Based on the 4th call selections and the final decision of the Eurolife Network, we have the pleasure to announce that in this call we award 4 grants for the short-term Eurolife exchanges. The selections were based on the internal academic evaluation with the consideration of applicant’s achievements, the quality of the proposed research to be carried out and the benefits of the short-term exchange for the researcher, and his/her Home and Host Institutions. Following are the details on the Home and Host universities of the awarded researchers:
| Home University | Host University |
| Leiden University Medical Center | University of Barcelona |
| Medical University of Innsbruck | Trinity College Dublin |
| University of Barcelona | Semmelweis University |
| University of Edinburgh | Karolinska Institutet |
Each selected researcher receives a grant of 1500 EUR to support his/her travel and living expenses for the short-term research at the indicated Eurolife Host Institution. The expenses need to be directly related to the research exchange. The duration of the exchange is minimum 2 weeks and it should take place between 1 March 2019 and 31 December 2019.
Grantee Story
“The exchange led to potential future project collaborations and project ideas”
By Heidi Ulrike Siller, Eurolife Short-term Research Exchange Program Grantee (2018/2019) from the Medical University of Innsbruck at the Trinity College Dublin
Heidi Siller – in the middle of the picture
Thanks to the Eurolife short-term research grant, I was a visiting researcher at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Trinity Research in Childhood Centre (TRiCC). TRiCC has a fantastic work culture and offered collaboration, discussion and reflection on research findings and project ideas with inspirational researchers across various disciplines. My own research focuses on domestic violence (DV) and intimate partner violence (IPV) during and after pregnancy, and how medical and health care professionals (e.g. midwives) can best support women in this context.
Prof Trevor Spratt, Director of TRiCC, and Siobán O’Brien Green, expert in DV and pregnancy, were my closest collaborators during this research stay. Thanks to them, I had the unique opportunity to share and discuss research on domestic violence with outstanding and inspirational researchers and stakeholders in numerous meetings. These meetings strengthened my own research network but also resulted in future research collaborations. Besides exchanging research ideas and findings, Siobàn and I presented our research findings on DV, IPV and pregnancy in the Irish and Austrian context to health care professionals at the Centre for Midwifery Education (CME), Dublin. Additionally, we collated our research findings in this area and drafted a guide on DV in pregnancy. In this guide, the most important steps when screening for DV and IPV are presented, including self-care of staff. In the future this guide can be used as mnemonic after being pilot tested in Austria.
Another highlight during my research stay was meeting with the TCD Dean of Research, Professor Linda Doyle. She invited me to present on power relations in academia as this subject is another research area of mine. A shortened version of this presentation was also presented to PhD researchers at TRiCC.
My time as a visiting researcher has resulted in a drafted guide, which will be finalised in 2020, as well as future project collaboration with researchers at Trinity College Dublin as well as collaborators across Ireland. A first step in drafting these project ideas included discussing the potential outreach with TCD Learnovate centre. Our project ideas focus on teaching medical and health care students about DV and IPV, as well as promoting resilience in health care professionals and women affected by DV and IPV. Thanks to the Eurolife short-term research grant and my excellent hosts, Trevor Spratt and Siobán O’Brien Green, the groundwork for future collaborations between Trinity College Dublin and the Medical University of Innsbruck has been laid and will continue to grow.