EREA Young Researchers at Von Karman Institute for a specific training on how prepare a successful HE proposal
On the 7th – 8th November 2023, the EREA Young Researchers event was held at VKI near Brussels, bringing together almost forty young researchers coming from the EREA members.
VKI is located in Sint-Genesius-Rode near Brussels, on the road to the famous Waterloo and surrounded by a wonderful forest that the guys enjoyed for 2 days. VKI is the Belgian non-profit international educational and scientific organization, specialized in fluid dynamics (flows of liquids, gases and plasmas) in the area of Aeronautics and Aerospace, Environmental and Applied Fluid Dynamics, and Turbomachinery and Propulsion.
On this occasion indeed 39 Young Researchers from EREA member research establishments received an excellent training to help them prepare and write competitive proposals for Horizon Europe. As usual, the event was also an ideal opportunity to develop the network and scientific contacts between Research Establishments. It is probably this latest aspect that will remain in everyone’s memory because after each event the researchers always turn in a strong friendship.
The event was also a great opportunity to let the participants visit VKI’s site and related facilities, with a specific focus on the ones for Turbomachinery (test rigs with real compressors and turbines for aerodynamic and heat measurements) , High Speed Wind Tunnels, Low Speed Wind Tunnels and unique Plasma based.
The participants also exchanged their views in an informal way among them and with ES members at a nice social event organized in a typical Belgian restaurant in the forest, with a warm atmosphere and music.
The objective for the EREA Young Researchers, to get to know their peers in aeronautics better and to provide recommendations for their careers, was perfectly achieved through the two days.
On the first day the ES Chairman Tim Buiting offered a general presentation on EREA and its Future Sky programme and opportunities, followed by a short presentation by each of the participants on their own research center and specific projects on which they worked on. The afternoon was dedicated to a training session on “How to write a competitive proposal for Horizon Europe” by Dr. Sean McCarthy (from Hyperion). On the second day the EREA Young Researchers completed their training by experiencing the evaluation phase of a European project in a very concrete way, with the support of a senior DLR scientist Volker Krajenski, also EREA Aeronautic Research Group Chairman, and a senior consultant & COO, Expert Evaluator for EC, Peggy Favier, both very experienced on the whole process.
EREA was delighted with the success of this event, which ran smoothly and allowed researchers and members of EREA to come together experiencing for two days the full immersion in a European Research Context, not only reinforcing the networking and increasing cooperation between research establishments, but also turning in real friendships.