FELCARES

Co-funding of International Fellowships in Cancer Research

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The Italian Association for Cancer Research (AIRC), the Italian leading charity providing about 40% of all research funds invested in cancer research in Italy, proposes to award 60 fellowship-years for international mobility in two yearly calls for proposals. The calls will be published, executed, and concluded in the 4 years of the FELCARES duration. AIRC aims at increasing its international dimension by strengthening its current programme of Outgoing Fellowships and by introducing the new tool of Incoming and Re-integration Fellowships. To reach this goal, AIRC will: a)Increase the number of the international fellowship-year from 12 awarded in 2008 to 30 per year to be awarded in FELCARES; b)Increase its own budget committed per year; c)Increase the fellowship’ wages from the current average 30.279 Euro/year to an average 40.000 Euro/year. AIRC will take advantage of its well-established and transparent criteria and methods for the evaluation and selection of the applications, adapting them to the new proposed international dimension. In the new international calls, AIRC will address the following issues: Multidisciplinary and multisectorial approaches to cancer research;Attention to researchers from less-favoured countries in Europe and worldwide;Complementary skills training in the projects to be awarded;Special care to achieving the optimal gender balance in cancer research.The anticipated outcomes of the proposed international fellowship programme will coincide with the main objectives of ERA. Bringing its initiatives to a wider international level, AIRC will expand its worldwide contacts and will get in touch with other similar programmes in Europe. This will contribute to overcome the fragmentation of the many programmes that are currently implemented in a dispersive manner.Furthermore the addition of the new fellowship scheme will definitely increase the flow of competent researchers through Europe and will bring to a wide-opening of the ERA to the world.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

An EU-funded project expanded cancer research across Europe by allowing for increased mobility and freedom of inquiry for selected fellows.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

The project 'Co-funding of international fellowships in cancer research' (FELCARES) partnered with the Italian Association for Cancer Research (AIRC) and Marie Curie Actions to establish a two-year fellowship programme to support cancer research. Project aims were to allow for mobility of researchers worldwide, create new knowledge by allowing researchers the freedom to choose their research areas, broaden expertise of fellows by integrating professional development, promote training of scientists from less favoured countries/regions, and establish gender balance in the community.

Fellows were selected based on a fair and rigorous process. International mobility was achieved by establishing three types of fellowships: outgoing fellows (OFs), those who left Italy for other countries; incoming fellows, those who came to Italy from other countries; and reintegration fellows, those who had left Italy and wished to return.

In the first call, 18 fellows were selected, 11 of whom were OFs. In the second call, 12 fellows were selected, 8 of whom were OFs. While gender balance was slightly skewed in the first call (11 females and 7 males), a perfect gender balance was achieved in the second call. The project provided fellows with a living and mobility allowance, as well as funds to visit their host institutions and travel to scientific meetings.

Fellows were monitored at the end of their first and second years. The final report showed that they participated in continuing education in the form of workshops and international meetings while achieving their research goals. The areas of investigation chosen by the fellows encompassed several different disciplines, from cancer genetics to systems biology.

The project succeeded in accomplishing all of its goals. The wide range of research accomplished by the fellows has the potential to open the door to broad, multi-faceted approaches in the fight against cancer. The way the network of researchers was established may serve as a model to other countries looking to build expertise among their scientists.