A coordinator's perspective (farewell notes)

6 February 2020

Incredible but true! We are near the end of EVOluTION, the European Vascular Intervention and Therapeutic Innovation Network, which has trained 11 ESRs in endogenous mechanisms of tissue protection, harnessing the vasculature as the common conduit with an impact on a variety of diseases, from hypertension to vascular calcification, from atherosclerosis to myocardial infarction and kidney disease. For me, being the coordinator of EVOluTION; it has been i) a great honour, ii) pleasure and iii) highly-productive experience.

I was flabbergasted when in May 2015 I received a cryptic email where it seemed that our application was awarded. With a light head, I contacted the then manager Xavier Sandin and asked that he entered the EU portal to double check: it was awarded! This success was down to the collegiate effort of the principal investigators from all beneficiaries, who worked with me to resubmit the programme after a first submission in 2014. EVOluTION started in April 2016. Thus, reflecting back now, I can say that it has been a great honour to have worked with top class academics and scientists from HEI and companies across Europe, both for the preparation stage and the actual delivery of the programme, from 2016 to 2020.

Being the coordinator of such a complex training network has also been a pleasure. As one may guess, it has not always been easy in the sense that the I had to rapidly understand the multiple tasks we had to deliver, and for which I was the sole responsible to the eyes of the EU and the EU Officer! However, I have been supported extremely well by Dr Annabelle Scott first and then Mr Stavros Fotiadis, who managed the programme for 2.5 and 1.5 years more or less, respectively. Moreover, it has been a pleasure to work closely with colleagues and friends I knew already as well as with new colleagues: all have contributed to the deployment of such a brilliant programme. Nonetheless, a ‘large slice’ of this pleasure derives also from getting to know 11 talented Early Stage Researchers, top class young students, with a drive and an enthusiasm which has no rival. We recruited from 6 distinct countries and - since day 1 - I have been genuinely impressed by the high quality, broad interests, motivation and keen participation that all ESRs have demonstrated over the three years of employment through EVOluTION: I am confident they have appreciated the depth, diversity and quality of the training received.

Finally, but not least, I feel a sense of pride. It seemed a daunting task to deliver all these scientific workshops, transferable skill training sessions, network meetings, summer schools and other training activities, but I am pleased that we have collectively delivered on all our commitments with the EU: I consider this a high productive deliverable of EVOluTION. Equally important, is the scientific training we have given to our ESRs – they have been fantastic and in many cases harnessed the opportunity that derived from secondments, new experience, broadening the technical skill set, brainstorm with top scientists from top Institutions in Europe. In a way, these are intangible benefits of our network programme, but this sense of gratification for productivity and pride is substantiated by tangible facts like the number of conference presentations (35), the number of travel awards won by EVOluTION ESRs (7), the number of prizes won for poster and/or oral presentations (10), and finally the publications produced (13 so far, a few reviews but also original studies are now being published). In addition, three ESRs have now defended their post-doctoral thesis with success.

It is important to emphasise also the quality of the science produced with this programme: from the unveiling of mechanisms underpinning the efficacy of dietary approaches to the genesis of extracellular vesicles and their bioactions, from focusing on receptor-mediated resolution to the design and validation of novel therapeutics, from the characterization of the signature in the arterial wall to the phenotype of the plaque and its components. In all cases, observing at some distance the flourishing of these young scientists and their progress on several aspects of their training has been truly amazing and a true privilege.

I share this sense of gratification and job-satisfaction with all EVOluTION PIs and other colleagues at beneficiary institutions who have been fantastic team players, making my job very easy. Similarly, our partners have made fundamental contribution to deliver the complex yet high quality training of the programme. I am grateful to our Advisors who attended EVOluTION events (Prof Resmini and Papapetropoulos attended the Annual Network event in Dublin, May 2017; Prof Papapetropoulos and Jonassen attended the Final Conference in Munich, September 2019) and provided high quality advice on career intention and progression, new science in academia and in the commercial sector.

What next? Well not too much I am afraid. I hope and am pretty sure that we will stay in touch with our academic colleagues on other adventures and scientific collaborations. Equally important is that the ESRs maintain their network and I would be extremely happy to keep tab on their progression and provide advice and mentorship for the future, if requested and deemed helpful. The legacy of EVOluTION will be long-lived and at multiple levels. New projects, new science and publications will be captured well beyond the end date of the network. However, the ESRs career progression and satisfaction will be the main legacy of this network and indeed the main reason why we did it in the first place! Having touched first-hand the quality of our ESRs soon to be doctors makes me stating that I have high expectations and no doubts for several satisfactory outcomes.

Thank you all for your great effort over the past 4 years and … good luck to our EVOluTION fellows!

 

Mauro Perretti, PhD

Co-ordinator