TRIPLE: Behind the Scenes #8: Marina Angelaki

In the series “TRIPLE: Behind the Scenes”, we feature individual staff members from the TRIPLE project team to give a face to the people behind the scenes. What is their role in the project, their background, and how did they get in touch with the Open Science movement?

Marina Angelaki. Photo: Private

This time, we introduce to you Marina Angelaki. Marina works at EKT, the Greek National Documentation Centre, a public organisation that promotes knowledge, research, innovation and digital transformation. As a digital and natural infrastructure of national scope, EKT’s institutional role is to collect, organize and preserve the entire Greek scientific, research and cultural output, disseminating it at both national and global levels.

Marina, what is your role in the TRIPLE project?

I am mainly involved in WP8 activities, that is activities that focus on the communication and dissemination of the project‘s results. For instance, together with EKT’s graphic designer, we developed the project’s visual identity, while in the last month I was involved in the preparation of the consortium-internal Communication Workshop that was held on 21 September. In addition, I oversee EKT’s input to other work packages and act as the contact person between EKT and the project coordinator.

What is your background in terms of previous work experience and academic discipline, and which specific perspective(s) does that background contribute to TRIPLE?

To be honest, before joining EKT I had not heard about “Open Access“. While as a PhD student I was frustrated by the fact that journal articles that I wanted to access were behind paywalls, unfortunately not much discussion around this issue was taking place at the university. So, when a few years after completing my PhD in Sociology I joined EKT to work on EU projects focusing on the promotion and alignment of Open Access/Open Science policies I was really excited to work on something that could help researchers and contribute to making science better. As a social scientist interested in public policies and the ways in which the EU impacts their implementation at the national level, I am intrigued to explore the factors that facilitate or impede policy adoption.  

Over the years, I have also been involved in the organisation of various awareness-raising and training activities targeting primarily social sciences and humanities (SSH) researchers from Greece. I am always happy to see their interest in Open Access/Open Science and their willingness to adopt related practices in their daily work. The feedback received is a valuable input for TRIPLE and the design of the various services.

Marina’s workplace, NHRF/EKT headquarters

What are you currently working on in the TRIPLE project?

September has turned out to be quite a busy month…. Given my commitments in other EU projects, I have tried to limit my involvement in TRIPLE to the preparation of the Communication Workshop about the workflow of planning, promoting and reporting events that we had been planning for some time now. The workshop has been a success – thanks to the different workflows we have designed and the input from workshop participants, everyone’s life will become a bit easier (I know that project – and event – reporting will never be either easy or fun…. but at least we have tried).

In addition, I am also reviewing a couple of deliverables, i.e. official reports the different work packages have to submit to the EU.

How has the pandemic changed your working routines in the TRIPLE project?

As my work in EKT is all about EU projects, the pandemic has affected my “travel“ routines considerably because all meetings and events have been taking place online since early 2020. On the positive side (trying to be a bit optimistic), we have organised regular online meetings, and as a result, this “new routine” has led to the creation of stronger bonds among team members. All of us hope that we will soon be able to meet in person which I am really looking forward to, as with some colleagues the only contact thus far has been only online. So, following the wine tasting workshop in Pisa, we could meet in Athens to admire the Greek sunset….

On a more personal note, I try to avoid spending too much time in front of a computer screen, so I take advantage of the fact that I live in Athens and can easily reach the sea where I enjoy doing watersports.

Marina enjoys doing watersports, such as standup paddleboarding, near her home in Greece

Thank you so much for the interview, Marina!

The TRIPLE project is funded by the European Commission, under Grant Agreement No. 863420. Project coordinator is Suzanne Dumouchel (Huma-Num), Co-coordinator of OPERAS. For more information please contact her at Suzanne.Dumouchel[at]huma-num.fr.