"The restart fellowships offer scientists an excellent opportunity to return to the laboratory. EMBO hopes that this programme will help to counteract the losses to science and research caused by scientists leaving to start a family," says Gerlind Wallon, EMBO Restart Programme Manager. "Judging by the number of inquiries received, there is a great deal of interest in the scheme. And we have already had a lot of applications from really excellent scientists. This shows the need for initiatives like this in Europe."
The first six awardees are:
- Katja Arndt, who began research last month on the 'Design, Selection, Analysis and Targeting of Antiparallel Coiled Coils' at the University of Freiburg (Germany) in the Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics (Biology III). Dr. Arndt is the mother of twins and is returning to the laboratory after a one-year break.
- Barbara Belletti will be starting her research in January 2003 after a break of 18 months. The Italian researcher has two daughters and will be continuing her work in cancer research at the Centro di Riferimento Oncologico of the National Cancer Institute in Aviano, Italy. She will be working on the 'Role of IGF-I Receptor in adhesion and migration of soft tissue sarcoma derived cell lines.'
- Judit Biro, who has a one-year-old son, starts work at the National Institute for Medical Research in London, UK in August 2003 after a year's break. The title of her work on stem cells is the 'Role of AA4/CD93 for hemato-lymphoid development and migration of progenitor/stem cells.'
- Julie King, will be working on 'Genomic analysis of a large genome plant species'. She will continue her research at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research in Aberystwyth, Wales (UK). Julie has four children.
- Susanne Müller will restart research this month into the 'Effects of HMGB1 secreted by monocytes in inflammation' at the DIBIT, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy. Susanne has one child.
- Ildiko Unk, mother of three children, joins the Department of Genetics at the Biological Research Center of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Szeged in March 2003. Her return to the bench comes after a break of one year and she will be working on the 'Identification and characterization of proteins interacting with yeast Polh and Rev1.'
The EMBO Restart Programme was launched in February this year. It builds on the tradition of the EMBO fellowships that have been providing training for scientists in the life sciences since 1966. However, the specific aim of the restart fellowships is to support young scientists who wish to go back into scientific research after having taken a career break to have a family. "It is therefore not obligatory for the restart fellow to move to a different country, as is the case with regular EMBO fellowships," explains Gerlind Wallon. "This would be difficult for these scientists." The EMBO restart fellowship project is the first of its kind on an international level and, although open to male and female scientists of all EMBC member states, it will greatly benefit young female scientists.
The European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC) supports EMBO's work and consists of 24 member states. The EMBC countries are: Austria, Greece, Poland, Belgium, Hungary, Portugal, Croatia, Iceland, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Ireland, Spain, Denmark, Israel, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Turkey, Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom.