GALENOS EURO-PHD · Towards a European PhD in Advanced Drug Delivery

Final Activity Report Summary - GALENOS EURO-PHD (Towards a European PhD in Advanced Drug Delivery)

This program provided structured research training for early-stage researchers (ESR) in the field of pharmaceutical sciences, particularly in the area of biopharmaceutics and pharmaceutical technology, and substantially contributed to the establishment of a European PhD certificate in this sector. The delivery of modern biopharmaceuticals required the investigation of novel pharmaceutical dosage forms, thus the degree was entitled GALENOS Euro-PhD in advanced drug delivery, putting special emphasis on the ESR capability to work on an interdisciplinary and international basis. The program contributed significantly to the establishment of this new uniform and Europe-wide recognised academic qualification which could be acquired as a facultative, complementary to the existing PhD degrees of the participating universities. The GALENOS Euro-PhD stood for academic excellence for future scientific leaders in the field, documenting their additional training and experience with the multidisciplinary, international and inter-sectoral aspects which were typical for this field of science. The participation in the program was open to graduate students from European Universities who obtained a degree in a relevant area, e.g. in pharmacy, biology, chemistry, medicine or engineering, and who were enrolled in graduate studies, usually leading to a university PhD in the field of pharmaceutical sciences. 40 ESR participated in the structured research training of this initiative and were qualified for the enrolment of the GALENOS Euro-PhD program. All 40 ESR successfully completed the training and not a single drop-out had to be documented. The majority of the participating ESR were ‘best-cases’, with only very few participants having a professional status that was below average. Please note that ‘below average’ in our terms implied that a significant professional promotion or graduation was not yet reported for the specific participant. The structured research training consisted of 40 one-year fellowships for ESR at a lab of one of the consortium members, each of which was a leading institute with particular scientific expertise, as well as of eight organised teaching and training activities, called thematic network meetings (TNM), consisting of scientific training, training on complementary skills and networking activities. For professional management and monitoring of the project various activities were crucial to the program success. As a general rule, the consortium member meetings were embedded in the TNM, apart from the kick-off meeting which was held in Brussels shortly after the coordinator received the European Community’s funding decision. The professional management and administration by the Central Network Office (CNO) had to be noted as essential factors for the success of the program. The CNO, composed by the coordinator and the management partner Eurice, managed a number of processes for building a reliable and formal fundament for the project. This included the elaboration of various documents, e.g. a standard contract for the ESR, conditions of awarding the GALENOS Euro-PhD and the annual reports. Moreover, the CNO managed the application process for the ESR fellowships and functioned as an intermediate between the ESR and their individual host institutions. Finally, the CNO was the accreditation office for the GALENOS Euro-PhD and thus the clearing station for the ESR questions and concerns in this matter. Regarding the dissemination of the project results, the CNO maintained the homepage www.GALENOS.net that was intensively frequented by project members as well as by a broad audience outside the project. Moreover, a poster and a project flyer were issued at the project beginning and a brochure was issued at the project end, documenting the tremendous success of the program. Presentations on conferences, mainly given by the coordinator, proved to be essential regarding the promotion of the program and the GALENOS Euro-PhD as well as the dissemination of its results.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union