Secondments

SECONDMENT PLAN

Each network partner sends his/her ESRs/ERs to other network partners premises, giving fellows the opportunity to complement their training and work with other researchers.
An average of two secondments, lasting typically between 1 and 6 months is considered for each fellow, and all ESRs will go on secondment at an industrial partner (i.e. Bruker, Astra Zeneca, ZoBio, or Giotto).

Through these mutual visits, ESRs and ERs work in different groups and environments and have to cooperate in order to realise their research objectives. These visits are preceded, followed up, and complemented by regular video conferencing and “skype” meetings, so that the ESR/ERs maintain the interactions throughout their whole training period.

Fellows secondments schedule has had to be re-adapted with regards to the initial plan, and organised in collaboration between partners. While secondments are all settled for 2014 and 2015, visits planned for 2016 might however be subject to changes according to individual research projects’ progress.

Secondment at industrial sites

This is a key element of the secondment scheme. All ESRs are required to spend some time at one of the four groups involved in the network belonging to the industrial sector.

These secondments are encouraged for the validation and demonstration of the developed approaches through research on real cases. During their stay at BBIO, Giotto, ZoBio and AZ, the young researchers will be exposed to the challenging environment of industrial R&D. Thus, the plan is for them to gain insight in aspects related to commercialization of scientific results, such as: cost-price calculations, market intelligence, process development and IP issues. This cooperation provides a unique training opportunity for Network students to get involved in joined industrial/commercial research and development programs. Whenever possible, ERs will be involved in training ESRs on site.

Gantt Chart

The updated plan can be seen in the Gantt Chart below.

By the end of December 2015, ALL fellows have been twice on secondment. This ensures their satisfactorily integration in the project, and gives them the opportunity to interact efficiently with Network researchers outside their own team.

Most pNMR fellows have been on secondment over the summer 2014, with a couple of them meeting at the same premises, such as ER1 and ESR1 at the University of Cambridge, ESR3 and ESR4 at the Technische Universität Berlin, ER2 and ESR9 at CNRS.

Initial Secondment Plan, as written in the Grant Agreement Annex I:

Click to enlarge

Version 1.0 -click to enlarge-

Updated Secondment plan :

2015 11 30 Secondments - image v 1.8

version 1.8 November 2015 -click to enlarge-

Fellows are being asked to send a sentence length summary at the end of each of their secondments to the Project Manager.

 

Help for project partners :

Have a look at :
– The project Annex I, page 9

– the FP7 FAQs, under ‘secondments’ : for exemple, click here : ‘What is secondment in ITN’ and there : ‘Secondments costs’.