Action progress: the 3rd grant period has started

News

The 2nd Grant Period of our COST Action ended on the 30th of April. From the 1st of May we are on the 3rd Grant Period (until 30/04/2021).

During the last 12 months TUMIEE has carried out several networking activities: a Training School in Crete (Greece) for ECIs (Early Career Investigators) including 35 PhD students from 14 different countries, a general meeting in Warsaw, and 12 STSMs (Short-Term Scientific Missions) where participants had the opportunity to visit partner’s labs abroad with the aim of fostering collaborations. Unfortunately, 7 STSMs that should have taken place in March-April had to be cancelled due to COVID-19 crisis.

With this new Grant Period, we also have a new WBP (Work and Budget Plan) that has been just approved by the Action Management Committee and by COST Association.

Following the discussions held during the last Management Committee meeting in Warsaw, a few small meetings dedicated to specific topics with specialists of different fields (WGs) are expected to be organised as soon as the restrictions related to the pandemic are eased. In addition, a general meeting is planned to take place during the first months of the next year. Action participants will receive further information about these events in due time.

Apart from those meetings, part of the budget is allocated for new STSMs. A new call will open as soon as possible.

In this Grant Period we will take advantage of a new networking tool: the ITC Conference Grants. These grants provide support for conference participation of PhD students and ECIs (Early Career Investigators) researchers from participating ITCs (Inclusive Target Countries) to attend international science and technology related conferences not specifically organised by the COST Action.

Apart from these networking activities, in this Grant Period , we will publish a book with all the training sessions held during the Training School held in Crete last year. The aim is to contribute to attract researchers to our field by means of this dissemination activity and in addition, make visible for the general public, including industry, the kind of applications related to the high electronic excitation.

All the previous activities are, however, susceptible to be modified based on the development of the situation related to COVID-19.