Skip to main content

Turn of the year reflections : 2015-2016

Dear friends,

I have taken up the pen so many times, the past few days, and left it again lying on the desk, by the pile of paper. What an intense and unbelievable year we have left behind tonight. What should I start with, what should I keep for last… how to express my gratitude to everyone properly, and how to give enough space to every project. 


2015 has been a breathtaking year, here in SCImPULSE. Enough so that I will surrender to the  impossibility of detailing every progress, and I will only highlight the most outstanding breakthrough for the Foundation, leaving to the blog the duty of updating about every step that brought us where we are today.

I will start by mentioning the SoundSight Training spin-off, to recall that we should all give for a good cause, and what better opportunity than to support this project which is very pragmatically trying to open the doors to honing a special “super-power” for those of us who need some tools normally to move around and know where they are. I don’t want to get started about the difference between a personal skill, and tool… we all know that having knife and a whip won’t make a chef… Do take a glance at the demonstration our team is sharing on kickstarter to understand what I am talking about, and pledge your support to their campaign for good (you can find it here

2015 has brought us also the opportunity of teaming up with some terrific teams.
We are eagerly looking forward to experiencing the radically open work approach of OpenCare (see http://www.opencare.cc), and we cannot thank enough the team, which made the proposal, and above all the spirit, a reality: thank you Edgeryders, thank you University of Bordeaux, thank you Stockholm School of Economics, thank you Municipality of Milan, thank you WeMake, and thank you European Union for believing that this vision deserved a chance.

And we have become partners of the International Master “re-Design healthcare” (you can read about it here http://www.hedux.org/master-re-design-medicine-eng.html), which is an opportunity to work with a group of impressive partners, moved by great enthusiasm, and is our first official educational partnership. A great timing that this is happening in phase with OpenCare.
2015 set the bar very high for our team activities as well. CERN|IdeaSquare hosted our collision event (you may read more about this here http://scimpulse.blogspot.it/2015/12/a-second-chance.html) in September. A week or so of intense debates, brainstormings, which we like to believe has pushed one or two steps forward many, if not all, of the projects that were represented at the meeting… and has reinforced some friendships, like the one between SCImPULSE and NotJustANumber (http://www.notjustanumber.org/). How to forget also that it was the opportunity to launch the 2RR network for sustainable and transparent research (http://2rr.ch/). 

However, 2015 has brought upon some of us some difficult challenges, and I feel it is right to let them know that we are more than a functional team, we are a family. SCImPULSE, not just each of us personally, believes that you will make past this experience, and we are looking forward to a future of new adventures together. It is early to anticipate about this, but the struggles we can only share this much is inspiring a new action from our team, for people to remember in the future that the spirit you put into your fight will make their experience lighter as well.
I thank the readers who have got this far, and shared this intimate moment with us. I will not keep you longer, and I will turn my sight to the future, shortly (if you would like to know more about our year, you could listen to this podcast http://curiouskids.co/post/Marco-Manca-Scimpulse).

2016 will be a year to deliver much. I promise you I have no doubt SCImPULSE will live up to the expectations, actually will exceed them. I know, because SCImPULSE is blessed with such a terrific team. Thank you Massimo, Stef, Stan, Denise, Irene, David (both of you ^_^), Tsilla, Henrik, Taghi, Cecilia, Luca, Annamaria, Giulio, Susana, Roberta, Roman, and everyone who might be confused about whether to define oneself as a friend or a partner… each and all of you are SCImPULSE, you are the root of our success.

This is to a great 2016!

Yours truly
Marco

--
Marco Manca, MD
Co-Founder & President
SCImPULSE Foundation