"A brief summary of the main informations and decisions from the LIP SC meeting (online, 10 May 2023) is provided. The minutes of the meeting will be published by the SC board."
Since December, two new group PIs have been elected: Ruben Conceição is the new PI of the Auger group, and Liliana Apolinário is the new PI of the Pheno group. Cristóvão Vilela, recently hired as LIP researcher (and involved in the Neutrino Physics and SHiP/SND@LHC groups) introduced himself as new member of the SC.
As previously announced in the written summary of a directorate meeting, LIP’s gender equality committee members have been appointed and are Helmut Wolters, Ofélia Janeiro, Paulo Brás and Rute Pedro. The Committee is preparing a proposal for the revision of the gender equality plan. Articulation with LIP’s representation in the GENERA network is still to be discussed.
16 May, National Scientist’s Day, 75th birthday of José Mariano Gago: LIP and Gradiva are launching the reedition of the book “Manifesto para a Ciência em Portugal” (first published in 1990 and sold out long ago). See more in: www.lip.pt/manifesto-jmg. This intends to be a starting point for a wide and participated discussion.
There are no news concerning the CERN Fund call — apparently FCT is undergoing and internal reorganization. The resulting instability is a source of concern for LIP’s directorate, who asks for everyone’s support. It has been pointed out that the CERN Fund agreement has been renewed in 2017 for 10 years by minister M. Heitor.
The yearly meeting with LIP’s international advisory board has been recently held and the report’s executive summary will be delivered soon (and included in LIP’s public report). General advice included the creation of an alumni network (in order to potentiate external support to LIP, namely within the science and innovation system in Portugal), a student mentoring program (it is essential to involve LIP’s AT and the students representatives and to articulate with what is done at the universities), or a dedicated brochure for science politicians (particularly in view of the recent changes in FCT and the Ministry of Science).
Elections for the CC are due to start in October — the possibility of revising the regulation to change the duration of the mandates from 2 to 3 years (like mostly everything at LIP) has been raised.
There are still delays in the completions of the researchers’ evaluation processes. There was an appeal to those responsible to give priority to this issue (or, if not possible, to find a way to share the reporting work differently in the board, or to be replaced).
The next strategy discussion session promoted by C4 will be dedicated to LIP’s scientific infrastructures and their relation to the scientific strategy of LIP and of its research groups.
Representatives of the technical and administrative staff reported that there are worries (expressed in staff meetings) about the definition of the careers (namely concerning a possible cessation of the equalization to public administration careers, which would require a heavy effort on the development of regulations, and the still unclear link between evaluation and careers progression). Comments from the Directorate: the directorate announced but did not get started on this and will not do it soon. There will not be changes to the careers.
The Grant’s office called the attention to the following: CEEC individual call - a support letter from the group leader adapted to each individual proposal is requested. This letter should mention the situation of the researcher at LIP, and evaluation is important; PTDC: call expected to open in July, changes in the budget format are expected and the GO is planning a little workshop (plus individual support in all the process); ERC is expected to put more weight in the proposal w.r.t. candidate, and to aim at increasing diversity in the PI profile; Crowdhelix: for collaboration between researchers and innovating companies.
The LIP public and detailed 2022-2023 reports have been approved. They can be found in the intranet’s documents section (the public report is also available in the public site.Problem’s with the availability of the Advisory Committee’s reports on the web will now be sorted out with the web managers and the secretariat)