Marie Curie Actions: Inspiring Researchers - Imdea

and-tested methodology also included courses on sustainabletechnologies, barriers to waste management, social factors,technology transfer and best practices.Recycling ideas across EuropeThe seminars brought together young researchers andpostdoctoral Fellows with a common scientifi c interest. Theirbackgrounds ranged from economics to industrial psychologyand technology development, and they hailed from all overEurope, including countries whose waste managementstrategy is still in the early stages of development. The trainingcapitalised on their collected expertise, encouraging them tolook at the same issues from several perspectives.Viviana Cigolotti, a doctoral candidate at the Universityof Naples Federico II in Italy, participated in the seminars.She remarks: ‘The Wise courses were an extraordinaryexperience as it was possible to meet people from all overEurope and beyond. I learned how to work with otherPhD Fellows and after four courses, I feel myself moreEuropean than Italian.’Alexandre Duran-I-Grant, a doctoral candidate from the Universityof Versailles Saint Quentin-en-Yvelines in France, agrees: ‘Thiscourse allowed me to integrate into an international communityand, moreover, to take part in a working team [that was] widelymultinational and multilingual.’A doctoral candidate at the Helsinki University of Technologyin Finland, Maaria Kriistina Wierink particularly appreciated themultidisciplinary nature of the Wise seminars. ‘The participantsand experts came from several fi elds and it gave me a goodoverview of the fi eld of waste management. I managed to makeseveral excellent contacts. I learned a lot of management skills,since it was my fi rst time [being a] team leader,’ she says.Professor Helmut Seifert of Karlsruhe University in Germanywas one of the experts giving the seminar. He explains thethinking behind the initiative: ‘The idea to mix up groupsfrom different disciplines was very helpful in finding new,sometimes even unexpected, wonderful solutions for thegiven problems. I think both the well-harmonised selectionof the participants as well as the very good organisation of thecourse in general were the preconditions for the best resultof the event.’250