This week, we talk to Maria Leptin about her path to the head of the European Research Council 

• Maria claims she didn’t receive any formal mentoring advice, but rather absorbed and learnt along the way
• Against the perceived wisdom, Maria warns against the advice to be continually networking. She advises to listen to what others say and then add your own thoughts.
• Maria is sure that if you really enjoy the stuff you're doing, then you will do it well and you'll get something out of it.
• She says that sabbatical breaks can be good to ‘put your brain to air a little bit’
• She says the ERC aims to  select the very best researchers across Europe, across all disciplines, and allow them to make wonderful discoveries. 
• To attract ERC funding, organizations or countries or regions need to create an environment where researchers are happy to work and have good conditions.
• Maria makes a passionate plea for fundamental research and better access for science journalists
• After a lie-in, Maria starts the day with a coffee and a cookie in the office
• Maria likes our question “if you had $100 million or euros to spend in science, how would you spend it?” She uses it herself in interviews.

She mentioned these institutions and researchers

• University of Bonn : https://www.uni-bonn.de/en/university/university
• University of Heidelberg : https://www.uni-heidelberg.de/en
• Basel Institute of Immunology : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basel_Institute_for_Immunology
• MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology : https://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/
• Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology : https://www.mpg.de/151769/biology-tuebingen
• European Molecular Biology Organization : https://www.embo.org/ 
• European Research Council (ERC) : https://erc.europa.eu/homepage
• Fritz Melchers : https://www.tbvi.eu/team/prof-georg-friedrich-fritz-melchers/

To find out more about Maria visit her websites or follow her on Twitter

• Website : https://erc.europa.eu/erc_member/maria-leptin
• Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Leptin
• ORCID : https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7097-348X
• Maria on Twitter :https://twitter.com/mleptin

To find out more about Renaud and Jonathan :

• Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/
• Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20

More about the soundtrack :
Music by Amaria - Lovely Swindler https://soundcloud.com/amariamusique/