework of EIT and its food sector.

Marco questions the speakers about entrepreneurial competencies.
Mathew says entrepreneurship seems like a fancy word while enterprising is a
more familiar term. It is a nice starting point for it. The term entrepreneurial
competencies includes crystallizing the idea into something practical to help the world.

Speakers talk about how times are changing and how having these entrepreneurial competencies can also help researchers finding a job.
Roberto adds that it’s because the world is changing, you need to understand the requirement for the world along with being a researcher and academia should start informing its researchers how to find jobs and what skills are needed for it.

Next question Marco asks is that this is what are the entrepreneurship skills but how can researchers acquire it.
Mario jokes that by attending such presentations. He tell the audience to reflect on your values what you want to achieve as a researcher, why is it important to you, and why is it important to the society. These basic questions come first and are a good starting point.
Mathew agrees with Roberto. He talks about how training program is becoming more prevalent in the universities these days and helping researchers hone those skills. He gives an example of university of Glasgow and how it teaches the knowledge about start-up. Moreover, these days, there are intersectional PhDs or postdoc or internships which provide opportunities for researchers to dip their toes into the metaphorical water of entrepreneurship.
Mario adds that multi-disciplinarily is another important factor that’s driver for it and and open yourself to network, embracing the fear of unknown.
Roberto also adds that the problem is more fundamental. The most important thing is that academia is focused on publications, but importance of products as final goals is lacking but agrees that it is changing with intersectional Phds. Taking some courses in business while studying to acquaint yourself with it. Adds that bringing industry and academia together can create more impact.

Marco asks Mathew how Glasgow achieved that success, was it by improving the course curriculum or any other way.
Mathew begins with an example saying that University of Strathclyde is focused on holistic culture from beginning for all. It is very effective. Courses like 5-day courses are highly encouraged. Its not the case in most parts of the world.
Researchers and their PI can be very narrow minded in those terms. They don’t want to take up anything outside their comfort zones.

Question for Roberto was — Delft is one of the largest incubators, so what is the differences he has seen in Netherlands and Spain.
Roberto responds that Delft does have a nice incubator and gives you nice funding and space which is obviously a great idea. Coming to how does it compare to Spain — In Spain, raising funding is very difficult, bureaucracy makes your life miserable and sort of kills your spirit. In Netherlands, they have research ministry, they have grants for researchers if they think the research has some potential. Having this support really helps.
Mario adds that there are differences in Europe but we have same problems
everywhere. Delft and Glasgow have had long term tradition and have been of
promoting entrepreneurship. However, in general better solutions are needed
across Europe to help the researchers.

The floor was opened to questions from audience.
Q1 How fellowships such as innovator fellowships help researchers take risks?
To be an entrepreneur from researcher stage, you need to make small steps in the beginning and see if it is something you really want to do. When you are ready to take the leap, these fellowships are a good platform.

Q2 How different is the process defining for socially oriented entrepreneurship?
Innovator fellowships is promoted using venture capitals, so these
fellowships are already very helpful in abridging academia and industry. It is
important to start articulating the idea of leaving the academia sector and realize that it is not only about getting rich.
A good starting point for this is to start with the teacher and the student as a
preparatory aspect to link and start as early as possible

Roberto mentions that the education system in the southern countries are based on bookish knowledge while in the north its more about group projects and presentations and that helps them develop and is the reason for financial disparity between north and south. So, implementing changes in curriculum as early as possible is great deal.

Q3 — (a) You mentioned entrepreneur and enterprising and you mentioned that we need to do enterprising but how can you be entrepreneur in academia. What challenges you face?
(b) While talking about economic activities of entrepreneurship, so would research institutes be the right path for researchers to start in entrepreneurship? What challenges can you expect to face and you did face?
University would need to do more or take a part of research which can be
turned into an industry and they should help it, because it will be be profitable at the same time for them as well to bring in the money.
Research institutes are in best position for entrepreneurship since there are no
teaching responsibilities but the negligence is on any sort of addition courses or training activities. They should train the students on some special courses and workshops.
Mathew adds that there should be equality in research to give opportunities to all researchers irrespective of the geography.
Roberto commented to challenges he faced were such as scheduling — managing time for both industry and academia as you may end up overloading yourself. There are in general no major challenges, but they are different sectors and have different ways of working.

Q4 — What should a researcher do to be an entrepreneur?
First step has to come from you which is to come out of your comfort zone.
Next, your network is very important for that as they can tell you the need of the hour and how can you translate your research to entrepreneurial idea. Networking is the key.

Q5 — How do you compensate for the loss of time when you make the decision to
switch to industry after research when doing both at the same time.
There is a psychological pressure about publishing in research, so you need
to learn to say no and when to say no and, know how to manage your time. But it can a price worth paying.

How you deal with failures and what’s the plan B if plan A doesn’t work (if
there’s a plan B)?
Things are changing, and pandemic has allowed given people options to take
risks. However, it’s the experience that counts, which is yours be it positive or
negative. Follow the same philosophy of research which is try and try. Having a plan B ready can provide a nice cushion in case of failure and what is plan B would depend on the individual.

Parallel Session 15 — Science Diplomacy for Sustainable Development

The moderator of the session is Mostafa Moonir Shawrav — Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA) / Chair
Julia MacKenzie — American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) / Chief Program Officer
She received her Ph.D. in the field of Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis in the USA. She is currently the Chief Officer for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS),
where she provides her expertise and knowledge to numerous programs such as Science and Technology Policy Fellowships, Dialogue on Science, Ethics, & Religion, the Center for Science Diplomacy, and SciLine. She previously acted as the Director of the AAAS Center for Science Diplomacy. This role allowed her to bridge the gap between scientists and diplomats, and to include
the scientific voice in decision-making foreign policies.

The importance of Science Diplomacy:
For her, it is necessary to enhance the interaction between science journalists and researchers and to establish a bidirectional dialogue and engagement with scientists that have extended skillsets.

Sir Peter Gluckman — International Science Council / President
Sir Peter Gluckman is a pediatrician and biomedical scientist and has published more than 700 academic papers and books. He is currently the President of the International Science Council and has received scientific honors in New Zealand.

The importance of Science Diplomacy:
How to understand a risk assessment and tackle major issues in the global agenda. It is important to develop new approaches to progress and solve sustainability agenda problems. There is still a big problem, science is not being taken into account during policy-making decisions.

Melody Brown Burkins — Dartmouth / Director, Institute of Arctic Studies
Melody Brown Burkins is the Director of the Institute of Arctic Studies and Adjunct Professor of the Environmental Studies at Dartmouth. She has extensive knowledge in arctic studies and experiential education. As a science diplomat, she strengthens the cooperation with and inclusion with other
members. She brings in diverse voices, people who have certain knowledge, different cultures, underrepresented groups,

The importance of Science Diplomacy:
Science Diplomacy needs young people to engage in global challenges. The voice of youth is required! For this reason, the ISC has implemented an academy to open careers and pathways to reach out to young people and bring in that fresh way of thinking.

Questions from the audience:
1) The ISC observations regarding the problems of public uptake of risk assessments and urgent advice are cogent, and the proposed solutions of transdisciplinary inclusive approaches are wise. However, they have been formulated and promoted over and over again since the 1980s. Is there any hope for significant progress?

Sir Peter Gluckman: It is critical to negotiate with other stakeholders, engage with communities around the world and understand how research is funded. Even though the words have been around for a long time, it is quite threatening how research is currently been conducted.

Melody Brown Burkins: We need to focus on knowledge coproduction. Critical point is to bring together the social communities with the natural scientists.

2) How Science Diplomacy is helping global sustainability goals (SDGs)? Per se what are must/should do things to identify or answer the differences we all have. Ex. Technologically rich vs poor countries, medically (vaccine) rich/ poor, and private vs government organizations lead research.
Melody Brown Burkins: We need to make sure that scientists are aware of and implement the SDGs. The incentives to connect to them. In this case, the US needs to do more on that; thus, investing in research for sustainable goals is the key.

3) How can the institutions contribute to the SDGs?
Julia MacKenzie: The AAAS embeds scientists within the federal government, particularly in the executive branch. Such a practical program provides an immersive experience for researchers.

Parallel Session 16 — Support Ukraine Now: Urgent Needs and Proactive Responses

The session was chaired by Valentyna Romanova (Member of Japanese Association of Ukrainian Studies and Japanese Association of Russian and East European Studies) and co-organised by Oleksandra Ivashchenko (the Leiden University Medical Center / The Netherlands Cancer Institute — imaging physics resident in Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Ukrainian outreach Coordinator of the ScienceForUkraine; Editorial board member of the MCAA) and Pavlo Bazilinskyy (Eindhoven University of Technology / Assistant professor; team leader of the Project that arranges direct help for volunteers in Chernihiv).

The session addressed three objectives:

1. Reinforce the MCAA’s public statements and highlight the MCAA’s contributions
2. Articulate scholars’ needs due to Russia’s full-scale invasion
3. Call for individual and joint actions to help scholars affected by Russia’s war against Ukraine

Igor Taranov, Director General of the Directorate of Science and Innovation of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine:

• More than 500 educational institutions are damaged or destroyed
• Among those institutions were: Pryazovskyi State Technical University, Sumy State University, V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, nuclear subcritical facility “Neutron Source Based on Subcritical Assembly Driven by Linear Electron Accelerator”, which is based at the National Scientific Center “Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology” have been damaged
• The occupiers also launched a missile strike on “ANTONOV COMPANY”, an aircraft factory in Kyiv and destroyed industrial enterprises in Shostka, Sumy Region
• They had 21 collective use centres with unique scientific equipment, but six of them are located in active hostilities areas
• They do not know the future of these centres and how many will exist after the war
• They do not think about a one-way ticket but also about rebuilding the country and the economy, and about mobility programmes for scholars
• Several science and innovation challenges are already identified including: (I) Loss of life among employees of higher education, scientific institutions and innovative enterprises, (II) National grant programs of the National Research Foundation of Ukraine halted due to budget sequestration, (III) Inability to conduct scientific and scientific-technical expertise, (IV) No conditions for preparing applications for international science and innovation support programmes
• Over 78k scientists and innovators represent the target group that requires support such as: (I) Special academic mobility programmes for internally displaced researchers from Ukraine, (II) Grant support for virtual mobility, (III) Establishing special offices to support Ukrainian researchers and assist in preparing applications for international programmes to support science and innovation

Prof Olena Bazilinska, National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”

• Shared her story as a researcher in Kyiv and presented her experience and family history
• Staff, students, professors across the country need support
• A big majority of the academic staff are 50+ years old and do not know English for professional use
• Students are looking for ways to continue their education
• She works at the Ukrainian Free University in Munich, Germany, as a guest professor while also helping researchers and staff who left the country temporarily
• She encouraged the creation of similar facilities

Yevheniia Polishchuk, Vice-head of the Young Scientists Councils at the Ministry of Education and Science in Ukraine

• The Young Scientists Councils at the Ministry of Education and Science in Ukraine is an advisory body established to promote the realisation of the constitutional rights of young scientists to participate in the formation and implementation of the state policy in the field of scientific, scientific-technical and innovative activities.
• The current situation in Ukraine is that 3 million refugees have left the country, more than 6300 academic refugees among those who left, everything in terms of studies is frozen and PhD studies are suspended.
• Policies should be targeted per category of type of scholars such as: (I) those who are staying in Ukraine, (II) those who left Ukraine after 24/02/2022, (III) those who had left Ukraine before 24/02/2022, (IV) those who left on occupied territories, (V) Other types
• Near 40 applications went through Young Scientist Council
• Types of existing assistance at academy society: support Ukraine by universities/NAs/labs statements on their official web-pages; shelter and hosting; individual scholarships; psychological support; legal support; humanitarian

Valeriia Ahlborn, Ph.D. Student at the University of Muenster

• “Am I also responsible for the war in Ukraine and that I did not want it?” This was the question Valeriia started her talk with
• For her, the responsibility does not mean sadness and guilt, but also, taking actions
• Her main message was to let science bridge the cultures

“Human society needs intellectual freedom, freedom to receive and to give information, freedom to discuss it without fear and prejudice, freedom from authorities and bias”. Andrei Sakharov, 1975 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, activist for nuclear disarmament and human rights.

What kind of support and how someone can support Ukrainian scientists and scholars

In this section, you will read the Live blogging of the First 4 parallel sessions.

Parallel Session 9 — Transitioning from Research to Careers in Policy Advice
Parallel Session 10 — Industry or Academia: That is the Question
Parallel Session 11 — After the MSCA fellowship — What Next?
Parallel Session 12 — Purpose-driven entrepreneurship through a global lens

Parallel Session 9 — Transitioning from Research to Careers in Policy Advice

Brian Cahill — Information Centre for Science and Technology (TIB Leibniz) / Scientific Employee

The session started with an introduction to the career paths of the speakers. Interestingly, none of the speakers planned to work in the policy field, it happened so, and also, their careers were not straightforward nor linear.

Lorenzo Melchor — The Joint Research Centre (JRC), European Commission / Policy Analyst

Lorenzo Melchor completed his Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology in Spain. At that time, he was very interested in doing a Postdoc abroad, but he also knew he wanted to do something outside academia. While doing his Postdoc he came across an interesting job advertisement from the Spanish
government, as they required a Science Coordinator at the Spanish Embassy in London. He applied for that job and eventually was selected. It was here where he realized how much he enjoyed managing people, events, planning, and representing the scientific community.
As a policy analyst, he has become a specialist in designing diverse approaches to bring scientific knowledge and public policies together. More recently, he was involved in the creation and development of the S4D4C consortium for Science Diplomacy, where his mission was to build
individual capacity and create training programs.

What advice would you give to a scientific researcher who wants to transition into policy advice?
It is critical to know yourself, get involved in platforms such as MCAA, and network with people who work in this field!

Karen Stroobants — Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA) / Board Member
Karen Stroobants obtained her Ph.D. in Chemistry in Belgium. She is currently a lead policy advisor and consultant who focuses on research policy and strategy. Throughout her career, she has taken as many opportunities as possible to move into roles that are involve policy-making. For instance, she
was an intern at the Royal Society of Chemistry in the UK, participated in the Euroscience Open Forum, represented students at university councils, and got involved in the MCAA Policy Group. It is through volunteering, where she has learned many skills that are required for policy and strategic direction.

What advice would you give to a scientific researcher who wants to transition into policy advice?
She emphasized looking beyond the academic environment by developing soft skills such as active listening, communication, empathy, leadership, and people management. In this way, new pathways will open and you will be able to establish new and beneficial relationships. Furthermore, always do
things that stick to your values!

Ornela Bardhi — Ministry of Health and Social Protection Albania | MCAA West-Balkans / Science Advisor | Chair
Sara Ricardo — SIRIS Academic / Consultant
Sara Ricardo completed her Ph.D. in Developmental Biology in the UK. As a scientist, she focused on cell biology models and worked as a principal investigator. She previously worked in a healthcare company that employed AI to diagnose and treat neurological disorders. As a consultant, Sara interacts with stakeholders across different fields. She often works with public
institutions and brings in the critical point of view from the researchers and the consultants.
Moreover, she also provides the necessary tools and training materials to make the right decisions.

What advice would you give to a scientific researcher who wants to transition into policy advice?
It is important to explore the big scientific picture and find out how to tackle bigger challenges. What can I do to make the system work better?

Question from the audience:
What is the benefit of making a Ph.D.?
Sara: She does not think completing a Ph.D. is necessary. Still, it is important to develop a certain scientific training to develop critical thinking and communicate with other stakeholders.
Karen: A Ph.D. gives you the tools to understand the research and translate specific information to other audiences.
Ornela: Completing her academic degree in Engineering allowed her to develop a particular skill set that proved to be successful in a later professional stage.
Lorenzo: The Ph.D. gives you a lot of skills such as troubleshooting, defending your opinions, and critical thinking.

Parallel Session 10 — Industry or Academia: That is the Question

Moderator: Murat Gunes: MCAA
Panelists:
Mayya Sundukova: Open Life Science / Mentor and Facilitator
Anna Muro: Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB)

Mayya Sundukova: We are not alone in this landscape of dilemma between
whether to stay in academia or industry. Look for people with whom you are
comfortable in sharing and exchange hopes, dreams, ideas to make the right choice for you.
Tips for crossing between academia and industry:

- Re-author the journey
- Research the other side
- Connect with others
- Scaffolding and not burning the bridges
- Self-check and self-care.

Leaving academia for the industry is not to be seen as a failure. It is our life and passion, and feel free to explore all the possibilities.

Anna Muro: We need to have transferrable skills to excel in a profession, whether academia or industry. There are a lot of transferrable skills in academia, but the industry needs very less. Know really what your employer wants. Not only the company choose you, but you will also select the company. Understand the values, passion, and personality that have to fit each other. Discover yourself. Research yourself. Do not underestimate yourself. You are valuable for society, for yourself.

Other points: While pondering choosing the right place, think about your values and how you want to contribute to society, whether that place offers you that possibility.

Parallel Session 11 — After the MSCA fellowship — What Next?

This session was moderated by Emily Peppers, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow and an Assistant Professor at the University of Warsaw.

The aim of this session was to highlight the challenges and how to deal with them in finding a job after a MSCA fellowship in academia and industry.

The first speaker was CRISTINA BLANCO SÍO-LÓPEZ, who is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Senior Global Fellow and Principal investigator at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. She began her talk underlying the importance of being in the present moment. She then quoted:

“Re-learning self-compassion is key to move forward after the COVID-19 pandemic. We need a collective time of pausing for a little moment, of breathing, of being in the now”.

She then highlighted the key principle to have a successful career: to understand what kind of person you would like to become.

She also pointed out that to unveil the individual’s potential is essential to recognize which the “doors” and the “traps” are. She also gave some examples of traps -like, for example, the impossibility to negotiate the salary for women- that should be transformed in doors.

Cristina then recommended some networking platforms where to find job and collaboration opportunities.

As the final note of her speech, Cristina quoted Mark Twain.

The second speaker was JOAQUÍN CAPABLO SESÉ, who is the R&D Project Manager (EU Marie Curie) at Campus of International Excellence of the Ebro Valley.

Joaquín agreed with Cristina about the necessity of continuous improvement to be a successful researcher. He brought his excellent first-hand experience between academia and industry highlighting how the diversification of skills you can learn from both the sectors is a pro and it allows a mutual understanding among different professional groups.

He also highlighted the key factors to get a successful life after the MSCA fellowship.

Another successful story of the transition from academia to industry has been told by BALA ATTILI, who is the Associate Director at AstraZeneca and has got the MCAA Career Award this year.

As Cristina did, Bala highlighted the importance of identity in research. Essential is to understand how to be successful as an individual with your own skills and dreams. He then explained that learning soft skills, like communication, is crucial for a brilliant career in academia as well as in industry.

At the end of his presentation, he highlighted the steps to take after a MSCA fellowship.

Emily Peppers moderated a very vivid and inspiring Q&A session. To conclude the session, Emily asked the panellists to answer the question: “What advice would you give to your past-self?”. Bala suggested to see things in a positive way and highlighted the importance of networking as something that made a difference in his life. Joaquin then underlined the importance of being curious and keep learning because skills are essential to be successful. Finally, Cristina recommended seeing difficulties and challenges as an opportunity to become stronger. Indeed, they make you who you are. She also said that there is always a way to transform all the barriers in steps!

Parallel Session 12 — Purpose-driven entrepreneurship through a global lens

Anna Clark is moderating the session, and the panelists of the session are:
Anca del Río is an Alumni President at European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).
Selene Tondini is a Board Member at EIT Climate and a KIC Alumni. She is an environmental scientist.
Cristina Aleixendri is the COO & Co-founder of bound4blue.

Entrepreneurship is about taking the ideas and bringing them into the market but why do we need a purpose-driven approach?
Anca begins saying that Entrepreneurship is also filled with challenges. One of them is MTP (massively transformative purpose), these are the tools to change the world.

The moderator asks if you are driven with purpose, you can build something but why do we have to think about purpose driven?
Anca responds to the question that as an entrepreneur you focus your energy in finding solutions. If you are driven with purpose driven even though you live difficult situation (e.g. pandemic) you will be resilient and will try to find solutions to help the community with innovative solutions.
She gives an example (chuckles saying that it’s a bad one) about the metaverse. Living in the metaverse just because it is there, is not really a solution when most of the people are dealing with mental health in the real world. So, in this case we are certainly dealing with an interesting innovation, but it might be not all positive when we think about what is going on in the world — the Covid pandemic. Nonetheless, it is an example of purpose driven entrepreneurship

Selene adds her thoughts saying that there still is hope. The only thing missing is policies to monetize social and environmental impacts in order to make this topic more relevant and important (not that it isn’t already).

Cristina talks about the question she received from the moderator on how she is thriving in a male dominated industry and inspiring new women. She talks about her work on fuel efficiency. She says that people have to be driven by purpose and solving the problems with technology. It drives the whole organization in creating a real impact and at the same time you can be a role model for the other people.
For example — People are driven by climate change and they are doing everything possible that they can come together to work towards that goal.
We can see the change as these days people leave the companies if their ideas don’t align and if the companies are not making a difference in the world.

Ana talks about how can you balance purpose driven and profit driven?
She says that things are changing with more driven people involved in the workforce. All the stakeholders must work together in order to achieve these goals.
Cristina adds her ideas to it stating that having the best technology (specially as researchers) is not enough anymore, you need to go together with everyone in a business to achieve your goals.

Selene talks about carbon emissions and her current job in wastewater treatment and her work. She reiterates that industry, policy makers and academia must all work together to bring success to their ideas including changing the mindset. She tells that to create and actually see the change
is major part of her everyday job. She also talks about the upcoming framework Citizen science where scientists/industries can co-create projects with citizens and do data collection with them and create products with them. Big changes are expected through this. The big part of this is involving/engaging people and catering to their needs and involving them with industry and academia.

Moderator asks if there are any problems when ideology of citizens is not aligned with yours? Is that problematic?
Selene answers that it is difficult, since they are individuals. At the same time, it is important to take that part into consideration and treat them like that (as an individual) and from this part and you decide on making the required changes. Addition of society in this pre-existing scheme of triple helix is relatively new but a step in the right direction.
Even though business is considered an entity, but what we overlook most of the time is people are what makes company and they are people from the society, so in reality society has always been involved.

Anca responds to the question about stakeholder engagement. She mentions that recently, there has been conscious effort to bring different people to same table e.g. in the healthcare industry saying that the ideas should come from bedside (depending on the needs) to the lab and go back to the bedside. Inclusivity has become a buzzword in these times. She also says that it is becoming imperative for researchers to gain some knowledge in business
to bring your ideas to the world because we are all potential patients at some point (reiterating to the healthcare example). If we design solutions to a problem in business, you need to create a user persona because the
eventual goal is to make a financial gain. At the same time — inclusivity, diversity are important to make that goal come true. So, you need to take the right steps to achieve the goal and involve all the people to make it come true.

Christina adds that the people in society want better future for themselves, their kids so it is important align the goals towards the mutual goals. Eg IKEA is doing really good job to improve sustainability.

Anca asks Selene what’s her take on possibility of solving STG’s (Sustainable technology goals) with purpose-driven entrepreneurship.
She responds saying: “For sure it’s difficult because without businesses that are trying really hard to shift mindsets and bring breakthroughs in technology, it would be impossible.”
She adds that Return on Investments (ROI) on social and environment impact is major driver towards this goal.
Anca says this sort of entrepreneurship is only way to tackle the problems specially in the light of pest events when importance of epidemiology was showcased during the pandemic along with the lack of epidemiologists at the same time. She supports Selene’s statement regarding collaboration between industry academia and policy making.

Anna concludes with saying it is important to think long term with vision.

Meet the live-blog team:

Ruben Riosa is a Medical Communications Manager, and is the Chair of the Communication Working Group of the Marie Curie Alumni Association.[Twitter]

Nicoleta Spînu is a Postdoctoral Research, and is the Vice-chair of the Communication Working Group of the Marie Curie Alumni Association.
[Twitter]

Ashish Avasthi is an early stage researcher at Bionand in Malaga, Spain. He is a volunteer in different groups of Marie Curie Alumni Association including the Communication Working Group. He likes to distribute his time among his varied interests of science, sports, and writing.
[Twitter]

Maria Montefinese is a Lead Researcher at the IRCCS San Camillo Hospital, Venice (Italy) and a collaborator of the Communication Working Group of the Maria Curie Alumni Association.
[Twitter]

Pradeep Eranti is a PhD student at the Université de Paris (France) and an Early Stage Researcher of the Machine Learning Frontiers in Precision Medicine (MLFPM-MSCA-ITN). He is an active volunteer of the Communication Working Group in the Marie Curie Alumni Association.
[Twitter]

Arturo Castro Nava completed his Ph.D. in Natural Sciences at the DWI — Leibniz-Institut für Interaktive Materialien (Germany) within the MSCA-ITN BIOGEL. He enjoys working with international teams, volunteering, and practicing Qigong.
[Twitter]