Periodic Reporting for period 3 - SIRCIW (Strengthening International Research Capacity in Wales)
Période du rapport: 2021-03-01 au 2022-02-28
Scientists in Wales are efficient, productive, collaborative, impactful and in many cases world leading. Evidence has shown examples of scientific excellence but a lack of critical mass in areas most likely to drive a knowledge economy through innovation and translation. Our application to the COFUND fellowship scheme formed the foundation of the 'Sêr Cymru (Stars Wales) II Programme'. The programme was designed to produce a step change in Welsh scientific capacity, building on excellence and investing in early career researchers. The integrated proposal married Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) COFUND fellowships with European Structural Funds, university, industrial and Welsh Government funding, with the aim of bringing into Wales up to 140 new fellowships in strategic areas including clinical science, engineering, physics, mathematics and applied Social Sciences.
The intention of the MSCA programme, 'Strengthening International Research Capacity in Wales (SIRCIW) was to support recruitment of experienced researchers of all nationalities into Wales. Fellows were given employment contracts at their host university, and where possible and relevant, opportunities in different sectors were provided. The fellowships have helped the researchers develop into the leaders of the future through provision of funding, mentorship, and supervision from within their host institution and networking, either in their place of work or through the SIRCIW programme.
The intention of the MSCA programme, 'Strengthening International Research Capacity in Wales (SIRCIW) was to support recruitment of experienced researchers of all nationalities into Wales. Fellows were given employment contracts at their host university, and where possible and relevant, opportunities in different sectors were provided. The fellowships have helped the researchers develop into the leaders of the future through provision of funding, mentorship, and supervision from within their host institution and networking, either in their place of work or through the SIRCIW programme.
All applications funded through the scheme were driven by the fellows themselves. Selection to the programme was done using tested, merit-based methods and funding decisions were made independent of nationality, discipline, age, career breaks etc. Members of the Independent Evaluation Panel who assessed applications were appointed through open competition. They were national and international experts with a broad base of scientific knowledge and experience of funding/training panels
There were five calls for fellowships in parallel with the European Regional Development Funding (ERDF) strand of the scheme. For SIRCIW, 75 of the planned 90 fellowships have been taken up across the four most research active universities in Wales: Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff, and Swansea. Fellows came to Wales from prestigious institutions around the world, such as Harvard, MIT, and Universities of Queensland, Beijing, Bern, Montpellier, and Padova. The ERDF strand also supported 12 Research Chairs, 11 Rising Stars, 3 Recapturing Talent and 30 fellowships, linked to the smart specialisation areas of Life Sciences and Health, Low Carbon Energy and the Environment, Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing, and ICT and the Digital Economy.
From the outset, we aimed to use high impact, global and efficient means of advertising this prestigious initiative to academics, businesses, and more importantly, potential MSCA fellows. The first call was advertised after completion of the Grant Agreement. It was managed transparently through international ‘gold standard’ mechanisms, such as the EURAXESS portal and Science magazine. We also highlighted the call via the UK and EU National Contact Points. Welsh Government has well established connections with Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), and we were able to advertise by word of mouth through these contacts. The partner universities advertised posts through their networks and collaborators, as well as social media. We held launch events in Wales and Brussels with the help of WHEB (Welsh Higher Education Brussels). The advert in Science unfortunately did not generate the interest we had hoped for, so later calls focussed on the other methods of advertising the call instead.
In our application we talked about how the transfer of scientists between EU or third countries and Wales/UK, SIRCIW would contribute to the implementation of the European Research Area (ERA), enhancing the free flow of knowledge and expertise across national borders. This was expected to reap benefits in cross-fertilisation of approaches and ideas between European research institutions and their staff. We were able to do this by encouraging applicants from all over the world to apply to the scheme. Researchers from 29 countries came to work in Wales through SIRCIW. One of highest number of applications from a single nationality came from China (14). Most of these candidates (10) have returned at the end of their fellowship and all 10 have taken up Professorial roles, indicating the fellowship has helped these individuals build their careers. An equal number of British candidates were successful too (14). They were spread out across the world at the time of application and thus the fellowship facilitated their return to work in their home country. Doing so, made an important contribution to a core aim of programme to significantly build capacity in Wales. Overall, we believe these numbers are incredibly positive, particularly if we consider the backdrop of European Transition and the global pandemic.
We believe that the pan-Wales approach has had a unifying effect on Wales’ science community. This is supported by the next destination data for the fellows supported by SIRCIW. Fifty-nine percent of the fellows have stayed in the UK, and a sizeable proportion of those have stayed in Wales (31 researchers out of 44 that stayed in UK have stayed in Wales, equating to 41% of the total). This is a significant step towards ‘moving the needle’ on building research capacity in Wales that this programme originally set out to do. Fifty-six percent of the SIRCIW fellows have been able to secure permanent positions in academia (either as a professor, a lecturer or in a technician or teaching capacity) and 32% (24 fellows) are continuing their career development as researchers all over the world. Four percent of the researchers have transferred into industry and only one fellow from the 75 has left research altogether.
We have been really pleased with the level of engagement of the research fellows in the programme. They have disseminated their research by attending conferences, giving presentations, and publishing numerous publications. We are particularly proud of the work that they undertook directly with Welsh Government. Three examples are:
• British Science Week School pack 2021 https://hwb.gov.wales/repository/resource/8d6c1a86-1512-4a98-9526-3a714a01867c/en1
• Online event, March 2021 - Supporting Global Research in Welsh Universities Sêr Cymru: Supporting Global Research in Welsh Universities | The Waterfront (eventscase.com)
• British Science Week School pack 2022 Dr Andrew Lloyd - Aberystwyth University – YouTube
There were five calls for fellowships in parallel with the European Regional Development Funding (ERDF) strand of the scheme. For SIRCIW, 75 of the planned 90 fellowships have been taken up across the four most research active universities in Wales: Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff, and Swansea. Fellows came to Wales from prestigious institutions around the world, such as Harvard, MIT, and Universities of Queensland, Beijing, Bern, Montpellier, and Padova. The ERDF strand also supported 12 Research Chairs, 11 Rising Stars, 3 Recapturing Talent and 30 fellowships, linked to the smart specialisation areas of Life Sciences and Health, Low Carbon Energy and the Environment, Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing, and ICT and the Digital Economy.
From the outset, we aimed to use high impact, global and efficient means of advertising this prestigious initiative to academics, businesses, and more importantly, potential MSCA fellows. The first call was advertised after completion of the Grant Agreement. It was managed transparently through international ‘gold standard’ mechanisms, such as the EURAXESS portal and Science magazine. We also highlighted the call via the UK and EU National Contact Points. Welsh Government has well established connections with Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), and we were able to advertise by word of mouth through these contacts. The partner universities advertised posts through their networks and collaborators, as well as social media. We held launch events in Wales and Brussels with the help of WHEB (Welsh Higher Education Brussels). The advert in Science unfortunately did not generate the interest we had hoped for, so later calls focussed on the other methods of advertising the call instead.
In our application we talked about how the transfer of scientists between EU or third countries and Wales/UK, SIRCIW would contribute to the implementation of the European Research Area (ERA), enhancing the free flow of knowledge and expertise across national borders. This was expected to reap benefits in cross-fertilisation of approaches and ideas between European research institutions and their staff. We were able to do this by encouraging applicants from all over the world to apply to the scheme. Researchers from 29 countries came to work in Wales through SIRCIW. One of highest number of applications from a single nationality came from China (14). Most of these candidates (10) have returned at the end of their fellowship and all 10 have taken up Professorial roles, indicating the fellowship has helped these individuals build their careers. An equal number of British candidates were successful too (14). They were spread out across the world at the time of application and thus the fellowship facilitated their return to work in their home country. Doing so, made an important contribution to a core aim of programme to significantly build capacity in Wales. Overall, we believe these numbers are incredibly positive, particularly if we consider the backdrop of European Transition and the global pandemic.
We believe that the pan-Wales approach has had a unifying effect on Wales’ science community. This is supported by the next destination data for the fellows supported by SIRCIW. Fifty-nine percent of the fellows have stayed in the UK, and a sizeable proportion of those have stayed in Wales (31 researchers out of 44 that stayed in UK have stayed in Wales, equating to 41% of the total). This is a significant step towards ‘moving the needle’ on building research capacity in Wales that this programme originally set out to do. Fifty-six percent of the SIRCIW fellows have been able to secure permanent positions in academia (either as a professor, a lecturer or in a technician or teaching capacity) and 32% (24 fellows) are continuing their career development as researchers all over the world. Four percent of the researchers have transferred into industry and only one fellow from the 75 has left research altogether.
We have been really pleased with the level of engagement of the research fellows in the programme. They have disseminated their research by attending conferences, giving presentations, and publishing numerous publications. We are particularly proud of the work that they undertook directly with Welsh Government. Three examples are:
• British Science Week School pack 2021 https://hwb.gov.wales/repository/resource/8d6c1a86-1512-4a98-9526-3a714a01867c/en1
• Online event, March 2021 - Supporting Global Research in Welsh Universities Sêr Cymru: Supporting Global Research in Welsh Universities | The Waterfront (eventscase.com)
• British Science Week School pack 2022 Dr Andrew Lloyd - Aberystwyth University – YouTube
This funding has given us a unique opportunity to bring together our universities to address the issue of research capacity in STEMM subjects in Wales. We reached 83 % of our target number of new researchers in post and of those almost 60% have now gone on to secure permanent roles. We were able to use the novel approach of combining Horizon 2020 funding and Structural funds in parallel to allow us to attract stellar researchers at various levels of their research careers into Wales. We hope that our experience will enable others to follow a similar path using the distinct types of EU funding available. We want to thank the European Commission for their generous support of SIRCIW.