Marie Curie Actions: Inspiring Researchers - Imdea

The epitomeof excellenceexcellenceMarie Curie, the celebrated physicist and chemist, isthe only person ever to win Nobel Prizes in two differentsciences. This is hardly surprising given that, over herlong career, she coined the term radioactivity and createdthe theory explaining it; she developed techniques forisolating radioactive isotopes and discovered two newelements, polonium and radium. No wonder then thatsome 75 years after her death, she remains a bywordfor scientifi c excellence.And it is this heritage of scientifi c excellence that theEU’s Marie Curie Actions seek to maintain and continue.The programme’s commitment to distinction starts atthe very beginning, in its selection process.The application process for individual Fellows is designedto highlight all the merits of candidates and gauge theirachievements and future potential, as well as the workthey plan to carry out with EU funding. The same istrue for research groups applying for network funding:the Marie Curie Actions’ bottom-up evaluation processselects them on basis of their excellence in their fi eld.The peer review procedure meets the highest levelsof quality by guaranteeing the independence andadequate qualifi cations of the experts. In addition,experts come from all over the world which ensuresthat the peer review process is truly international. TheMarie Curie Actions selection procedure also ensures agood balance of women and men among independentexperts and an adequate representation of both privateand academic sectors.Later on, by ensuring Marie Curie Fellows work at thebest institutions in Europe and beyond and that MarieCurie Networks are made up of top-calibre researchersand organisations, the programme takes on the statusof an excellence multiplier and helps set in motion theripple effect that creates new synergies.305