COST: a career booster!
Analysis of COST Action membership indicates that 42% of Action participants are Young Researchers and Innovators. The networking activities organised through COST Actions are hugely valuable opportunities for young participants to prepare for the next steps in their careers.
COST encourages Younger Researchers to take on leadership roles that can boost self-confidence and motivation. COST also promotes ‘brain circulation’ within Europe, through its highly appreciated Short-Term Scientific Missions, helping Young Researchers and Innovators from all parts of Europe to gain international experience without the need for a permanent move from their home country.
COST is also very conscious of the need to address diversity and inclusion issues, in particular gender balance to ensure equal opportunities for career advancement.
A welcoming community
Ulf Kahlert is currently a Professor of molecular and experimental surgery at Magdeburg University, Germany, but when he first joined the COST Action Cancer nanomedicine – from the bench to the bedside (NANO2CLINIC) he was a young independent group leader at Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf. NANO2CLINIC focused on the potential use of nanomedicines as effective cancer therapies that may offer significant advantages over traditional drugs. The Action aimed to foster collaboration between academia and industry to accelerate the move of nanomedicines from the lab to become available treatments for cancer patients.
“My focus at the time was looking for funding for my work on tumour models, and I was becoming interested in nanomedicine,” explains Ulf. “I joined the first Action meeting in Riga in late 2019 and it was like an adventure. I had little concrete knowledge of nanomedicine at the time, and I was joining a group of experts. But I took the chance and talked to people from the start. I was elected a vice-leader of one of the Action’s Working Groups and was quickly part of the core group.”
Ulf found that many researchers developing nanomedicines did not have links with clinicians. “This was the bridge“ he explains. “They needed clinical predictive cancer models to develop or validate their molecules, so it was relatively easy to connect.” He really appreciated the welcoming atmosphere of the Action and the support of the Action’s Chair Professor Sabrina Pricl of Trieste University. “Sabrina was welcoming from the get-go” he says. “I remember discussions with Sabrina where she advised me on the focus of my research and how to achieve things. She gave me confidence that my path was right.” Sabrina also appreciated Ulf’s input to the Action. “During the Action he grew a lot” she says. “He brought an enormous contribution to the Action. He was a real motor, and his personal expenditure of effort then brought him a significant reward in return.” NANO2CLINIC had a clear focus on Young Researchers and Innovators with four of the Working Group vice leaders being younger researchers and, despite running through the COVID pandemic, organised some 93 Short-Term Scientific Missions and two Training Schools plus weekly hugely popular online seminars in direct response to the pandemic. The Action also looked to have an impact at the regulatory level. “Nanomedicines are new forms of therapy and the route from laboratory to authorisation and clinical use is not straightforward” Sabrina explains. “The idea was to include nanomedicines and nanosimilars in the current review of authorisation procedures of medical products by the European Commission to ensure people know what you have to do.”
The Action proposed amendments to the procedures and regulations and supplied supporting data. The Commission’s proposal for a new directive in the area was published in April 2023 and is currently under consultation with the European Parliament and Council.
International mobility
COST Action European Network on International Student Mobility: Connecting Research and Practice (ENIS) is a large Action with more than 300 members. “It just keeps on growing” says Dr Christof Van Mol of Tilburg University, the Action’s Chair. “We receive new applications to join every week.”
Organising such a large group, while remaining open and transparent could be challenging. “Fortunately, we have a good team of core members who manage the day-today activities and share the burden“ Christof explains.
“The wonderful thing about COST is that it allows you to support so many other people’s careers, which in terms of personal satisfaction is a great feeling”.
Dr Christof Van Mol of Tilburg University
In addition, the Action quickly established clear rules, for example on reimbursement, to ensure opportunities were not limited and to avoid unnecessary friction. The Action also developed a Gender Inclusion Action Plan. “From the very beginning of the Action we noted the persistent gender inequalities in research and also in corporate sectors” says Christof. “We addressed this by making sure all the leadership positions had an equal gender distribution and we also created some Top-up family grants for members with caregiving roles.” The Action started from the observation that there were a lot of people working on international student mobility that were not connected. In particular, there was a lack of engagement between research and practice. To help start building bridges the ENIS developed short policy briefs summarising relevant insights in a specific area and sent these to stakeholders. The Action also sought input from stakeholders on what knowledge they needed. This resulted in a co-creation process that has so far produced five Policy Briefs that are having an immediate impact. “My involvement with COST changed my career quite a bit” concludes Christof. “The wonderful thing about COST is that it allows you to support so many other people’s careers, which in terms of personal satisfaction is a great feeling. This also means that everyone knows me and, indirectly, I get more invites to talk and contribute to papers etc, so this has had a massive impact on my profile.”
Radiating success
Another large research network, Multiscale Irradiation and Chemistry Driven Processes and Related Technologies (MultIChem), brought together some 200 researchers from 39 countries to improve the fundamental understanding of physicochemical processes induced by radiation in various molecular and nano-systems.
The Action Chair is Dr Alexey Verkhovtsev of the MBN Research Center in Frankfurt and although the Action is only roughly halfway through, he already sees three principal accomplishments. “Firstly, we have formed a European community of experts drawing from the many different research fields in this area including radiation physics and chemistry; computational modelling; atomic and molecular physics; biophysics; radiation biology; materials science; and nanotechnology, as well as industrial partners and representatives of radiotherapy centres” he says. “Secondly we have organised a large number of different activities to maintain the right momentum” Alexey continues. “This includes two annual conferences and three Training Schools for Young Researchers. This is an important aspect of the Action: training the next generation of researchers.”
The third achievement is the development of a comprehensive roadmap that provides an overview of this highly interdisciplinary research space. “The roadmap highlights several examples of recent advances in this field and also provides guidelines for the development of the research area for the next five to ten years” says Alexey. The roadmap was authored by a large group of MultIChem participants and was submitted for publication in December 2023. “It is already available as a preprint online and is expected to be published in 2024” continues Alexey.
“The experience has taken me to a different level”
Dr Alexey Verkhovtsev of the MBN Research Center in Frankfurt, Chair of MultIChem
“Chairing the Action has helped me to improve different skills, especially in terms of communication and coordination skills. The experience, together with the constant feedback and advice from more experienced colleagues, has taken me to a different level” concludes Alexey.
