Paris, city of dreamers - by Marie Duc
What do you think of when you hear about Paris? The Eiffel Tower? Notre Dame de Paris? Ordering a baguette in a small bakery? But Paris is full of other surprises! On the one hand, it’s very romantic, with all the cultural buildings and countless cafés. On the other hand, it gives off lots of energy night and day. In this decor of the 5th arrondissement in the heart of Paris (and without thinking too much about the coronavirus which started to invade the world), the complete HYBRID team met up at the Institut Curie premises from the 2nd to the 6th of March for a week full of new challenges!
Innovation Incubator
We started the week with a training session of three days named “Innovation Incubator”. The goal of this training was to help us develop ideas in a more creative way.
We split up into three subgroups and worked within these teams to develop innovations. After a while, we also exchanged information between teams, as observers to see what the others were developing and also to discuss together how best to present our ideas. All of us having different projects, we managed to bring our strengths together and come up with a plan for new products. At the end of this workshop, we had to find a creative way of presenting the problems and solutions we established. We decided to present our projects all together as a short comedy play, followed by some discussion and reflection on each idea.
The day ended with a pleasant French dinner with the PIs who just joined us for the General Assembly.
General Assembly
On the last two days, each one of us had to present the progress of his or her project. Each presentation was followed by a discussion to get feedback. The comments and suggestions were very constructive for us to move forward. Discussing our research also provided opportunities to create potential collaborations and sharing knowledge to help our research reach a higher level.
Musée Curie
As a small cultural trip, we all went to visit the former laboratories of Marie Curie, the eponym of the MSCA actions, by which HYBRID is funded. Marie Curie’s former lab has been transformed into a museum. We learned about the history and discoveries of the Curie family. The museum also has small exhibitions on radioactivity and cancer treatment. It was very heart-warming to see the place where Marie Curie worked. We left the museum with our minds full of reflection. We will keep her life in our memory as a role model.
Final thoughts
“Merci HYBRID pour cette aventure”. (Thanks a lot HYBRID for this adventure). We all learned a lot (also a bit of French) and we can now get back to our respective cities with our hearts full of memories and our brains dreaming of new ideas.
