Three INL Women Researchers get FCT support for Scientific Employment

Three women scientists working at INL have been awarded a contract in the 2020 Individual Scientific Employment Stimulus Competition (CEEC), which is the third edition of this call promoted by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) for doctoral researchers in all scientific areas.

Sanna Sillankorva won the category of Principal Researcher with the “Development of a novel biopolymeric antibacterial delivery system for the treatment of chronic wounds using phage therapy coupled with mechanical biofilm destruction and thermal wound healing augmentation” project.

In her own words: “I was thrilled to receive the news that the FCT Scientific employment application as Principal Investigator was proposed for funding at INL. It is an excellent opportunity to pursue research in an area I am passionate about, proposing clinical solutions for antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, using INL’s state-of-art equipment and facilities that will be so important for accomplishing the anticipated tasks”.

Laura Rodriguez Lorenzo was granted the category of Assistant Researcher working in the Universal Platform for on-field Surface-enhanced Raman Scattering Monitoring of Biotoxins and Emerging Organic Pollutants in Marine Environment (UP4SERSMarine). Laura is “happy to get CEEC Individual funding” mainly because of the overall success rate, which reinforces that her scientific career has moved in a good direction. Thanks to the CEEC IND Call, she will encompass activities that will enable early and efficient detection of the marine pollutants, applying her acquired knowledge on surface-enhance Raman scattering and nanomaterial design. In these terms, she will be able to gain strategic knowledge in this area and establish herself as a reference in the field of marine pollutant detection employing advanced nano-enabled technologies.

And in the category of the Junior Researcher, we have Ana Isabel Bourbon working in the “Healthy-gut: Effect of functional diet on intestinal microbiota health” project.

Being awarded Scientific Employment Stimulus by FCT “is a great honour. This scholarship will allow me to work on a challenging project (Healthy-gut: Effect of functional diet on intestinal microbiota health) that will promote the use of nanotechnology-based products to improve the quality and safety of food. Furthermore, it is great to be able to continue working with one of the best teams worldwide and contribute to enhancing INL’s position as a reference research centre in food-based nanotechnology” says Ana Isabel Bourbon.

The results announced by FCT indicate that 3,648 applications were evaluated by 25 international panels, of which 1,675 obtained a minimum grade to be eligible for financing. The 300 applications selected for contract correspond to 18% of the eligible applications, having women a representation of 58% among the selected candidates.