Marie Curie Actions: Inspiring Researchers - Imdea

‘Our programme is founded on the notion of equal opportunitiesregardless of gender (and nationality),’ explains Robert Mochkovitchof the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, the network’s coordinator.‘Some 36 % of our 70 Fellows were women, which is much morethan the proportion of woman astronomers in Europe and the UnitedStates. The majority of our women Fellows came from southernEurope (mainly Italy and Spain).’While it is impossible to detail all the research carried out bythe 70 Fellows, here is a brief taster. In cosmology, EARA-ESTFellows explored the large-scale structure of the universe usingboth observational techniques and numerical simulations to study,among other things, the nature of the mysterious dark matterand dark energy. They also investigated in detail the dynamical,photometric and chemical evolution of galaxies.Research projects on the physics of star and planet formationaddressed different phases of the process from the early evolutionof a proto-planetary disc containing dust and ice particles to theproperties of the proto-star which eventually forms at the centre. Inaddition, the work of Fellows searching for exoplanets – also knownas extra-solar planets – led to the discovery of several new objects.Everyone a starIn addition to access to Europe’s top astronomy facilities, Fellowsalso received training in complementary skills, such as languages,living and working in international environments, software training,project management, and more.‘The Marie Curie programme gave me the possibility toreceive high-level scientific training at a top institute, togetherwith complementary skills, such as research managementand languages, which are important to enhancing one’s jobprospects in the world of modern research,’ recalls ElisabettaMicelotta, a Fellow from Italy.EARA-EST scored some impressive successes. Fellows whotook part in the programme published 93 papers in peer-reviewedjournals, including 61 as lead authors. ‘[EARA-EST] was a challengingexperience that strongly motivated me and it had a remarkableimpact on my PhD thesis, which was also published as a paper andpresented at different international conferences,’ notes SusannaVergani, also from Italy.The nine Fellows on longer fellowships successfully completed ninePhD theses: fi ve on cosmology, three on star and planet formation,and one on exoplanets.The programme helped the young Fellows who took part in itto go on to do further work at an EARA institute or to seed theircareers elsewhere.158