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Description
The Romanian scientific community is characterized by the sense of isolation in terms of biomedical research which is reflecting on the capacity to attract research funding and establish international collaborations. The present project establishes a long-term collaboration for good practices exchange between the partners from Romania, Iceland and Norway within the medical and research education sector at the 3rd level of study with direct impact upon the PhD curricula innovation, level of knowledge among PhD students and integration on the international workforce for all three partners.
Within the project: skills and competences among PhD students from all three partners are improved by transnational learning; a common modern curriculum for medical research is developed, 3 joint scientific articles are elaborated to be published in international journals; a research e-platform containing the updated curricula developed is created.
Summary of project results
The Romanian scientific community is characterized by the sense of isolation in terms of biomedical research which is reflecting on the capacity to attract research funding and establish international collaborations. Considering the national research context in Romania, the direct effect of scientific isolation is reflecting on the formation of the PhD students and further integration in the world of work.
The present project establishes a long term collaboration for good practices exchange between the Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, RO (UMPh), University of Iceland, Reykjavik, IS (UI) and University of Oslo, Oslo, NO (UO) within the medical and research education sector with direct impact upon the PhD curricula innovation, level of knowledge among PhD students and teachers and integration on the international workforce for all three partners. In summary the project had three main directions that were accomplished during the implementation period: training of staff and PhD students at the international partners (detailed at: https://aurora-umfcluj.webnode.page/trainings/), development of an updated curricula for PhD students based on the training collaboration (https://aurora-umfcluj.webnode.page/protocols/), strengthen the institutional collaboration and researchers visibility through joint scientific articles (https://aurora-umfcluj.webnode.page/scientific-publications/). All these activities conducted to the formation of a group of researchers from all three partners (teachers and students) with improved knowledge ready to sustain a long terms collaboration at the SEE level and pyramidally share the newly acquired skills.
Within the project there were elaborated: 1) a new medical research curricula for the PhD students from the three partners: UMPh, UI and UO. It represents the most updated research curricula for doctoral studies available at national level up until this point, being formed of 10 (ten) standard operation procedures (SOPs) of molecular biology that are routinely used in medical research; 2)a research e-platform that contains the new research curricula adapted to the infrastructure of the project coordinator and partners. The platform is extending the target group of PhD students by offering access to all interested individuals and not only for those directly targeted by the project through transnational trainings. At the same time, the research e-platform is ensuring the long-term suitability of the project due to unlimited time access to the protocols; 3) three joint scientific articles: RNA sequencing suggests that non-coding RNAs play a role in the development of acquired haemophilia; Pitfalls in patenting academic CAR-T cells therapy; Design and preclinical testing of an anti-CD41 CAR T cell for the treatment of acute megakaryoblastic leukaemia.
Summary of bilateral results
The donor partners were essential in obtaining the proposed results regarding the training of the staff and students and publication of an updated curricula for the PhD program. Specifically, the partners were selected based on their knowledge that actually complement the lack of expertise of the project coordinator, UMPh. UI, represented by Prof. Dr. Jon Thor Bergthorsson contributed with their advanced knowledge in biological sample management and also genetics, information that lead to the establishment of four SOPs from the E-platform (https://aurora-umfcluj.webnode.page/protocols/ - protocols 1,2,7,8). UO represented by Associate Prof. Victor Greiff had a major contribution regarding the training of the staff and students in the domain of artificial intelligence and biostatics for medical research, domain that is very poorly approached in Romania, but essential in the same time for the generation of correct and high impact results. Also, UO expertise lead to the establishment of other four protocols from the E-platform ((https://aurora-umfcluj.webnode.page/protocols/ - protocols 3,6,9,10). Another important aspect of the international collaboration consists in the partner''s infrastructure, where staff and PhD students were able to visit and conduct experiments on equipment that are not available at the UMPh research centers - eg. high performance sequencing machines at the deCODE genetics Center from UI, robots for automated sampling at the Computational and Systems Immunologylaboratories from UO. Moreover, the partners have highly specialized PhD programs for medical research that are recognized worldwide, with numerous international students; therefore,, their experience has greatly helped in deciding the content of the PhD curricula and also establishing future collaboration through joint PhD studies and common research programs via the ERASMUS scholarship.