Gulbenkian hosts EMERALD Summer School
The IGC held the 2nd edition of the 1st EMERALD Summer School (19-23 June 2023), which forms an integral part of the advanced and specialized training for the fellows.
The Summer Schools are an initiative defined to implement every year of the project, dedicated to a specific educational topic that aims to prepare physicians-scientist to start their new roles as candidates for the EMERALD Doctoral Program, nourish them with an overview of the leading research aspects, and provide them with cutting-edge biomedical skills.
This Summer School, focused on training the 16 fellows recruited during the 2nd call, was co-designed by CRG as the EMERALD Coordinating institute and implemented by IGC as the host institution for the Summer School, which is hosting 3 of the EMERALD fellows over the next four years.
The main educational objective was to provide an integrated introduction to the research world while connecting medicine and research through cutting-edge biomedical skills. The participants were trained in important topics such as launching into the research lab, modern scientific publishing, open science & research integrity, translational research, imaging & bioinformatics, sex and gender dimension in research, science communication & society, and career perspectives for physician-scientists, among other relevant topics.
The need for specialized PhD programs for medical doctors
Despite rapid advances in biomedical research, discoveries only occasionally immediately translate into medical innovations that improve diagnoses or result in new treatments. Filling that gap is critical to tackling global health challenges such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and cancer. Physician-scientists are uniquely positioned to overcome this barrier as they can help identify where research is most needed and expand that knowledge to benefit patients.
EMERALD is an International PhD Programme for Medical Doctors that trains and nurtures the next generation of physician-scientists. The first specialized PhD program for medical doctors working European-wide trains 23 medical doctors from 17 nationalities who are developing a PhD in cutting-edge research in 7 research institutes from 6 EU member states and 37 partner organizations across 10 European countries.
EMERALD is born in the heart of EU-LIFE, an alliance of 15 European institutes of excellence in life sciences, including this project’s partners. It intends to bring research and clinical practice closer together and, at the same time, be a catalyst for a more extensive network of physician-scientists who will help to bring these two areas closer together to identify more innovative societal responses in the future.
EMERALD is a Marie-Sklodowska Curie Action (MSCA) co-funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No 101034290 and the EMERALD Consortium.
EMERALD host Institutions
More details about the EMERALD Programme (https://www.emerald-mdphd.eu).