Students Formula Hungary 2017
The SELECTA members from FINK (Faculty of Engineering, Kragujevac), Prof. Nenad Grujovic and Dr. Fatima Zivic, promoted the project through one of the teams participating in the “Students Formula Hungary (SFH)”. This international competition gathers together students from all over the world who fabricate their own formula car and participate in a formula race. The SFH 2017 took place on 17-20 August in Széchenyi István University Campus area, Hungary. The SELECTA partners supported the first participation of students from FINK to this competition and the logo of the SELECTA project was included on their car. Further information about the event is provided in the following website: https://fshungary.com/ and Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FormulaStudentHungary/
4th Central and Eastern European Conference on Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry
On 31 August 2017, Dr. Natalia Tintaru delivered an oral talk in CEEC-TAC4 (4th Central and Eastern European Conference on Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry) which took place in Chisinau, Moldova. The presentation, entitled: “Investigation of Thermal Stability of Fe-W Alloys Electrodeposited from Glycolate-citrate Plating Bath”, showed the latest research results obtained in a joint collaboration between the SELECTA partners: Vilnius University and Chalmers University of Technology. The main goal of CEEC-TAC is to gather scientists from Central and Eastern Europe to present their work, explain their results and discuss the encountered scientific and technical problems of theoretical and applied thermal sciences. Besides, researchers in the field of thermal analysis and calorimetry from all over the world are invited to share experiences and knowledge with those working in complementary fields or just using thermo-analytical techniques. To get further information on the activities of the conference please check the following link: http://www.ceec-tac.org/conf4/topics.html.
SELECTA Summer School organized by University of Ioannina
The SELECTA Summer School entitled “Gateway to Academics: Materials modelling for target applications” was held on 3-7 September 2017 in Ioannina, Greece. This event, organized by the University of Ioannina, gathered together the fifteen ESRs (Early Stage Researchers) and the senior researchers of the network. The introductory comments were delivered by the meeting organizer (Assoc. Prof. Christina Lekka), the coordinator (Prof. Jordi Sort) and the training manager (Dr. Eva Pellicer). Afterwards, Lotte Jaspers from the Associated Partner YR (Yellow Research) provided the training in soft skills on how to write successful research grants, personal training and career development. The mandatory training of the Summer School was focused on materials modelling and design for target applications and the ESRs also received a practical training in computer modelling to materials science. In turn, the ESRs presented their latest scientific results through a poster session and they got feedback from the senior researchers. During the management session, the Supervisory Board members tackled several management aspects, such as financial details, dissemination of the project, future steps of the network and implementation of the secondments.
Summer School organized by UOI
The next event of the SELECTA network will be the Summer School entitled “Gateway to Academics: Materials modeling for target applications”. This meeting will be organized by UOI (University of Ioannina) and it will take place on 3rd – 7th September in Ioannina, Greece. Scientific and practical training will be provided to the SELECTA ESRs. The training in soft skills will be delivered by YR (Yellow Research). In addition, the ESRs will present the progress of their projects in a poster session and they will have the opportunity to get feedback from the senior members of the network. See below, the agenda of the workshop and the form required to book the rooms at Du Lac Hotel and Congress Center http://www.hoteldulac.gr/. Please, use the following link to pay the registration fees of the event: http://conferre-online-services.eu/congress/selecta2017/registration.aspx.
20 YEARS SUPPORTING RESEARCHERS (MSCA)
On 7 April 2017, the 20 YEARS SUPPORTING RESEARCHERS of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions anniversary was celebrated in the Lithuanian Research Council. The European Commission was represented in this event by the policy officer Dr. Julie Sainz. Prof. Henrikas Cesiulis presented the education and training system implemented within the framework of the SELECTA project. He explained the credits system, the workshops, the training activities and the secondments provided to the PhD students. Afterwards, he answered questions from the audience about the preparation of the Consortium, the recruitment process, the credits system and its acceptance by the different institutions and the role of the EURAXESS portal.
2017 MCAA Conference and General Assembly
Three SELECTA ESRs (early stage researchers), Evangelia Dislaki (UAB), Mónica Fernández (IFW) and Sundararajan Thirumalai (UCAM), participated in the “2017 MCAA Conference and General Assembly” which was held on 24-25 March 2017 in Salamanca, Spain. This event was organized by the University of Salamanca, in cooperation with the MCAA Spain/Portugal Chapter, and the program covered the main areas of interests of the MCAA members in terms of career, networking and societal challenges. The participants also actively contributed in the poster session. Evangelia Dislaki presented a poster entitled: “Growth of sustainable, rare-earth- and noble-metal-free metallic coatings via electrodeposition” and Mónica Fernández presented a poster entitled: “Electrodeposition of manganese layers from aqueous electrolytes”. These two ESRs were also asked to record a brief video to encourage people to apply for Marie Curie actions. Further information about the activities of the event is provided below: “2017 MCAA Conference and General Assembly Program”.
Open Readings 2017
Three SELECTA ESRs, namely Aliona Nicolenco (VU), Antonio Mulone (CHALMERS) and Mónica Fernández (IFW), participated in the “Open Readings 2017” (60th international conference for students of physics and natural sciences) which took place in Vilnius on 14-17 March 2017. This meeting was intended as an international academic platform for young researchers from all over the world to present their ongoing research results in the fields of physics and natural sciences. Each of the three ESRs presented a poster showing their latest results obtained within the framework of the SELECTA network (see below). In addition, they took the opportunity to discuss, learn, share their scientific experience and attend lectures provided by top-class experts of the field such as: John Ellis, Ben Feringa (Nobel prize winner in chemistry 2016), Naomi Halas, etc. To get further details on the activities of the event see below: “Open Readings 2017 program”.
SELECTA Mid-term review meeting and Workshop organized by CHALMERS
The SELECTA Mid-term review meeting and Workshop was held on 5-9 December 2016 in Goteborg, Sweden. All the ESRs and at least one representative of each Beneficiary and Associated partners participated in the meeting. During the Workshop, entitled: “Bridging innovation and entrepreneurship with sustainable materials development”, the ESRs attended several lectures on sustainability, innovation and the EBSD technique. The training in soft skills, provided to the ESRs by Chalmers Ventures, was focused on innovation aspects. In turn, the ESRs presented their latest results and they prepared the presentations for the Project Officer. A lab tour was also scheduled to show the facilities of Chalmers University of Technology.
The Mid-term review meeting started on Thursday at 14:00. After the introduction by the Project Officer, a representative of each of the SELECTA partners presented their institution and their role within the network. Then, the Coordinator, the Training Manager and the Project Manager presented the network and the mid-term report covering scientific, training, networking and management aspects. Subsequently, the SELECTA fellows introduced themselves and presented their project, training activities and results obtained so far. On Friday, the Project Officer met the ESRs altogether in a session to discuss administrative, supervision, training and integration issues. Afterwards, the partners also met the Project Officer to tackle financial and management aspects. Finally, the Project Officer provided her feedback concerning the performance of the network to all the participants.
Mid-Term review meeting and Workshop organized by CHALMERS
The next event of the SELECTA network will be the Mid-term review meeting and Workshop entitled “Bridging innovation and entrepreneurship with sustainable materials development”. The meeting will be organized by CHALMERS and it will be held on December 5th-9th at Gothenburg, Sweeden. The SELECTA ESRs will present their progress and scientific and soft skills training will be provided to them. Besides, during the Mid-term review meeting the overall progress of the project will be presented to the Project Officer and the ESRs will have the opportunity to meet her. In turn, the Project Officer will evaluate and provide feedback concerning the performance of the network. Please take into account that attendance is mandatory for all the SELECTA ESRs and at least one scientist-in-charge from each partner institution. The following link should be used to register and pay the registration fees until November 20th 2016: http://www.chalmers.se/en/sections/conferences/selecta-workshop. Also, see below the agenda of the event and the hotel booking information.
3rd SELECTA Workshop (HP, Austria)
The SELECTA Workshop entitled: “Micro and nano-electrodeposition for MEMS/NEMS and micro/nano-robotic platforms. Overview of lithography methods. Impact to society”, organized by HP was held on 29-31 August 2016 in Wiener Neustadt, Austria. The main goal of the Workshop was to train the ESRs in the following scientific topics: (i) Magneto-electrochemistry, (ii) Sputtering techniques and applications, (iii) Laser induced electrochemistry, (iv) Pulse plating and pulse reverse plating and (v) MEMS/NEMS for biochemical applications. Training in soft skills on writing scientific papers and interpreting referee reports and decision letters was also provided. Importantly, the SELECTA ESRs delivered 20 minutes presentations to show their project progress. After each presentation the members of the network had the opportunity to ask questions and discuss in detail the results and the future plans (20 minutes). During the management session the senior researchers fully discussed the future steps of the project, such as the preparation of the Mid-Term review meeting, the Periodic Report and the implementation of the secondments.
