ESR training session and network meeting – Palma de Mallorca 2019

The CARTNET group – including all 13 ESRs, their supervisors and the externals advisory board – met for three days in Palma de Mallorca for joint training and networking session. The ESR training included a session/workshop on open science / open access. The training - headed by Alicia Gómez, Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología (FECYT, part of the OpenAIRE network) – provided useful information and opened up for discussions and sharing of experiences and ideas on approaches and strategies for meeting the open science / open access agenda. Further, Carmien Brys, from the University of Leuven, headed an ESR workshop in stress management and wellbeing of early stage researchers. The workshop addressed different aspects of stress and provided the ESRs with insight and tools to raise awareness on detecting and responding to stress symptoms.

One day was reserved for presentations of the individual projects and for discussions with the three “”Work Packages”, each dealing with different approaches to combatting antimicrobial resistance: the use of structural biology to synthesize new antimicrobials; to screen environmental microorganisms and microbiota for new active compounds and; to limit spread of resistance through knowledge of dissemination of mobile genetic elements. The advisory board – comprising of two external experts – met with the ESR to provide input and feedback to the projects, and took part in the Supervisory Board meeting, where they took part in discussions and gave input to the technical/scientific aspects of the project, as well as advice on communication and management.

The programme also included social activities - focusing on the cultural and gastronomical aspect of Mallorca – allowing for all to further develop the good social relations and friendships that have been established since project start.