N4M+ project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020

research and innovation programme under the grant agreement No 785632

MSCA Success Stories from Organisations in Widening Countries Task 4.4 Effective MSCA promotion Issued by: Gabriella Tchouprenska and Antoaneta Mateeva, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Issued date: November 2018 Work Package Leader: NKFIH

Net4Mobility+

Network of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions National Contact Points for the mobile scientific and innovation community

MSCA Success Stories from Organisations in Widening Countries

N4M+ (H2020 GA No. 785632) 2 MSCA NCP Network: www.net4mobilityplus.eu

Host organization: Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Country: Hungary Organization role: Beneficiary and WP leader Project Acronym: FRAGNET Project start and end date: 1 March 2016 – 29 February 2020 Type of MSC action, H2020: ITN My research group with ESRs

Consortium members at the FRAGNET Budapest meeting

MSCA Success Stories from Organisations in Widening Countries

N4M+ (H2020 GA No. 785632) 3 MSCA NCP Network: www.net4mobilityplus.eu

Your story:

Project objectives and research field:

Fragment-based approaches are based on small polar molecules that bind to the protein of interest. Growing or linking these within the binding site we can optimize them to drug candidates. In this project, we train individuals and develop new methodologies for screening, characterizing and optimizing fragments for drug discovery programmes.

Tell us why the topic is important and/ or how it brings to advancement in your research field:

Streamlining drug discovery would contribute to the reduction of attrition rates and the faster development of new drugs. Fragment-based drug discovery is an approach of interest that provides marketed drugs and a high number of drug candidates. Here we implemented work packages including fragment libraries, new experimental and computational methods for fragment screening and their applications on relevant drug targets. Our research group is involved in the development of novel libraries and computational methods and applying these in drug discovery programmes. We designed and synthesized new electrophilic fragment libraries that can serve as warheads for compounds binding covalently to cysteine residues of proteins. We compiled a road map and developed novel design strategies for the optimization of targeted covalent inhibitors. This approach resulted in irreversible kinase inhibitors for oncology indications and covalent MurA inhibitors against both Gram+ and Gram- bacteria.

What are the benefits of participating in a MSC action?

Drug discovery is an extremely complex and scientifically challenging process that requires many types of expertise and excellent team work. Within the frame of this MSCA ITN we are working together with leading academic research groups and enterprises including SMEs and big pharma companies. This composition of our ITN provides us with many collaborative opportunities with the true experts that contribute significantly to the success of our own efforts. Furthermore, the organizational structure of the consortium helps us to collect and internalize the best practices. Not only the ESRs but all of the participating organizations learn a lot from each other that makes the partners more successful in other applications and projects.

Did you encounter any challenges during application/ implementation and did you get any help?

The most challenging part was clearly to write and compile a concise proposal. Here we had significant help from the consortium leader and other participating members. During the implementation, we found the recruitment process critical that needs

MSCA Success Stories from Organisations in Widening Countries

N4M+ (H2020 GA No. 785632) 4 MSCA NCP Network: www.net4mobilityplus.eu

some significant preorganization. The help of the NCP was especially useful in explaining EU regulations to local administration.

Would you recommend others to apply? What useful advice/ tips can you give them?

We think that the most critical point is the composition of the consortium. The leader should have some experience in compiling proposals and more importantly in managing consortia. We found incorporating companies rather important since they can contribute a lot with their practical points of view and they help to train students in real life settings. All members need specific expertise and they should combine them in subprojects and work packages that serve training and practice, and the delivery of scientific results in parallel.

What strategies did your organization use to attract the fellow/s? Are they in line with national strategies supporting the widening EC policy?

In this ITN we had 424 applications for the 15 ESR positions. Our group had two positions attracting 28 and 26 applications that is around the average. Skype interviews resulted in 3 candidates invited to attend the FRAGNET recruitment day. Here the 16 supervisors from the beneficiary and partner organisations held 33 interviews (some candidates were selected for more than one ESR position) and selected the ESRs. We found that the research topic, the track record of the principal investigator, and the working environment of the host institution have the most significant effect on attracting the applicants.