Te c h n o S p h e r e
Volume 01 | Spring 2015
Cover Story
What are the ways it has helped your career?
It supplied money for living expenses and my laboratory that was indispensable. When I joined IZTECH, there was not a lot of
infrastructure for my research area and a laboratory that I wanted to establish, I was able to buy several types of expensive
equipment required to do experimental work, such as stock parts, data acquisition cards, motors, drivers, and other essential
things required to run a lab. Marie Curie was very flexible with the budget and allowed me to spend the funding freely. It
operated like a starting fund for me which was necessary since such a thing was not offered at that time. I was also able to
support several students’ graduate theses as part of the work and with the equipment made available from the grant.
As a result of the project, my group had a number of publications and was able to attend several international conferences. I
was able to meet and interact with more European experts which is good because our university and Turkey are primarily
competing in Europe. Lastly, the title is very prestigious. When you’re networking, it helps to provide potential partners
confidence in your ability to write a proposal and perform a project.
What advice would you give to other applicants?
I recommend that they review other recently funded projects to help identify possible trends. For example, successful proposals seem to be more application oriented
rather than theoretically-based these days, so applicants should relate their research
to some type of practical application. This has been found to be critical by EU. Also,
be sure to link up with the national and local contact points for assistance from
TUBITAK and now, Atmosfer TTO.
Also, keep in mind that EU projects emphasize the dissemination of knowledge, innovation and project visibility. I feel my project was successful according to EU because it led to several other networking initiatives and really did reintegrate me back
to Turkey.
“SUCCESSFUL PROPOSALS
SEEM TO BE MORE
APPLICATION ORIENTED
RATHER THAN THEORETICALLYBASED THESE DAYS, SO
APPLICANTS SHOULD RELATE
THEIR RESEARCH TO SOME
TYPE OF PRACTICAL
APPLICATION.”
HOW CAN ATMOSFER TTO SUPPORT YOU?
Horizon 2020 is a €80 billion European Union Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. If you are interested
in applying for a Marie Skłodowska Curie Action or other calls within the Horizon 2020 programme, we can help! Please
contact Atmosfer Technology Transfer Office ([email protected]) for more details.
The next deadline for applications is 10 September, 2015. More details of the scheme can be found at:
http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/h2020-section/marie-sklodowska-curie-actions
TechnoSphere
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www.atmosfertto.com