EU and Me
Last week I had the honour to be interviewed by the European Commission by Eleni-Revekka Staiou and Jef Ponsaers for EU and Me, a digital story campaign showing that living in the European Union provides endless opportunities to do what you love – wherever that may lead. EU can help unlock your potential and ignite your inspiration giving you the tools to pursue your passion!
How did EU helped my research as a Chemist?
When i came back to Greece from the US, I received the Marie Curie Fellowship, that helped me setup my lab, hire my first lab staff, produce independent publications, travel to conferences to build up my own research network. I could invite my colleagues from the US, and the fellowship also paid for overheads in my home institute, the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens.
The National Strategic Reference Program co-funded by the EU (ESPA in Greek) awarded more funds to my lab to continue our research (following open call contests).
PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), provided computational time to run our demanding molecular simulations for discovering new drugs (over 45M core hours).
Through European Union’s main funding scheme, Horizon 2020, I am implicated in projects like VI-SEEM, which has built an e-infrastructure platform for Southeastern Europe & Eastern Mediterranean, and also the Human Brain Project through which we work to discover new treatments for brain diseases!
Through awards I won, such as PRACE Ada Lovelace 2016, I could reach out to citizens (and especially girls), get them acquainted with science & tell them how research leads to products that we use in our everyday life.
Finally EU through its many initiatives helped to host & collaborate with many students from across Europe!
To name a few: HPC-Europa3, PRACE Summer of HPC, ESPA, ERASMUS+.
The NEXT STEP? The European Bank for Reconstruction & Development has now signed an agreement to build a new Centre for Personalized Medicine in my home institute, the Biomedical Research Foundation.
All that has led & continues to lead to new candidate drugs that we hope in the future will improve the quality of life for thousands of citizens in the world!
The opportunities are out there for you too – Go grab them!
PS. if you are wondering why I am extending my hand like this in the first picture – this was supposed to be a selfie video 🙂
Posted on August 27, 2018, in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.
Life is Chemistry 
Could reach out to citizens (and especially girls), get them acquainted with science & tell them how research leads to products that we use in our everyday life. I received the Marie Curie Fellowship, which helped me set up my lab, hire my first lab staff, produce independent publications, travel to conferences to build up my own research network. retaining walls
Marie Curie received a Marie Curie Fellowship, which enabled her set up her laboratory and publish her own work. Could reach out to people (particularly females) to introduce them to science and explain how research leads to things that we use in our daily lives.