Seven EU-LIFE members get together to launch a European-wide PhD program to train physician-scientists

CRG (Spain), Institut Curie (France), BRIC (Denmark), IGC (Portugal), MDC (Germany), NKI (The Netherlands), and VIB (Belgium), all members of the EU-LIFE Alliance, got together to create Emerald, the International PhD Programme for Medical Doctors. Alongside these host institutions, EU-LIFE is one of 37 partner organisations which will support the training plan.

“We urgently require scientists with a medical background who will play a crucial role in applying advances in omics, big data, artificial intelligence or high-resolution microscopy to address patient needs in the 21st century”, says Michela Bertero, Head of International and Scientific Affairs at CRG, who is coordinating the training programme. “However, the fragmentation of healthcare systems in Europe means that the development of European MDPhD programmes have been historically isolated, often lacking in collaboration and cross-border mobility.”And adds, “Emerald is a groundbreaking PhD programme, and the EU-LIFE community with our long-standing collaborations was instrumental in shaping the concept and preparing the successful proposal”.  

Emerald is a pioneering European-wide training programme for physician-scientists. Funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme, it will provide medical doctors with state-of-the-art biomedicine training and help bridge the gap between laboratory research and clinical practice. It will also offer them the unique opportunity to move to a different country to conduct a cutting-edge PhD research project, participate in tailored summer schools, benefit from peer-mentoring and explore and establish new collaborations.

As an Emerald partner organisation, EU-LIFE will explore potential collaborations among the host institutions with the aim to identify and propose translational research areas. EU-LIFE will also participate in other project activities, such as evaluation processes, and mentoring on career development to PhD fellows.

The first call, for a total of 12 positions, opened on 13 September 2021. The initial deadline for applications is 14 November 2021. Each position will be based at one of the seven host institutes.

For more information, visit the project’s website on https://emerald-mdphd.eu/