51±¾É« will this year welcome four new Marie SkÅ‚odowska-Curie Fellows.
It comes as UL was the joint second best performing university in Ireland for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) individual fellowship awards and the best performing Irish university for COFUND awards in 2019.
Two of the fellowships will be based in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and two others in the Faculty of Education and Health sciences.
Marie Curie Fellowships have been awarded to:
- Dr Sergi Morales, who will study the ethical and political issues faced by linguistically diverse societies with Dr Andrew Shorten, Department of Politics and Public Administration. Dr Morales completed his PhD and postdoc in Philosophy at KU Leuven. Dr Morales achieved a score of 100% for his project, one of only three to do so in the social sciences across Europe
- Dr Piotr Godzisz will join the Hate and Hostility Research Group to work on the diffusion of international hate crime norms in EU accession states. He will work with Dr Amanda Haynes (Sociology) and Dr Jennifer Schweppe (Law). Dr Godzisz completed his PhD in Criminology at University College London and will join UL from Birmingham City University​
- Dr Dino Carpentras will study the spread of opinions related to vaccine hesitancy using mathematical and computational modelling. Dr Carpentras completed his PhD in Photonics and postdoc at EPFL Lausanne. He will work with Dr Mike Quayle in the Department of Psychology and Prof James Gleeson, Dept of Maths and Statistics
- Dr Lucia Mundo will research the Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) and its role in EBV-driven cancers. Dr Mundo completed her PhD and postdoc in medical biotechnology at the University of Siena and will work with Prof Paul Murray at the Health Research Institute, UL
The quality of the candidates applying to work at the 51±¾É« is evidenced in their success rate, where 47% of the 51±¾É« proposals received a score of 90% or higher.
UL Vice President for Research Professor Norelee Kennedy said the awards are “prestigious, highly competitive fellowships that bring international scholars to UL and reflect the calibre of the fellows, supervisors, projects and UL as an institution to host themâ€.
This year, all candidates are external to UL and had availed of bursaries to visit the University and undertake the masterclass programme, which will again take place in June 2020. UL was the first Irish university to hold a Marie Curie masterclass, with 13 travel bursaries awarded to international applicants across all disciplines.
Sharone O’Loughlin, Research Support Services, UL, explained: “We held a Masterclass with travel bursaries in order to attract more external candidates for this call. In addition there was a week long preparation programme organised for Education and Health Science researchers by Dr Orla Power Grant. This joint effort worked out well.â€
“These training days focus on proposal preparation for the 2020 Marie SkÅ‚odowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (MSCA-IF) call. In 2019, our Masterclass welcomed talented applicants from across the world and their 51±¾É« supervisors. With four awards confirmed and another four candidates on the reserve list, this 23% success rate compares to a 10% success rate for the programme in general,†she added.
The two-day Masterclass is open to eligible applicants who plan to submit a proposal for the 2020 MCSA Individual Fellowship call with UL as their future host institution and who have the support of a UL supervisor. Researchers currently working at UL who want to apply for a Global Fellowship are also welcome.
The University, up to specified limits, will reimburse attendees’ travel and accommodation costs from June 9-10 (maximum 2 nights). The deadline for applications to the Masterclass is April 10, although those who require visas are advised to apply by end of March or earlier.
For further information, contact sharone.oloughlin@ul.ie.