Coordinator: UPF

WP4 will address training and career development for both early and in-career VPH researchers. Activities will also pay special attention to the outcomes generated from other VPH-related projects and existing EC-initiatives (e.g. Marie Curie), in order to ensure complimentarity with existing activities. The ultimate goal of this WP will be the design and implementation of actions directed at the development of VPH research education and careers, and will relate closely to WP5 .

Detail

Education plays an essential role in the achievement of the ambitious objectives of the European Union, as stated by the EU at the Lisbon Summit, March 2000, “to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based society in the world capable of sustained economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.” (Excerpt from foreword by Vivian Reding, European Commissioner for Education and Culture, Curriculum Development Guidelines. New ICT). The strategic dimension of interdisciplinary research as a base to succeed in the new knowledge-based society has not been identified until recently. Indeed specialisation has been the major driver for most educational programmes.

The VPH approach offers a groundbreaking opportunity to contribute to this strategic focus in healthcare, an environment in which there could be tremendous economic and societal impact. This wealth of opportunities has been partially explored by some recent initiatives at European and international levels. All these initiatives, promoted by national reference research bodies in medicine, sciences and engineering, concur in indicating the vast unexploited opportunities, but also the need to “build capacity in terms of human capital (…)future generations will require formal training in biological, engineering and mathematical sciences, with undergraduates exposed to interdisciplinary problems while being trained in a core discipline”.(Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Academy of Engineering. Systems Biology: a vision for engineering and medicine, February 2007)

This WP defines a pragmatic and realistic set of tasks to be carried out during the lifetime of the VPH NoE. In the short-term, emphasis will be placed on the development and evaluation of mechanisms that foster interdisciplinary training experiences, led by UNOTT and UPF. The findings from such activities will be augmented by the outcome of a concurrent analysis of current and future highly qualified staff requirements in industrial and clinical environments. This study will be led by USFD. It is hoped that the findings of both exercises, when combined, will serve to initiate wider and longer-term efforts across institutions within the European Research Area in interdisciplinary training and education.

The Centre for Mathematical Medicine and Biology (CMMB) at the University of Nottingham is organising the 1st VPH NoE study group, to take place in Nottingham (June 29 - July 3, 2009) as part of the interdisciplinary/integrative training activities of this network.

Mathematics in medicine study groups are workshops for interaction between mathematicians and academic and industrial experimentalists working within the life sciences. Researchers from experimental and industrial laboratories are invited to present technical problems for study in working sessions with leading mathematicians from the academic community. Problems may come from a variety of subject areas, but should be amenable to mathematical modelling and analysis. In a week of brainstorming and mathematical modelling there is usually enough time to generate and assess many ideas for solving the problem. These meetings are attended by postgraduates and postdoctoral fellows as well as faculty members, and are hence an excellent activity for both early stage and well established researchers.

The theme of this study group is regenerative medicine with a focus on epithelial cells across different organs. On the first day of the week five (already selected) different problems will be presented from experimentalists. Groups comprised of theoretical modellers and experimentalists will spend the rest of the week tackling the particular problem.

The long-term goal of these study groups is to stimulate ideas and lead to further research and collaborations. The most common types of follow-up activities are i) follow up meetings on problems which had a promising start, ii) research output which lead to either publications or clinical/industrial uptake, iii) ongoing collaborations and grant proposals for funding for further work. Further details are available here.

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