Inês Figueira, a postdoctoral researcher at the Molecular Nutrition and Health laboratory at CEDOC-NMS, was appointed National Coordinator of the Science For Ukraine initiative, whose objective is to provide work opportunities to students and researchers due to the crisis in Ukraine triggered by the Russian invasion of the country.
UPDATE: Inês Figueira talked about this initiative to several media outlets and we share it with you.
PÚBLICO
Ucrânia: Plataforma com vagas para cientistas refugiados já tem mais de 30 vagas em Portugal
RTP1
Cientistas Ucranianos: Mais de 30 vagas já abertas em Portugal
OBSERVADOR
"É preciso preservar o conhecimento"
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The online platform was created on February 26 through a Twitter account and grew from the actions of numerous volunteer researchers that started in Europe and spread to the whole world. “As the platform grows, it became obvious that we had to have at least one person per country to help with the placement of Ukrainian scientists and communication with local universities” says Inês Figueira. Her lab was one of the first in Portugal to offer scientific employment opportunities to scientists hailing from Ukraine, now one of several hundred worldwide.
And Inês immediately took the reins of this initiative. “Working in a multidisciplinary research institute as ours and being aware of the struggles and precarity that researchers live with, I felt that it was the minimum I could do to help – to be the person in charge to do that bridge between the science in our country and the scholars from Ukraine that are willing to come”.
Other initiatives have emerged at NOVA Medical School, namely the PhD Committee, that is coordinating humanitarian aid from the entire community, with the collection of food, clothing and medicine to be sent to Ukraine. “It's amazing how much we can do with so few resources available. But that is why I am so proud to be a Portuguese citizen and scientist”.
At the moment CEDOC-NMS has three positions open to receive researchers and researchers from Ukraine: the laboratories of Neuronal Trafficking in Aging, Molecular Nutrition and Health and Molecular Mechanisms of Disease.
Discover the Science For Ukraine platform here: https://scienceforukraine.eu/
Besides Science For Ukraine other iniatives from the scientific community have been appearing, such as the one from EMBO, European Molecular Biology Organization, with scientific opportunities for researchers in Life Sciences.
Inês Figueira (post-doc) and Galyna Maksymchuk (Research Support)