On Thursday 18 June, the 16 MSCA EUTOPIA-SIF postdoctoral researchers along with their supervisors and the management teams assisting them in the six universities of the programme, celebrated the end of two years spent together, since this cohort was launched in Venice in October 2024.
The online ceremony began with a speech by the programme director, Yann Giraud, a professor on the history of economics, on the moral economy of postdoctoral research, drawing on the concept developed by E.P. Thompson, former professor at the University of Warwick. Whilst acknowledging the precariousness this system creates for those most directly affected, he emphasised their vital role in the world of research and the opportunities that the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme could open up for them.
Primož Poredoš, Abadallah Ali’s supervisor at the University of Ljubljana and also a member of EUTOPIA’s Young Leader Academy, then went on to outline the synergies he had been able to create through his participation in these two programmes: to strengthen his research team, he brought in postdoctoral researchers who assisted him in supervising numerous students. Abadallah Ali, in particular, contributed his expertise in photovoltaics and helped to develop a technology that is particularly effective in the context of global warming. The EUTOPIA Young Leader Academy programme also supported research mobility initiatives, enabling this young team to expand its network, notably with Matteo Giggli, a YLA from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.
Finally, to round off this hybrid session on a lighter note, the EUTOPIA-SIF programme coordinators organised an ‘ice-breaker’ consisting of a series of questions that were part humour, part deadpan, to give participants a chance to share their experiences of the joys and challenges encountered during their contracts.
As a reminder, the Eutopia SIF programme, co-funded by the European Commission under Horizon 2020 (Grant Agreement 945380), has enabled the recruitment of 78 postdocs between 2021 and 2026 across the Alliance’s first six universities – the University of Warwick, the University of Ljubljana, the University of Gothenburg, Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Vrije Universiteit in Brussels and CY Cergy Paris Université – as well as to initiate collaborations that have helped to strengthen cohesion within Eutopia.
