Regardless of whether you are fan of the 80s punk-rock or not, the truth is that coming back home from a well-funded lab and project abroad, while keeping in the science world, can be a painful move. Spain is not investing in research as much as other western countries and opportunities to build a solid career here are scarce.

Luckily, Dr. Vázquez knew the Generalitat de Catalunya and the European Commission offer reintegration fellowships for researchers like her: the Beatriu de Pinós and the Marie Skłodowska Curie programs. After a successful application at the Beatriu de Pinós program, she has recently been awarded on of the few and highly prestigious Marie Skłodowska Curie fellowships.

Will this make a difference in her career? Was it hard to get it? What will be her research journey from now on? We have interviewed Dr. Vázquez, to bring you her impressions and tips about the MSC program, and much more:

IJC: How did you find out about the Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions Program (MSCA)?

Berta Vazquez: This program is very popular among scientists pursuing a scientific career. I was actually encouraged by some of my colleagues who were MSCA fellows themselves. Importantly, in my case, I had lived in the US for more than 5 years and this program accepted applications from scientists willing to reintegrate in Europe. It was definitively a program that fitted my needs and my scientific career.

IJC: Would you recommend other junior researchers to apply to this program?

BV: Yes, I would strongly recommend this program to other researchers. Beyond covering the salary of the researcher, it also contains a budget for laboratory expenses and dissemination/training activities. This is a great way to start your own research lines and, in my case, to get reintegrated into the European workspace through networking.

IJC: Preparing an application like that is not an easy thing, what tips would you give to a junior researcher willing to apply to the next year’s call?

BV: The first thing I would recommend is thinking carefully about the host lab. I would try to apply with a lab that in some way has pioneered the field you are interested in. Second, I would strongly recommend including the society at large as a major player in the project, during grant writing. Third, I would work carefully in the gender dimension during the grant preparation. It is important to reflect that the project aims to reduce practices related to gender discrimination like, for instance, gender variables need to be taken seriously when it comes to data analysis. Finally, I would recommend starting the application as early as possible, as it requires input from different specialists, including the principal investigator of the host lab and the project manager of the host institution. This may end up with multiple rounds of grant feedback.

Berta Nieves Vázquez

IJC: How do you expect the MSCA program will help you advance in your scientific career?

BV: My goal is to become a group leader in genome stability and epigenetics. Definitively, being an MSCA fellow is helping me to acquire the skills and qualities to become an independent investigator. On this regard, the grant contains some budget I can manage myself and start working on my personal project while being under the supervision of my senior PI, currently Dr. Alejandro Vaquero, who has been very supportive since the beginning. It is also a great opportunity to develop a project in a top European institution like the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute.

IJC: Tell us about your next steps.

BV: Being an MSCA fellow is a key step towards a stable position as a group leader in the mid-term. Now, I have two years to focus on my research, publish my first results as corresponding author and apply for funding to start my own lab. I am confident the visibility that comes with the fellowship will open doors that would be closed otherwise, like being full professor at the university [Dr. Vazquez is currently associate professor at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona].

IJC: Developing your own research looks very important to you. Can you summarize the scientific challenges of your SirT-IMLEU project?

BV: My project aims to understand how lymphocytes are generated and why they transform and become leukemic sometimes. I work with a family of proteins called Sirtuins, which play important roles in genome integrity and also in cellular metabolism. At the physiological level, Sirtuins have been shown to be deregulated in multiple types of leukemia but how they contribute to the pathogenesis of this disease is still largely unexplored. With this project, we will expand our basic knowledge in immune regulation, and we will provide significant advances in our understanding of the molecular biology of leukemia, opening novel avenues for therapeutic interventions.

IJC: In January 2021 will start the new Horizon Europe Program. What do you think that could be improved to support the scientific career of young women researchers?

BV: We have a lot of great women researchers but is true that, when it comes to group leaders and managing positions, we are still underrepresented. In general, I think we need to have more programs to help transition postdoc researchers to independent positions. It is also important to say that many postdoc women face maternity, which requires a lot of energy and dedication. It is important to get a lot of support during that time, from your family and mentor, and it is also important to have mechanisms to ensure that women do not fall behind.