Staff of the ICCVS Research Support Team – dr Wioleta Domańska-Babul, Magdalena Dziki, Joanna Grzegórska, Anna Krajewska, and myself – spent four training days at the University of Malta (UM) during 1-4 Nov 2021. We met colleagues from various UM units to exchange information and gain knowledge on processes and solutions related to our daily work.
We visited laboratories and met research staff at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Dpt. Applied Biomedical Science. At the Research Support Service Directorate we discussed the support for proposal preparation for European programmes. We were also introduced to how the process of introducing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as well as the research equipment inventory was organized and how the laboratory support unit works to support the faculties. At the UM Project Support Office the colleagues explained the way financial pre-award and post-award financial management of projects and presented the features of the electronic system for project administration. At the Knowledge Transfer Office we learnt about current applied projects in vaccine science. We also met the SEA EU project representatives and discussed the opportunities of next actions within the projects SEA-EU and reSEArch EU, but also other new upcoming activities such as the initiation of a joint PhD student network. We also presented UG’s current activities in the area of promotion of equality and diversity as well as exchanged views about the process of introducing Gender Equality Plans at both universities. Last but not least, we also explored the amazing attractions that Malta offers, such as sights in Mdina and Valetta, and visited the beautiful island Gozo – time used as enjoyable and effective team building activity for our team.
University of Malta and University of Gdańsk are partners in the SEA-EU Alliance, a strategic network of six partner universities established within the European Universities Initiative. In 2020 ICCVS has entered a memorandum of understanding with University of Malta to cooperate in research on cancer immunotherapy and the activities have already been started by dr David Saliba from UM with ICCVS UG researchers prof. Hupp, dr Małgorzata Lisowska, and Zuzanna Trybała.
