Kristiina's Programme Maupertuis short term visit to France
Programme Maupertuis is a funding tool to initiate or strengthen scientific collaboration between France and Finland. The Institut Français in Helsinki, the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, the Finnish Society for Sciences and Letters and the Finnish Academy for Science and Letters are the organizations jointly supporting activities in the following categories: 1) French Renowned Scientist Conference Series (FRSCS), Researchers Short Mobility (RSM) and “Higher Education, Research and Innovation” Workshop (ERI-W).
Kristiina Mäkinen received a grant from the RSM program to visit French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) centers at Bordeaux, Avignon and Montpellier during Monday 30th – Tuesday 8th, 2019. As an important goal of the visit was to discuss the possibilities for co-operation in science and higher education, Viikki Plant Sciences Centre (VIPS) sponsored the visit as well. Kristiina presented the work of her research groub by giving a talk on “Intracellular coordination of potyviral RNA functions” at each center. In addition, she gave four hours of lectures in the AgroScience Master program “Molecular basis of plant microbe interactions” for Master 2 level students. In addition to the lectures, VIPS (www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgNlmY9kU5I) and Kristiina's research group (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBDL4Gw3Jw4) were introduced via the videos. The lectures activated discussions on mobility of students in the frame of internships.
Dr.Sylvie German-Retana (Research director, INRA Bordeaux), had compiled an interesting program for the visit consisting of discussions altogether with 28 researchers at different stages of their careers (professors, research directors, post-doctoral scientists and PhD students). In addition to the plant virology, other important topics in plant sciences like plasmodesmata-mediated intercellular communication, plant secretory pathway and autophagy were discussed as well. The discussions during the visit aimed at concrete collaborations. In the past, a joint PhD student of Dr Thierry Michon and Kristiina, Dr. Jane Besong-Ndika, carried out her PhD studies in a collaborative project of INRA/Universite de Bordeaux, France and University of Helsinki, Finland. Based on this excellent experience, such future cooperation in PhD education between the French and Finnish research teams and organizations can be recommended. Co-operation can be advanced by student exchanges, teacher visits and in long term by creating official possibilities for joint actions in PhD education.
