Lago Maggiore

After the Gorizia workshop, I headed off to the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, situated in the small village of Ispra. Ispra is one of many little villages scattered along the shores of Lake Maggiore, which is, incidentally, the second largest Lake in Italy! I was going there to present my research, chat with colleagues/friends, and as it turned out, to check the place out as a potential place of work. A few weeks ago, and long after the visit had already been arranged, the centre put out a call for grantholders to work on research on "Emerging Technologies: Governance under Conditions of Uncertianty and Complexity". Surprisingly, this could be considered exactly what I am doing! So I applied, which means I sent off the 2-3 page CV required under the European template. Fortunately for me, before travelling to Italy I was told that I had been ranked as the best candidate for the position, and that there would be no interviews, just offers!

While in Gorizia I was hanging out with and chatting with two of the people currently working on this topic at the centre - the previously mentioned Silvio and the as yet unmentioned, Matthieu (who was, incidentally, the organiser of the nanotechnology group in Gorizia and is the guy on the right in the group pic of the previous post!) Matthieu gave me a lift from Gorizia to Ispra (about a 5 hour drive, with food and fuel breaks) and served as my totally fabulous and delightfully attentive guide for both my visit to the centre and to the whole lakes district as an area. The tour began in Varese. ..

This is the largest city near the research centre and many of the people working there live here and commute, Matthieu included. Although Varese is not on Lago Maggiore as such, it does have its own lake to make it feel special! After arriving from Gorizia I spent one night in Varese and took a small walking tour of the city with Matthieu the next day. The smell of money was evident in both the size of the hotel beds, the style of the city parks and the design of the government buildings facing the park...


Very beautiful areas also surround the city, which feels very green when you head out into the suburbs. Matthieu showed me the area where he lived, his local park (also beautiful), and his incredible house. He is renting a converted old stables of a huge villa that sits within a enormous fenced gardens in the suburbs of Varese. This is the villa (that the owners use for about 1 week a year in August). No joke. After seeing this I must say, the position was looking appealing...

After getting a feel for Varese, we headed off to the research centre (JRC in the local lingo). It was about a half an hour drive but of course the Commission has buses cruising around all the surrounding areas so as to take care of their commuters. After passing various intense security checks, I was in. It is a strange centre in a sense. Long sterile hospital corridors, lots of shared offices and various layers of division where people do not tend to know each other or intereact much in a work sense. You basically work on your own most of the time, which at the moment also has elements of appeal! It is also strange in that it is an almost totally contained little world. About 30 odd buildings within a fenced forested area, complete with 2 huge canteens and a separate coffee bar, where staff briefly gather for their schluck of espresso after lunch. The people I met were all great though, and my talk seemed to highlight exactly how closely both my current research and PhD interests fit with the action group I would work for (the action group, incidentally, is called "Quality of Scientific Information for European Policy"). After the first day of visiting the centre, I had a rather mixed impression - it was no doubt a great opportunity, but it would also clearly involve some sacrifices in terms of a really healthy, enjoyable, and productive collaborative work environment at Bergen. I was to continue mulling it over as I spent the night in Angera, a village about 10mins from the centre and on the lake shore.

Matthieu and I had long discussions over yet another delicious meal and some fine red wine, and after a lazy morning stroll along the shores of the lake the next day, I decided to say yes and accept a position working in Italy next year. Of course there remain some hurdles, me being Australian rather than European, and me wanting to start later than they would like. Things are in motion though and it is now looking like a very real possibility. Very Very Exciting! A little overwhelming, but Very Very Exciting!
xxx