Marjon Professor to chair EU review panel

Released: 23.05.18

Plymouth Marjon University’s Associate Professor, Dr Giorgos Sakkas, has been awarded the prominent position of Vice Chair on the Life Sciences Review Panel for the “Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships,” a funding scheme for experienced researchers looking to boost their career by working abroad. 

The Individual Fellowships are part of the Horizon 2020 MSCA funding scheme and designed to give researchers who already have a doctoral degree or at least four years of research experience the opportunity to work on research in a European context, or outside Europe, through European Fellowships and Global Fellowships. Mobility across borders as well as across sectors is a key element of the funding scheme and strongly encouraged.

Dr. Giorgos Sakkas, who is based at Marjon’s Faculty of Sport, Health and Wellbeing, has been serving the Horizon 2020 MSCA funding panel as an expert evaluator and rapporteur for many years. As Vice Chair evaluator he will oversee more than 300 expert reviewers and assess the quality and fairness of the individual expert’s reports and the final consensus reports.

Giorgos is a Clinical Exercise Expert specializing in interventions to improve quality of life and overall health prognosis in chronic metabolic disease patients using invasive (muscle biopsies) and non-invasive (MRI, MRS, DEXA etc) techniques as assessment tools. His core research focus is in patients with Chronic Renal Failure, especially in those with end stage renal disease.

Dr Sakkas comments, “I’m honoured to take up the position of Vice Chair for this year’s funding round. It’s a fantastic opportunity for researchers to develop a career development plan which in addition to the research objectives also includes including training on transferable skills, planning for publications and participation in conferences.”