Non-globular proteins in the era of Machine Learning

COST Action CA21160

Short Term Scientific Missions

Description

Short Term Scientific Missions (STSMs) are exchange visits aimed at supporting individual mobility and training of young researchers (YRs) through general activities of Working Groups.

STSM applicants must be engaged in an official research programme as a PhD Student or postdoctoral fellow (completion of their PhD within the last eight years). Principal investigators and senior researchers can also apply to STSMs to build new scientific collaborations and prepare grant applications.

Applications are accepted from Action participants with a primary affiliation to a legal entity located in a COST Full or Cooperating Member country, a COST Near Neighbour Country or a European RTD Organisation.

A number of STSMs will be financed each year for exchange of technologies and training between labs in different member states as defined in the rules of the COST framework. An STSM should specifically contribute to the scientific development of the ML4NGP COST Action, whilst at the same time allowing those partaking in the missions to learn new techniques, gain access to specific data, instruments and methods not available in their own institutions.

APPLICATIONS FOR STSM ARE OPEN.

Applications for the STSM are open until October 2024 with three periods of selection:

 

Deadline for Application

Deadline for notification of acceptance

1st period

January 15, 2024

January 29, 2024

2nd period

May 31, 2024

June 15, 2024

3rd period

TBA

TBA

Eligibility and applications

The STSM participant is required to be a member of a Working Group in ML4NGP COST Action (Apply here to join).

STSM may last a minimum of 5 working days (=1 week) and a maximum of 3 months (with a possible extension to up to 6 months for YRs).

The financial support is a contribution to the costs of a STSM and may not necessarily cover all the costs in each case. The grant should normally cover only travel and subsistence. The total of a STSM shall normally not exceed 2500 euros up to 3 months (or 4000 euros for YRs – above 3 months).

A maximum of 300 euros for travel is recommended but not obligatory.

Maximum subsistence depends on the host country (for calculation use the country correction coefficients (CCC) provided by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action, Horizon Europe work programme) and the duration of the visit.

The base level of subsistence rates:

  • First 5 days (X) – 80 euros per day 
  • Days 6-15 (Y)  – 40 euros per day
  • From day 16 (Z) – 20 euros per day

Final amount = [CCC ((X x 80 )+ (Y40) + (Z x 20))] + Travel 

Applications are collected after the application deadline and evaluated taking into account the following policies:

  • Allocated budget: A maximum of 80% of the yearly STSM budget may be spent on a single call for application. Where necessary, applications will be ranked accordingly.
  • Participation in ML4NGP: Both the sending and hosting lab shall be actively involved in ML4NGP Action, i.e., listed as MC or WG members on the website.
  • Relevance to current WG activities: The application must clearly demonstrate the links to WG goals and activities for the budget period.
  • Repetitive applications: Applications by the same individual to visit the same lab may be discarded unless properly justified. 

The Evaluation Committee will discard applications failing any of the above policies even in the presence of remaining funds.

1 – Complete electronic application form at https://e-services.cost.eu/activity/grants

  • Title
  • Start and end date (within the active Grant Period);
  • Budget requested by the applicant;
  • Information about the host institution and contact person.

2 – Upload to e-COST supporting documents:

  • Application form (template available on e-COST) describing: Goals, description of the work to be carried out by the applicant, expected outcomes and description of the contribution to the Action MoU objectives (Completed form (https://www.cost.eu/STSM_GrantApplication)
  • Applicant must upload their CV in e-COST profile
  • Confirmation of the host on the agreement from the host institution in receiving the applicant;
  • Other documents required by the Action (e.g. recommendation letter, etc…)

Within the 2 weeks after the deadline for application, the Evaluation Committee will make the assessment and the grant award coordinator will send the notice to the Grant Holder and to the applicant.

The Grant Holder will send to the Applicant an acceptance letter in which s/he is informed about the approval of the proposal and the level of the financial grant given. The Applicant has to return this acceptance letter, after accepting the grant with his/her signature.

1 day and 10 days after the end of the grant, the grantee receives a reminder to upload the report.
The deadline to submit the report is 30 days from the end of the activity, within 15 days from the end date of the Grant Period or within a shorter timeframe as per Grant Holder/ Grant Awarding Coordinator’s request to meet reporting deadlines.

The grantee must complete the report template (https://www.cost.eu/STSM_Report), upload, and submit it in e-COST

In the selection process of STSM proposals, ML4NGP Action will ensure inclusiveness through COST Inclusiveness Target Countries (ITC) representation, geographical diversity, gender balance and empowerment of young researchers.

This internship has given me the opportunity to develop skills needed for our on-going computational study of intrinsically non-globular protein tau. Although this has been a short stay, I am very pleased to see that our collaboration will continue.

Stefana Njemoga, Slovakia Visiting researcher at University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, Czech Republic

This STSM was a unique experience for me. I would like to thank COST Action ML4NGP (CA21160) and the National Institute of Chemistry (Ljubljana, Slovenia) for the opportunity to work with great people and experts. I spent three weeks in the Department of Synthetic Biology and Immunology characterizing intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) from plant. I learned a lot about experimental confirmation of secondary structure and characterization of aggregates. I gained knowledge about circular dichroism spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering, and the discussions with my colleagues were very stimulating. This visit was very useful for me as part of my PhD thesis is the characterization of the secondary structure of IDPs.

Ana Pantelić, Serbia Visiting researcher at National Institute of Chemistry, Ljubljana, Slovenia