Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid 

The Institute of Materials Science of Madrid (ICMM), belonging to the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), is a world-renowned research institution committed to performing synergetic research at the cutting edge of knowledge for addressing urgent societal challenges for which having new advanced materials are essential. With over 110 staff researchers and more than 80 Ph.D. students, postdocs and tenure track investigators, ICMM is a leading center in the field of materials science and nanotechnology.

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Researchers are organized in research groups that cover from fundamental research to technological applications, aligned with three main interdisciplinary research lines related to the important social challenges included in the 2030 agenda: Materials for digital information, materials for a sustainable world and materials for health. The large number of scientists belonging to ICMM allows us to face synergetic problems, sharing cutting-edge instrumentation and expertise.
Situated within the “UAM+CSIC International Excellence Campus”, ICMM maintains a robust partnership with the “Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM)”, fostering knowledge exchange and shared scientific resources. Our institute also establishes global collaborations with numerous universities and research centers, cultivating an atmosphere of dynamic scientific interchange and teamwork. We are deeply committed to internationalizing research, welcoming senior researchers, postdocs, and predoctoral visitors from around the world.

We place great emphasis on gender equality and ethical conduct in science. We promote an inclusive culture offering equal opportunities at all ranks, vigilantly mitigating any inappropriate gender-related behaviors. We encourage work-life balance, organize activities that advance ethical practices in scientific research, and diligently safeguard against any research misconduct, such as data falsification, improper authorship attribution, or inadequate data sharing. At ICMM, we not only pioneer scientific advancements but also uphold the highest standards of professional ethics and inclusivity.

List of research lines:

Materials for a Sustainable World: Materials for Energy and Materials for Environmental Remediation and Green Processes

Materials for Health: Nanoplatforms for Therapy and Diagnosis and Technologies and Instrumentation for Nanomedicine

Materials for Digital Information: Materials for Advanced Electronics and Photonics and Quantum Materials and Technologies

Bioengineering for the future of medicine

Established in 2005, the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) is a leading-edge multidisciplinary research centre in Barcelona. It conducts excellent interdisciplinary research at the frontiers of basic and life sciences linked with engineering to generate new knowledge and applications by putting together biophysics, cell engineering, nanomedicine, biomaterials, tissue engineering and the applications of information technology to health.​Researchers at IBEC participate in innovative work in areas such as bioelectronics, regenerative medicine, and biomechanics, seeking innovative solutions to improve healthcare and quality of life.The institute promotes a collaborative environment, encouraging scientists to explore new ideas and collaborate across disciplines.
​This new knowledge has been applied during the last years to the advanced technological challenges (ATCs) such as biofabrication for tailored advanced therapies and regeneration and bioengineered living systems, as well as to the advanced societal health challenges (SHCs) such as bioengineering for cancer diagnosis and prognosis; bioengineering for healthy ageing; bioengineering for rare diseases treatments; and bioengineering against COVID-19, added due to the pandemic outbreak. IBEC has gained global recognition with impactful publications and projects.

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IBEC’s 2024-2027 scientific program focuses on 5 breakthrough scientific-technological areas to develop knowledge and technologies to answer fundamental biological questions and facilitate the uptake of Precision Medicine, Advanced and Emergent therapies and address Global Health and Pandemics. Our vision is conducting pioneering, high-impact basic and applied research addressing unmet biomedical needs through interdisciplinary bioengineering innovations. Our methodology involves fundamental, multi-disciplinary investigations to understand biological systems quantitatively from molecule, cell, tissue, organ to system levels to develop devices, therapies, and protocols leading to better diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of human diseases and improving quality of life.
​IBEC’s 5 Breakthrough Focus Areas:
​1-New information and data with advanced microscopy, imaging and biological ​mapping-G.Gomila,P. Gorostiza,G. Battaglia,I.Marco-Rius,B.Bolognesi,X. Rovira
​2-Engineering of molecular systems based on biological self-assembling, synthetic ​biology and nanomedicine for advanced therapeutic systems-S.Sánchez, S. Muro, ​E.Torrents, X.Fernández-Busquets,C. Rodríguez-Emmenegger
​3-Physical forces in Biology: tissue, cell and molecular mechanobiology-X.Trepat, P.​Roca-Cusachs, M.Salmerón-Sánchez
​4-Preserving, regenerating and fabricating human organs and tissues: Biomodels and ​tissue engineering-E. Martínez,E.Engel, N.Montserrat, J.A. del Río, Z. Álvarez
​5-Ubiquitous sensors, engineered living sensors and smart data analysis: ​Bioelectronic and biomedical signal processing-J. Samitier, J. Ramón, R. Jané, S. ​Marco


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Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies

The mission of the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS) is to advance the highest quality research at Aarhus University (AU) by attracting talented, highly qualified fellows worldwide and within all disciplines. Fellows are provided ideal opportunities to further develop their research in short to long fellowship periods by ensuring fellows’ participation in various kinds of collaboration and exchange with researchers, research groups and advanced students at AU and abroad. The primary criterion for selection of fellows is excellence and not research topic. Therefore, fellows represent a broad scope of academic disciplines and are hereby contributing to the multidisciplinary setting of the Institute. Fellows are encouraged to engage with each other and with local researchers. We strive for diversity in all ways, and host fellows and researchers from all disciplines and nationalities.

ERC@UC Science Journalism Initiative

Research Projects at UC:

  • Dulce Freire, Rural History, Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2017-STG, ReSEED, Rescuing seeds’ heritage: engaging in a new framework of agriculture and innovation since the 18th century. Hosting conditions: Image/ video journalist for 5 months in early 2024;
  • Jorge Almeida, Cognitive Neurosciences, Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2018-STG, ContentMAP, Contentotopic mapping: the topographical organization of object knowledge in the brain. Hosting conditions: 1st semester of 2024;
  • Bárbara Gomes, End of life care, Starting Grant (StG), SH3, ERC-2020-STG, EOLinPLACE, Choice of where we die: a classification reform to discern diversity in individual end-of-life pathways. Hosting conditions: Oct 2024 – Feb 2025 would be good for us but can also consider other later dates.
  • Leona Polyanskaya, Multilingualism, Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2021-STG, TypoMetaLing, Effect of linguistic experience on metacognition in language tasks and transfer to non-linguistic behaviour. Hosting conditions: April-June 2024 or September-December 2024.

Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

We are a public university, founded on 6 August 1868 as Scuola Superiore di Commercio. We have reached a high national and international standing with the quality of our research and teaching, which reaches across countries and disciplines. Our university community includes over 23.000 students and 1.400 faculty and staff from all over the world. The main campus is in a large Gothic palace in the heart of Venice, overlooking the Grand Canal, and other venues are spread across the historic centre of Venice, plus Mestre and Treviso.

We contribute to scientific progress through excellent research that addresses global challenges and has an impact across disciplines. We promote frontier research with the active application of the hard sciences and digital sciences to the centuries-old tradition rooted in the social sciences, humanities, and economics. We are among the top institutions in Europe for the number of Marie Curie fellowships funded by the EU, and first in Italy for European Research Council (ERC) funding. For the quality of their scientific projects, four departments have been acknowledged by MIUR (Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research) as “Departments of Excellence”.

Biocultural Diversity Lab

The Biocultural Diversity Lab focuses on the Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK), a set of knowledge related to the environment, shared within communities in a specific place. The Biocultural Diversity Lab research has a specific focus on ethnobotany and ethnobiology. The Biocultural Diversity Lab was born during the implementation of the ERC project ‘Divided Generations’ (ERC-StG-2016 DiGe), which carried out research on the medicinal and food uses of plants among different ethnic groups in Eastern and Northern Europe divided during creation or following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, examining the impact of sources, medicine, education, and laws governing their use.
The focal points of the permanent activities of the Biocultural Diversity Lab are the evolution of knowledge based on the relationships between humans and the environment, both today and in past centuries, through various qualitative and quantitative methods. The application of the results of the research of the Biocultural Diversity Lab is education, the development of local products, participatory conservation strategies, and policy suggestions.

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We invite the candidates to participate in our three main research projects that will be covered in 2024:
a) DiGe has clearly demonstrated the devastating effect of Russian occupation on the LEK of the studied traditional societies/minor ethnic groups. We detected erosion, homogenization and standardization of the knowledge within state borders and cross-border differences in knowledge transmission. We will continue studying the medicinal plant use in the researched area, looking for common patterns and the effects of literature and the official Soviet medical system on local ethnomedicine.
b) The research on the people-nature relations in migration concentrates on the historical Italian migrants to Brazil, exploring the specific plant species that were brought, adapted, or learnt from the local environments, the techniques used for cultivation, and the cultural and social factors that influenced these practices. The ultimate goal of the research is to identify best practices for bicultural conservation considering the local identities and to inform policy and decision-making in this area.
c) Fishery practices of Laguna di Venezia in Italy and Laguna di Bay in the Philippines are studied from the perspective of the local fishers, involving them as experts in identifying the drivers of changes (both climate and anthropogenic) and searching for sustainable and community-friendly solutions.

Italian Institute of Technology

IIT’s headquarters are in Genoa, constantly linked to its Centres in Italy and two outstations based in the USA. The journalist’s residency may be located in Genoa, where the majority of IIT’s researchers have their labs, or in the network Centers sites: Milano, Torino, Venezia, Rovereto, Ferrara, Pisa, Napoli, Roma, Lecce. The IIT staff comprises more than 1,900 people from about 70 countries, with an average age of 35.
Currently, IIT is conducting the 2018-2023 scientific plan developing four strategic research domains: Robotics, Nanomaterials, Technologies for Life Science, and Computational Sciences. In 2024 a new scientific plan will be launched with an additional focus on Artificial Intelligence. The main goal is to produce technologies that will have a positive impact on some important societal challenges, such as sustainability and the environment, healthcare and aging society.

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Among the most advanced research results at IIT, there is the first edible and rechargeable battery, the robots iCub, ErgoCub, Alterego, Centauro and HyQ, the soft robots Plantoid and iSeed, the new smart materials obtained by food waste, and 34 start-up companies.
IIT is an example of multidisciplinarity, which is one of the most significant characteristics of current scientific research and, also, the great variety of topics that a science journalist is expected to handle in his/her work. IIT is an ideal venue for science journalists who wish to discover and experience a heterogeneous and international scientific environment, ranging from biology to robotics, from new materials to neuroscience, from basic science to technology transfer.


Fishing Architecture. The Ecological Continuum between Buildings and Fish Species

The shores of the North Atlantic house diverse architectural cultures and its waters are home to a wealth of fish species. The industrialisation of fisheries in the early 19th century and the globalisation of the industry at the end of the 20th century impacted the area’s fishing architecture. The project will assess the ecological impact of fishing constructions and the natural resources they depend upon. Specifically, it will advance our understanding of the ecological impact of human activity. The project will focus on marine ecosystems, fishing technology, food processing, politics, and consumption habits in order to offer a new perspective on construction, in which fishing landscapes bring together land and sea.