“It will be exciting to hear the postdoctoral applicants’ research ideas. They will have a lot of autonomy in choosing their topics and designing their projects, which may lead to truly innovative approaches to brain health,” said Professor Tarja Malm, Coordinator of the NOVEL MSCA Postdoctoral Programme.
Malm spoke at the launch event of the programme in Kuopio, where supervisors and partners of the programme had a chance to get acquainted and discuss shared interests.
Hosted by the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) and co-funded by Horizon Europe’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), the NOVEL programme offers interdisciplinary and intersectoral postdoctoral training in four key areas of brain health related research. The first call, which is open from 1 March to 31 May, invites proposals related to the research areas of Prevention and Care as well as Methods and Data. The second call opening in December will focus on Innovation in Society as well as Ethics and Well-being.
In all, there are 14 fully paid postdoctoral positions in the three-year, international programme. The applicants can suggest their research topics to 23 potential supervisors whose expertise spans from different aspects of neuroscience to data science, innovation management, health economics, and legal studies. The UEF also boasts world class resources for research in these fields, including unique data sets and broad infrastructure.
“We want to empower postdocs to lead impactful brain health projects and to operate fluently between academia, companies, health care as well as the third sector. Our partner organisations represent all of these and will be involved in the programme via secondments, career coaching and other types of collaboration, depending on each postdoctoral researcher’s project,” Malm noted.
“Postdocs will also learn that impactful research extends beyond health and illness, encompassing the social, economic, and policy aspects of brain health to ensure that advances benefit society as a whole”, added Professor Päivi Eriksson, Co-coordinator of the NOVEL MSCA Postdoctoral Programme.
Another important aspect of the programme is to support postdoctoral researchers individually in strategic career development and provide them with skills in leadership, ethics, communication and innovation.
Impact through networks
The NOVEL postdoctoral programme follows in the footsteps of UEF’s ongoing MSCA-co-funded doctoral programme, Neuro-Innovation, which has already fostered multidisciplinary and stakeholder collaboration. “The experience from the doctoral programme has been rewarding and shown there’s a need for such an approach, which encouraged us to apply it to researcher training at the next level,” Malm said.
“In the NOVEL programme, researchers have even more freedom to design and carry out their projects. This may also open up entirely new opportunities for networking, and the programme immediately attracted many partners,” added Professor Annakaisa Haapasalo, who is one of the supervisors in the programme. Her research group focuses on the genetic basis of frontotemporal dementia, with increasing clinical collaboration.
One of the programme’s partners is the Finnish Epilepsy Association (FEA). FEA has a long history of research collaboration with the University of Eastern Finland, bringing the perspective of patients and their families especially in Professor Reetta Kälviäinen’s clinical epileptology projects.
“More recently we have also collaborated with Professor Kaijus Ervasti’s Neuroethics and Law research group to examine access to justice for people with epilepsy,” FEA Specialist Paula Sorjonen told at the launch event.
She said the NOVEL programme gives FEA a good opportunity to keep up with the development of neuroscience research and, if a suitable project arises, to get involved more closely. “We advocate for people with epilepsy and want to strengthen their voice in research projects. It is gratifying to see that the programme has a strong focus on patient and public involvement.”
FEA can also provide researchers with valuable contacts with their target group – the patients. “We have already received visits from researchers to learn more about our work and to meet people with epilepsy.”
“After having a chance to talk with the supervisors of the NOVEL programme, I’m even more convinced that we have shared interests,” said Anna Jalava, the CEO of Auvo Academy, a company offering a training programme in contact therapy treatment that combines touch and music.
“We are interested in how touch affects the regulation of the nervous system and therefore stress management and recovery.”
Jalava pointed out that for a small company, it’s a rare opportunity to be involved in a research programme with such a broad scope. “It’s refreshing to connect and exchange ideas with researchers from a variety of disciplines.”
Piritta Parkkari, the Impact Manager of the NOVEL postdoctoral programme, pointed out that more partners are still welcome to join the programme. More information on the research groups involved can be found on the programme’s website and YouTube channel, where there’s also a webinar recording targeted at potential applicants.
For further information, please contact:
Tarja Malm, Coordinator of the NOVEL MSCA Postdoctoral Programme
tarja.malm@uef.fi, https://uefconnect.uef.fi/en/tarja.malm/
Päivi Eriksson, Co-coordinator of the NOVEL MSCA Postdoctoral Programme
paivi.eriksson@uef.fi, https://uefconnect.uef.fi/en/paivi.eriksson/
