EUTOPIA funds postdoctoral researchers.

EUTOPIA fully funds new postdoctoral positions

– Initially, I applied to the University of Gothenburg to become part of Morten Grøtli’s prominent research group. But the collaboration with Astra Zeneca, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, was also attractive, of course, says Antonios Drakopoulos. In the autumn, his two-year postdoctoral position at the Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology will commence. The funding comes from the EUTOPIA-SIF programme.

THIS INVOLVES A TOTAL OF 76 postdoctoral positions within the EUTOPIA network, which will be filled in four advertisements over the course of four years. The first advertisement for positions closed in January, and in April the names of the 20 applicants who had been awarded the positions were announced. – Many applicants had specified the University of Gothenburg as their first choice and even more applicants had specified it as their second choice, says Research Advisor Henrik Lindskog, team lead for research support at the Grants and Innovation Office (FIK). The interest in the University of Gothenburg is considerable, despite the fact that the university only finances 5 of the 76 positions.

EUTOPIA-SIF is a so-called COFUND project and part of the EU’s MSCA initiative (Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions) where individual MSCA grants, fully funded by the EU, are another aspect.

The programme is aimed at international applicants who cannot have worked in the host country for more than 12 months in the past three years, says Henrik Lindskog.

– RESEARCHERS IN ALL disciplines are welcome to apply with their projects, and they are completely free to decide what their area of focus should be. However, the projects must be linked to one of the initiative’s five key areas: materials engineering, data and intelligence, health, sustainability or welfare and inclusion.

Morten Grøtli, Professor in Medicinal Chemistry is Antonios Drakopoulos’s supervisor. – The positions are very generously funded and involve full financing of salary, travel, living expenses and university infrastructure. The funding also covers at least part of the running of the project itself.

Obtaining a fully funded postdoctoral position is obviously very beneficial for a young researcher at the beginning of their career. However, Morten Grøtli believes that the research group receiving the postdoctoral researcher, as well as the university in general, also have everything to gain from the investment.

– THE POSTDOCTORAL position also involves working at a participating university for two to six months, as well as collaboration with another party, in Antonio’s case Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona and Astra Zeneca. Of course, this collaboration provides new contacts and networks, not only for the postdoctoral researcher, but for the entire research group.

For the group that wants to accept a postdoctoral researcher, there is a lot of support at the University of Gothenburg, explains Maria Enge, Research Advisor at FIK. – At FIK, we help with applications, and Welcome Services provide support when it comes to welcoming

I look forward to having access to state-of-the-art facilities.

ANTONIOS DRAKOPOULOS