Published

May 2, 2025

Modified

July 30, 2026

Short-Term Scientific Mission (STSM) blog posts

STSMs are research stays in a different country than the country of the primary affiliation of the applicant. The grants support the individual mobility of participants in the COST Action to go to an institution, organisation or research centre in another participating COST Country or accepted International Partner Country (IPC) / Near Neighbour Country (NNC), to foster collaboration and to perform research activities related to the COST Action.

Completed STSM

My STSM Experience at Durham University

In June and July 2026, Tobias Schneider visited Durham University to compare fecal-biomarker workflows between the Eawag and Durham laboratories, contributing to harmonized protocols and FAIR data standards for sedimentary fecal-biomarker research.

July 29, 2026

My STSM Experience at IRTA, Spain
In July 2026, I traveled for my STSM to Institute of Agri-Food Research and Technology (IRTA) in La Ràpita, Catalunya. Together with my host, Xavier Benito, we intended to tackle one of the most frustrating obstacles preventing the effective upload of diatom data into the Neotoma database – their taxonomic inconsistency. Have we managed this task without sacrificing our mental health? This blog post introduces the results of our work and the pathway that led us to them.
July 27, 2026

My STSM Experience at University of Cambridge

In June 2026, Beatriz Trejo spent a month at the University of Cambridge to help build a comprehensive database of Pleistocene mammals as part of a PalaeOpen STSM.

July 23, 2026

My STSM Experience in Utrecht 2026

In June 2026, Mattias Sjölander visited Utrecht University to host a brainstorming session on integrating subfossil insect and pollen data in future analyses.

July 2, 2026

My STSM Experience in Bratislava

Anișoara Filip reflects on her 2026 STSM in Bratislava, where she harmonized and digitized a Bulgarian subfossil chironomid dataset for Neotoma.

June 2, 2026

STSM: A multiproxy tale of the Azores

In April 2026, Javier de la Casa visited the Universidade dos Açores to harmonise freshwater proxy databases and produce science communication videos about multiproxy paleoecological research in the Azorean lakes.

April 27, 2026

My STSM Experience in Umeå
In March 2026, I had the opportunity to spend a Short-Term Scientific Mission (STSM) at Umeå University in Sweden as part of the PalaeOpen COST Action. The main goal of this visit was to map how Neotoma can be linked to the SEAD database—a task that turned out to be both technically challenging and deeply rewarding.
April 9, 2026

My STSM Experience in Vancouver
In August 2025, I had the chance to spend a Short-Term Scientific Mission (STSM) in Vancouver, Canada, as part of the PalaeOpen COST Action. I worked closely with Dr. Simon Goring and Socorro Dominguez Vidaña on the Neotoma Paleoecology Database. But more than that—it was a week full of productive work, fresh ideas, and the kind of collaboration that happens best when you’re walking a dog or cooking together at home.
August 15, 2025

My STSM Experience in Utrecht
In the spring of 2025, I had the opportunity to spend a Short-Term Scientific Mission (STSM) at Utrecht University as part of the PalaeOpen COST Action. My mission focused on data mobilisation and acquisition.
May 2, 2025
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