Communication activities finally resume in person! – Styliani (Stella) Roufou

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In the past year, there was a big change in our lives. Regular face-to-face work, short chats and meetings have been replaced by virtual events and remote work. Fortunately, it has been a few months since some sense of normality has resumed in Malta. We returned to our workspace and our meetings, always concerned about the restrictions. While the face to face activities began to increase, I received some emails about outdoor communication activities, which could help us spread our knowledge and passion.

Link to Stella’s HerStory Makers video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvGy9Gi0j_U

The first email came three months ago with two different communication activities. The first activity, called HERstory Makers 2021, is about inspiring the next generation and giving outstanding female-identifying role models a stage to thrive on. There is no gender within the research! Eight female early-career researchers, including myself, had 2 minutes to pitch our research and ourselves in a video. The videos were presented at different Scottish primary schools and on social media. Furthermore, there was a European competition in which people had to vote for the best European-inspired video. 

In addition, the second activity was Science in the City 2021, intending to attract people through science and the arts, educate, inspire creativity and passion for knowledge for people of all ages across the country. In this event, I participated in a game called The Game of Talents, and the audience had to guess my field. Later, I presented my research to them and replied to their questions.

Stella’a THINK article: https://issuu.com/thinkuni/docs/think36_digital

My final communication activity is an interview that I had for a Maltese magazine called THINK. It was my pleasure to meet the guys from the magazine and have this interesting talk; the final article came out very nice!

In conclusion, after one year of postponing our secondments or doing them virtually, we can now have them in person. Lydia travelled to Malta, and we collaborated in the lab. Now, it is my time to move to Belgium, explore the new country and interact with other researchers. I am looking forward to new experiences and knowledge transfer!

Stella Roufou and Lydia Katsini together in Malta!

Midterm Check/Plenary Meeting, 12th June 2020 – Stella Roufou

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Our first plenary session has been completed and everything went smoothly. During these difficult quarantine days, we must face a new reality of virtual communication. Fortunately, we did not have Wi-Fi connection problems. The meeting was hosted by Zoom software with almost 30 participants. The majority of participants were at home, but coffee and lunch breaks were as usual. It was a unique experience full of fun and I feel grateful for it. The organizers did a great job!

The first day of the event began with a supervisory meeting that ESRs did not attend. At the end of this section, all of us presented our progress and received some comments from supervisors. Mainly, it was an update on our work during these months and how we are handling this pandemic.

On the second day of the meeting, there were more participants, including supervisors, the REA officer and the advisory team. Professor Enda introduced the other professors with their teams, as well as the agenda of the event. The first session was an introductory section by REA officer Stanka Miteva, where she presented the implementation of the project, the report and the purpose of the mid-term check. Later, Professor Enda named the objectives and progress of the project. After the break, all PhD students introduced a little about themselves and their project and they received comments and advice. I feel so grateful for the opportunity to receive comments from these professors. An additional presentation section was recorded to help us improve our presentation skills.

Finally, all the PhD students had a private meeting with the REA officer and we discussed our problems, our questions and she gave us important advice. At the end of the meeting, the whole PROTECT team received positive feedback on the progress of the project. This has led to friendly and funny discussions, as well as an explosion of relevant tweets! In general, the topics focused on the importance of the project, as well as ways to improve our research.