Secondments: Essential Training Tools for PhD Researchers - a blogpost by ESR7 Vincenzo Di Lorenzo

Secondments are invaluable training tools, especially for PhD students. In this blog post, I will highlight their importance.

In many PhD programs, and especially ITNs, ESRs have the chance to get trained through secondments which according to the definition are a „detachment of a person from their regular organization for a temporary assignment elsewhere”.  Secondments essentially represent a period spent abroad working in a different workplace (labs in our cases), focusing on a specific project. We could thus say that metaphorically speaking, they represent the equivalent of a mission for us for scientific growth improvement. But what do exactly secondments mean to us? And why can they be so important?

Like other forms of detachments, surely a contributing role is played by the push they provide in getting out of our comfort zones and routines, adapting to new environments and scientific approaches, and settings. However, they primarily represent a tool for broader expertise development and training. 

 These periods abroad allow us to work in different labs, focusing on specific projects that may be related to or detach from our primary research. The goal is to develop aspects of the project that we are either unable to explore in our usual settings, can only explore partially, or that may require the integration of different approaches. These experiences are thus invaluable for gaining new perspectives on research problems.

Additionally, these exchanges allow us to take advantage of local equipment and environments, providing flexibility and experience with similar software and tools, or even the opportunity to use new ones, which is also important.  Upon returning, we can merge and enhance the knowledge gained with our primary lab's expertise. In addition, they often allow us to dive into different research fields and learn or get a glimpse at the deeper and complex variegations of research allowing us to get a deeper understanding of the challenges to face. They may also allow us to address what we are facing in our field with a more informed perspective.

Personally, in fact, I have found these tools very insightful and useful. As a synthetic chemist, I often notice the tendency to think of molecules and chemical modifications in a somewhat more simplistic or "plain" manner, while the computational approaches explored in some of my secondments have allowed me to recognize the deeper complexity of the drug optimization and to understand that the process should never be reduced to a simple, two-dimensional view.

To sum up, my secondments have allowed me hands-on experience with computational software used in drug discovery, exposed me to different mindsets and approaches and even joined engaging scientific discussions which would have been less likely to happen! Secondments offer not only the chance to learn new techniques but also the opportunity to engage with diverse scientific mindsets and approaches. This opens up the possibility of meaningful collaborations that might not be possible or would happen differently if I had stayed in my home country.

These are just some of the many benefits: meeting other experts, hearing personal stories, and seeing how different paths and minds intersect, I do believe this fosters networking, and contributes to a shared European identity. The different approaches to the projects, meetings, interpretation of data and scientific papers, and software, even when using the same software or working on similar tasks, are intriguing and open-minding.

Therefore, I would define these scientific tools as essential allowing a better exchange, as they facilitate exchange. After all, isn’t scientific progress built on the exchange of ideas and discoveries (and thus minds)?

So that’s how I would spell/summarise them out as: 
Scientific
Enriching
Correspondences
On
Novel
Data-exploration
Matching
Engaging
Networking
Team-building
Strategies
 
Thank you, ALLODD and the European Commission, for supporting this!
Regards,
ESR7 Vincenzo Di Lorenzo