FEMS Annual Report 2015 - Page 22

INTEGRATING OUR ACTIVITIES
ENSURING FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY

DELIVERING STRATEGY

BUILDING ON OUR STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK

Our six strategic pillars are currently at different stages in their development . Our greatest strength is in research , with education and training – thanks to the dedication of Joanne Verran and her very active Education network – now very much our second . We currently deliver both research and education through our journal publications , biennial congress and FEMS-sponsored meetings , the latter supported by our popular grants programme . We also support a series of research awards , and are actively working to connect Europe ’ s microbiologists to form a collaborative and influential network that can support both scientific excellence and its effective translation into impact on the ground .
To help us achieve our aims , 2015 saw us open up two new positions in business development and communications in the second half of the year . This investment has allowed us to start actively exploring both new ways of supporting our charitable activities and more effective means to communicate across the microbiology community as well as to wider audiences in business , policy and society as a whole .

INTEGRATING OUR ACTIVITIES

Research

Publication Grants Meeting Awards EAM Congress

Education

Training Recognition Comms Congress Materials

Policy

Recognition Capacity Effiacy EAM

Business

Authority Initiatives Awareness Innovation EMF

Public engagement

Reliability Efficacy Capacity Recognition

Global

Community Partnerships Affiliates

ENSURING FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY

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MEET SOME OF OUR GRANTEES In addition to the recipients of our grants to organise meetings, or attend our congress, we also provided grants for small research projects and attendance at a range of non-FEMS meetings. Here are some of their thoughts: Tatiana Semenova OUR CURRENT GRANTS PROGRAMME INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING OPPORTUNITIES: Meetings Grants FEMS supports selected meetings within the European area, including scientific conferences, laboratory workshops and training courses. Meeting Attendance Grants These travel grants specifically support early career scientists with the costs of attending scientific meetings. National / Regional Congresses Start-Up Grants These grants are designed to help our Member Societies run their regular congresses – and particularly to assist new Members and initiatives such as regional events. Research Grants These small grants fund short research visits allowing early career researchers to build their research networks while picking up vital techniques and expertise not available locally. Congress Attendance Grants (biennial) Early career researchers registering at the FEMS Congress will also be considered for a Congress Attendance Grant in years that the Congress is held. In 2015 our grants were provided as follows: • 23 Meeting grants to a value of €124,900 • 31 Meeting Attendance grants to a value of €14,500 • 9 National / Regional Congress Start Ups grants to a value of €18,000 • 40 research grants to a value of €125,035 • 138 FEMS Congress attendance grants to a value of €93,400 LOOKING AHEAD With the development of our new strategic framework, we are looking at how to organise our grants programme to help best achieve our wider charitable objectives across all six strategic pillars. To this end in February 2015 we invited a range of participants from our Member Societies, Cancer Research UK and the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) to help us review our existing grants. It’s clear that our grants programme is highly beneficial and very well received, allowing Member Societies to offer benefits that can attract new members, and provide valuable networking and research opportunities. Our grantees’ stories reveal how these opportunities can have a profound impact on both individual career development and longterm collaborations between participating institutions. Our current goals are to continue to promote both our grants programme and its powerful impact, and to explore new funding options to support our planned activities on policy, business and public engagement. Anyone who is a member of a FEMS Member Society is eligible to apply for one of our grants. A full summary of our grants programme is available online here. 22 Elisa Binda Carla Rodrigues MEETING ATTENDANCE  GRANTS Dr Carl-Eric Wegner, from the Department of Biogeochemistry at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, Germany, used a FEMS Meeting Attendance Grant to present his latest research findings at the Ecology of Soil Microorganisms meeting in Prague. He says: I enjoyed the meeting and I can honestly say that I have benefitted from the input I got during the meeting, not only during the very vivid poster sessions but also in general from the excellent scientific programme. Ramses Gallegos Monterrosa, a PhD fellow at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, also in Germany, used another of our Meeting Attendance Grants to attend the “7th ASM Conference on Biofilms”, in Chicago. He adds: I believe that participating in scientific conferences is important for an integral PhD education. Tatiana Semenova, a PhD student at Leiden University in the Netherlands found that receiving a FEMS grant to attend the Congress of European Mycologists in Madeira gave her the opportunity to meet top European mycologists, and encouraged her to prepare her presentation even more carefully than usual. She has since been offered the position of Meeting Secretary of the European Mycological Association (EMA), and has started a Facebook page for EMA which alread has 80 members. She says that: By awarding me the travel grant, FEMS strongly promoted my career in mycology. Now I am exchanging e-mails weekly with top-European mycologists, who would never know me if FEMS had not supported my application. Luciana Gomes RESEARCH GRANTS Elisa Binda, a post doc at Department of Biotechnology and Life Sciences (DBSV), University of Insubria, Varese, Italy used a FEMS Research Grant to work for three months at the host laboratory of Prof. Mervyn J. Bibb, at the John Innes Centre of Norwich (UK), where she explored a new resistance mechanism to glycopeptide antibiotics. Elisa tells us: The FEMS fellowship was a great and unique opportunity to learn more about … innovative techniques and to consolidate already existing international collaborations and building new ones. I really want to thank the FEMS organisation for such opportunity they offer to young researchers. Carla Rodrigues, is a PhD student from the Molecular Microbiology research group fro U % %