Staff Exchanges by Health NCPs

The Staff Exchange was organized into four sessions at which Prof. Parker visiting NCP delivered presentations on the EU Framework programme covering the history of research in the EU, South Africa’s experience with the Framework Programme and understanding Health Calls. The participants showed very keen interest in the EU Framework Programme by the many questions they posed. A few persons expressed the view that although they had other exposure to the EU research programme this particular staff exchange provided much clarity on the programme. There was much curiosity regarding partner search and they were referred to the relevant websites. Additionally the participants were encouraged to submit their CVs to be a resource for proposal reviews.

In January 2010, The Chilean and Italian Health NCPs have been taking advantage of the chance offered by the HEALTH-NCP-NET project with its staff exchange programme. A joint agenda was prepared by the 2 NCPs, Caterina Buonocore and Marisol Navarrete, on the basis of the needs expressed by the Conycit NCP and the Chilean researchers' environment. The success of the staff exchange was guaranteed by the professionality of all involved characters; Marisol Navarrete, as main organizer, her Conycit colleagues with whom we discussed the respective working methodologies, and the Managers of the Research offices of the 3 Universities we visited.  The staff exchange created a double opportunity for both Conycit staff and Chilean researchers. The researchers received some information on the characteristics of the Health Theme, its being opened to the participation and funding of ICPCs countries and some tips on how to match with European Scientists for next Health Calls .

Health NCP from Belgium, Katrien Selderslaghs about her Staff Exchange at FFG in Austria: "The exchange started with two very instructive days at the FFG Academy . As an inexperienced NCP, I benefited from the training itself, while at the same time having the opportunity to learn how to organize a successful training. The following days were equally interesting, learning how FFG is organized, how the Austrian NCPs work and how it is to be a coordinator and to prepare a project proposal. The visit from two other foreign NCP’s made the networking aspect even more intensive."