FEAST email news - July 2009
FEAST social networking
As more and more researchers use online social-networking to stay informed, we thought it was about time that FEAST began offering some enhanced services. You can now find us on the following networks:
Twitter
LinkedIn
FacebookOf particular interest is our Twitter profile (FEASTtweet), where we will be posting timely snippets about upcoming calls, new developments, and the latest intelligence on research collaboration.
We encourage you to connect to us if you have your own profile on any of these services.
FP7 news
National Contact Points (NCP)
Each country in Europe has appointed National Contact Points, or NCPs, for FP7. NCPs' role is to help with all general and technical aspects of being involved with FP7. In Australia, FEAST staff have been officially appointed to this role.
We strongly recommend all Australian researchers involved with FP7 to speak with us before submitting a proposal, we know all the mistakes that you and your European project coordinator are likely to make and can help you navigate them.
For the list of Australian NCPs see www.feast.org/index/ncp.
Get ready for upcoming calls for 2010
Calls for the 2010 Work Programmes for FP7 are expected to open within the coming weeks. We encourage all Australian researchers interested in engaging with FP7 to contact their European colleagues now, rather than wait for the calls to open. Similarly, we remind all European researchers that you should consider including Australian partners in your proposal - Yes! Australians can be involved, and Yes! Australians may be elligible for EC funding.
Marie Curie International Fellowships, calls open!
The Marie Curie International Fellowships are now open for applications, and close in mid-August. For all of the details go to cordis.europa.eu/fp7/dc/?fuseaction=UserSite.FP7CallsPage.
FEAST's FP7 stocktake consultation
We've commenced a 3 month consultation process, interviewing successful and unsuccessful applicants to the FP7.
So far we have conducted a dozen interviews, half of which were with people involved in Agri-Food projects.
Initial observations indicate that some misconceptions and myths exist about what funding Australian researchers are able to receive from the EU.
Unfortunately most researchers interviewed have not sought advice from the Australian National Contact Point (FEAST), rather they've relied on instructions from their European consortium coordinators, who are not necessarily familiar with Australia's status or entitlements.
For this reason we'd like to draw to the attention of all Australian researchers who are interested in collaboration with Europe, that there is a centralised point of information and assistance for you.
FEAST acts as the National Contact Point (NCP) in Australia and we're here for you to consult on strategies, tactics and advice for approaching and engaging with European research collaborators.
Whether you're just beginning to look for contacts in Europe, have been approached to join a consortium, or are currently involved in an active project - we can help.
We'll be conducting 'stocktake evaluation' consultations until the end of September this year, and will progressively be releasing interim results on our website.
To contact us email consultation@feast.org.
Updated FEAST website
For the past several months we have been completely rewriting the FEAST website to enable us to employ some smarter and more user-friendly technologies. For the most part, you won't notice many differences except in your Member profile where it should now be far easier to enter and update your information. It has been tested on all of the major web browsers. However, if you experience any problems please let us know, and include details about your web browser and what you were trying to do when you encountered the problem.
