Tag Archives: infrastructure

Q&A with Gerjon Ikink: Using policy to change science

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Gerjon Ikink

{credit}Courtesy of Gerjon Ikink{/credit}

Gerjon Ikink is currently in his fifth and final year of a PhD at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, but is thinking about leaving research. He always wanted to be a scientist so that he could contribute to society by exploring the unknown in search of the truth, in this case research into the genetic pathways involved in breast cancer.

But a few years into his PhD, he found it difficult to imagine continuing down this career path. Although his interest in science hadn’t wavered, his feelings towards the infrastructure of the academic life had. Now he is planning on moving into the world of science and education policy, hoping to right the wrongs that are pulling him out of academia.

When did you become disillusioned by science?

When I was an undergraduate, science was all about looking for the answers to the big questions, looking for the truth and understanding how our world works. But during my PhD, and maybe a little before, I became disillusioned with this idea. Continue reading →

Would you return to your home country to set up a lab?

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Last week EMBO announced the recipients of its 2011 Installation Grants – a round of funding that supports scientists who want to relocate to a country that is currently building its fundamental research capacity. The 2011 grants, which comprise an annual award of 50,000 euros for three to five years, will enable seven scientists to set up laboratories in the Czech Republic, Poland, Estonia and Turkey.

One of the recipients, Nurhan Özlü, has returned to her home country of Turkey after spending ten years in the United States. In an EMBO podcast, she says that for a junior group leader, establishing a lab in a country that’s growing its scientific capacity has several benefits, but she also has to adapt to a developing research infrastructure. “[In the United States] all the facilities, resources and services were available and if I purchased something it arrived the next day,” she says. “[In Turkey] experiments take a lot more effort and time.”

In a Nature Careers article on the topic from 2009, the head of a lab in the Czech Republic said that while the research infrastructure was comparable to Germany and the United States, it was necessary to assemble attractive salaries from several sources of funding.

Would you trade a scientific powerhouse such as the United States for a country with a less-developed research infrastructure if it meant you could set up your own lab? Have you already done so and thrived on the opportunity? Let us know your thoughts and experiences. The next application deadline for EMBO Installation Grants is 15 April 2012.