I’m a research and project manager at the Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia. My research is in the area of machine learning, data/text mining and semantic Web. About ten years ago I started working on text – using machine learning techniques on textual data, web data. My PhD thesis was on adjusting certain machine learning approaches to handle large amounts of textual data. We first got involved in PASCAL as a collaborating site (project partner). In the first year I was in charge of the thematic programme on text mining, learning and natural language processing. Being female I also became involved with the Gender Action Plan – something each network has to write about (at the same time I was running side projects independent of PASCAL on Women in Science). I was also having a personal issue, for right before PASCAL started, we got the baby! So it was very appropriate: women in science, with a baby, and I still had to go to meetings, which worked very well with PASCAL. Researchers in PASCAL are very flexible, so it was very helpful being able to bring a preschool child with me to events. He attended a scientific event for the first time when he was five months old; before he was one he had already attended many project meetings! He listens to music, plays games on the computer, watches cartoons, and being here has helped him learn some English and interact with new people. PASCAL has given me a great chance to do very interesting research and collaborate with new people. The network of excellence is also very special. I was very surprised how well the network was managed – the open structure of the network, and the impression that if you want, you could be even more active than originally listed in the proposal. For example, in the last internal call there was a call for “Brokerage of Expertise” and four people from our institute benefited, which was a very good experience for them. PASCAL was also exceptional for the events. PASCAL had a number of workshops and challenges, of very good quality, so attending these was very valuable, especially for meeting many enthusiastic people. It’s always good to be surrounded by enthusiastic people, and when their interests overlap with yours it’s even better. What was really fun in PASCAL was the dynamic that some of the partners who initially played a lesser role had a chance to show what they knew, to establish their credibility and travel – something our site benefited from. Through PASCAL we were able to host several established professors who came to visit us in Slovenia for several weeks, giving talks, performing joint work. In addition our students visited other sites, and students from other sites visited us, which was good. This was only possible because the funding had not been distributed to all the separate sites in advance, unlike in other networks. We’ve also learned lessons, particularly about the financial management of things like visits – in PASCAL 2 we will make sure each site has a financial secretary to record the details, rather than a researcher like myself doing the job. I think PASCAL is a great example of a network of excellence – I don’t know of any other network of excellence that set such an example. Actually some of the other networks applying now for a new round of funding are following the example of PASCAL in many respects. Dunja Mladenic