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Talents for an International House (TALENTS)

TALENTS is a Fellowship Programme - cofunded by European Commission in the framework of FP7 People Programme (COFUND Action) - developed by AREA Science Park with the endorsement of the Regional Authority of Friuli Venezia Giulia and is aimed at supporting the mobility of experienced researchers, enhancing their professional potential and their future employability.
The programme includes 2 mobility schemes:
- Incoming mobility fellowships: addressed to experienced researchers of EU Member States, Associated countries or Third countries, intentioned to develop a project in one of the Scientific Institutions of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Coordination Network (18 months duration).
- Outgoing mobility fellowships: addressed to experienced researchers of any nationality for a stay (12 months) in another EU Member State, Associated or Third country, with a 'return phase' to be spent at the origin institution (6 months). Researchers must be operating in one of the Scientific Institutions of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Coordination Network.
Fellows have the opportunity to choose both the research topic and the hosting institution.
TALENTS supports 10 fellowships: 5 for incoming researchers and 5 for outgoing researchers.
The Programme envisages 2 Calls for proposals and awards 5 fellowships for each Call.

The First Call for Proposals, aimed at assigning 2 outgoing and 3 incoming mobility fellowships, expired on the 1^st October 2010. In November 2010 the eligible research proposals were evaluated and 5 fellowships were awarded.

The Second Call for Proposals, aimed at assigning 3 outgoing and 2 incoming mobility fellowships, expired on the 14^th June 2011. The evaluation process of the submitted research proposals took place during the summer of 2011 and another 5 fellowships were awarded.

All the candidates received the results of the eligibility check and of their proposals' evaluation.

The selection procedure
The applicants were selected by a Scientific Selection Committee (SCC) supervised by AREA Science Park. The Selection Committee included high level professionals selected at an international level on the basis of several criteria (e.g. international background, experience in the private or public sectors).
For each call, in order to award the fellowships, 5 panels of evaluators were created. The proposals had to submit a project within one of the following scientific areas:
- Biotechnologies and Diagnostics
- Material technologies, Mechanics, Physics and Chemistry
- Ecology, Environment and Energy
- Information Technology
- Economic, Human and Social Sciences
The selection procedure followed the main principles adopted by the European Commission in the evaluation of the FP7 and were described in detail in the calls for proposals.

Eligibility requirements
1. To be eligible, candidates had to respect, in their proposal, the fundamental prerequisite of 'international mobility': at the time of the relevant deadline for submission of proposals, researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of their host organisation for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the reference date. Short stays, such as holidays, are not taken into account.
Origin organisations had to be different from host organisations.
The same organisation could be present in different proposals, but these proposals had to be submitted by different candidates.
Every researcher had to submit only one research proposal.
2. Moreover, researchers had, at the time of the deadline of the present call: (a) be in possession of a doctoral degree, independently of the time taken to acquire it; or (b) have at least four years of full-time equivalent research experience (including the period of research training) after the degree which formally allowed them to embark on a doctorate in the country in which the degree/diploma was obtained or in the country where the fellowship is taking place; (c) be nationals of Member States, Associated Countries and Third Countries;
3. be in possession of 3 knowledgeable referees, from the same scientific field of the present fellowship and include their letters of reference (one for each referee) in the proposal's submission. Referees had not to coincide with supervisors, neither in host nor in origin organisations;
4. scientific excellence of previous research activities: experience in the field of research supported by at least 1 publication or at least 1 paper;
5.fluent (good written and spoken command) English and/or the language of the country of the host organisation.

The evaluation criteria were described in the call for proposals.

For further information please write to:
Ciro Franco: ciro.franco@area.trieste.it
Mia Tomad: mia.tomad@area.trieste.it 

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