The Short-Term Scientific Missions (STSM) are exchange visits between researchers involved in a COST Action, allowing scientists to visit an institution in another COST country; aimed at fostering collaboration, sharing techniques and infrastructure that may not be available in other participants’ institutions or laboratories.
As a guiding principle, the work plan defined for each STSM should be aligned with the overall objectives of the Action. The STSMs must be carried out in their entirety within a single Grant Period and always within the Action’s lifetime, for 5-90 calendar days or the additional option of 91-180 days for early career investigators, as long as the total budget is not exceeded.
STSMs are aimed at fostering collaboration, sharing new techniques and infrastructure
Applicants must be engaged in an official research programme as a PhD Student or postdoctoral fellow or can be employed by, or affiliated to, an institution, organisation or legal entity which has within its remit a clear association with performing research. The evaluation must consider the scientific scope of the proposed mission and how the mission can support the Action in achieving its scientific objectives.
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Some Potential Missions
Subtask 2.4: “Scoping review on methods for tobacco smoking adjustment in occupational lung cancer epidemiology”
We are looking for a PhD or Postdoctoral researcher with a good knowledge of epidemiology and statistics, and good skills in scientific writing in English to finalize the work started within subtask 2.4: “Scoping review on methods for tobacco smoking adjustment in occupational lung cancer epidemiology”. The candidate can be received in Lausanne, for the 1st month, for example, and then continue remotely.
Please fill in this form and email it to the Short-term Scientific Missions coordinator (Raquel Lucas: rlucas@med.up.pt) copying the Action Chair (Ingrid Sivesind Mehlum: ingrid.s.mehlum@stami.no). Answers should not exceed 2 pages.
Please note: this questionnaire will be examined by the STSM Committee. After you receive the pre-approval notification by the committee you will need to formally apply via the e-COST system and get the final confirmation from the Grant Holder via e-COST.
Research topic: Scoping review on methods for tobacco smoking adjustment in occupational lung cancer epidemiology.
Suggested begin date: As soon as possible before July 1, 2021
End date: October 2021
Desired minimum competence level of the candidate: PhD or Postdoctoral researcher
City (Country): Lausanne (Switzerland)
Host institution and department: Unisanté (Department of Occupational and Environmental Health)
Contact Person: Irina Guseva-Canu (irina.guseva-canu@unisante.ch)
COVID-19 Transmission through Work
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the workplace has been indicated as an important place of possible infection, as it is one of the main activities for a large proportion of the population. Therefore, it is of interest to analyse the transmission and incidence of covid-19 in the working population by sectors and job. Hence, better knowledge of occupational risks can provide important information for more targeted and fine-grained restrictions on specific activities in certain sectors to prevent the further spread of the virus or, better still, for targeted preventive measures. A quick literature search and inquiry with European colleagues reveals that there are few studies on the role of work in the spread of the virus.
Nevertheless, a thorough study of seroprevalence in the work population is urgently needed not only to assess the spread of the virus through work, but also to identify high-risk jobs. The importance of this has been demonstrated by the various coronavirus outbreaks not only in hospitals, residential care centres, but also in meat processing plants in Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. Information about occupation in covid-19 is also 19indispensable for making informed decisions about exit measures. In addition, this information is also required for compensation, such as the recognition of occupational diseases.
During this STSM you will work with an experienced team of international researchers and conduct an in-depth systematic literature review. You will learn to build and run a search string. Next, you will extract the data from the studies and assess the quality of the studies, including the risk of bias. Finally, you will integrate the results and if the data allows, perform a meta-analysis. In addition, we aim to collect information from ongoing studies/analyses that underway, but not yet published, in various countries in Europe
We are looking for 2-3 young researchers who want to perform an international STSM on this topic within the OMEGA-NET network. Experience or interest is highly recommend in: systematic literature reviews, meta-analyses, epidemiology. We are specifically reaching out to early-stage researchers from COST Inclusiveness Target Countries.
An enthousiast international team: Prof Dr Lode Godderis (KU Leuven-IDEWE, Belgium), Damien McElvenny (UManchester-IOM, UK), Ingrid Sivesind Mehlum (STAMI, Norway), Kurt Straif (ISGlobal, Spain), Neil Pearce (LSHTM, UK), Martie Van Tongeren (UManchester, UK); is expecting your application by March 15, 2021. For more information, you can contact any of the team members (see above).
Virtual or real STSM host
Topics: Assisting with the Health Care Workers Cohort , company based occupational health related cohort tool , World of work changes related industry/company based cohort baseline studies
Potentially involves: a) Literature search and review, b) Involve cohort baseline grant application; c) Involves data analysis and coding and reporting d) Tool creating processes. Benefits: The volunteer will be invited as co-author on the planned publication and will work under the omega-net workgroups umbrella
Suggested begin date: Anytime
Suggested duration: 3-4 weeks full time or 1 day/week for 3 months virtually engaged
Desired minimum competence level of the candidate: Epidemiology, Statistics, software sciences background, PhD candidate pots doc possible
City (Country): Online or Ankara (Turkey) when it is possible
STSM Host institution and department: Hacettepe
University(https://www.hacettepe.edu.tr/english/) , Institute of Public Health, the Department of Occupational Health and Safety (http://www.halksagligiens.hacettepe.edu.tr/en)
Contact Person: sibelkiran@gmail.com
Precube
Topic: Impact of changes in a job in relation to health. Data analysis of longitudinal medical follow-up data of more than 150,000 workers. [+info] –
Suggested begin date: Anytime
Suggested duration: 2-3 weeks
Desired minimum competence level of the candidate: Background in epidemiology-statistics
City (Country): Lueven (Belgium)
Host institution and department: Centre for Environment and Health, University of Leuven
Contact Person: Lode Godderis (lode.godderis@kuleuven.be)
OMEGA-NET Cohort Inventory (WG 1)
Work to further develop OMEGA-NET Cohort Inventory including systematic review to identify occupational cohort studies and cleaning of inventory data
Suggested begin date: Anytime
Suggested duration: 1 month
Desired minimum competence level of the candidate: PhD candidate
City (Country): Barcelona (Spain)
Host institution and department: Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal)
Contact Person: Michelle Turner (michelle.turner@isglobal.org)
OMEGA-NET Cohort Inventory (WG 1)
Work to further develop OMEGA-NET Cohort Inventory including systematic review to identify occupational cohort studies and cleaning of inventory data
Suggested begin date: Anytime – but preferable spring spring-summer 2019
Suggested duration: At least one month
Desired minimum competence level of the candidate: PhD student
City (Country): Aarhus (Denmark)
Host institution and department: Department of Public Health, Aarhus University
Contact Person: Vivi Schlünssen (vs@ph.au.dk)
EPITeen young adults cohort
Topic: To estimate associations between employment patterns and musculoskeletal complaints. [+info]
Suggested begin date: June 2018
Suggested duration: 2-3 weeks
City (Country): Porto (Portugal)
Host institution and department: Institute of Public Health, University of Porto
Contact Person: Henrique Barros (hbarros@med.up.pt)
Generation XXI birth cohort
Topic: Occupational accidents and work-related diseases among parents of Generation XXI children. [+info]
Suggested begin date: June 2018
Suggested duration: 2-3 weeks
City (Country): Porto (Portugal)
Host institution and department: Institute of Public Health, University of Porto
Contact Person: Henrique Barros (hbarros@med.up.pt)
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Applications for STSM
Applications for Short-Term Scientific Missions as well as Conference Grants for Inclusiveness Target Countries (ITC) are currently open, and applicants are advised to follow the next steps:
- Contact the potential host with a demonstration of interest.
- With support from the host, fill in the preapproval questionnaire summarising the objectives and context of the mission and email it to the STSM coordinator, Raquel Lucas (rlucas@med.up.pt), copying the Action Chair, Ingrid S. Mehlum (ingrid.s.mehlum@stami.no).
- After pre-approval from the STSM coordinating group, submit the official application online through the e-cost system.
Guidelines for STSMs are specified on pages 35-36 of the COST Vademecum and some more general information about STSMs can be found on this website.
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“The innovative solutions in managing an online cohort
and the interesting discussions on data collected
have added value and scientific knowledge on this topic”
MARINA OTELEA, STSM Grantee
