School of Medicine Hosts Eurolife Steering Committee Meeting
Posted on: 29 May 2013
The School of Medicine, to coincide with Ireland’s presidency of the EU, is hosting a Eurolife steering committee meeting on May 29th. Eurolife, a network of eight prestigious academic institutions across Europe, facilitates collaborative research, training and education, the exchange of researchers and research students and the creation of new research opportunities.
The participating institutions are:
- Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Ireland
- University of Edinburgh (UE), United Kingdom
- Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), The Netherlands
- Karolinska Institutet (KI), Sweden
- University Medicine Centre Goettingen (UMCG), Germany
- Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Spain
- University of Strasbourg (UdeS), France,
- Medical University of Innsbruck (MUI), Austria.
Commenting on the meeting, Professor Paul Browne, Head of the School of Medicine, TCD said: “It is a pleasure to host the Eurolife meeting in Dublin, particularly as Ireland is currently hosting the EU Presidency. Research and education in the medical and life sciences have been identified as key to European competitiveness and Eurolife is at the forefront of interactions at educational, research and administrative levels, harnessing our strengths to forge a genuine European network showing leadership and innovation”.
A number of significant EU funded research programmes have developed through Eurolife or with Eurolife members, emphasising how this network partnership increases research competitiveness at the European level. In order to increase its interaction at the level of postgraduate education, which is viewed as integral to its research activities, the Eurolife Education Alliance (EEA) has developed the Joint Programme in Translational and Experimental Medicine. This collaborative programme is promoting increased mobility of students and staff, exchange of information on best practice in content and assessment and aims to integrate key elements of teaching in future.
The EEA is also drawing up plans for a shared framework for doctoral degrees, facilitating the provision of doctoral degrees in more than one participating institution, and a thematic Eurolife Graduate School proposal is also being developed.
“These are exciting times for postgraduate education; networking opportunities, significant international experience and exposure to a broad range of scientific expertise at the highest levels are available through Eurolife – now we want to make them more available to our students and staff,” said Professor Ross McManus, Eurolife Coordinator of TCD and Chair of the EEA.
Professor McManus noted other developments such as Eurolife International Health Alliance (EIHA) were working to promote increased interactions between our researchers in important areas. The mission of the EIHA is to combine its complimentary expertise in International Health to deliver innovative transnational, interdisciplinary education and research programmes in health, health care policy and care delivery that best serve the needs of the developing world. EIHA will utilise its resources to champion International Health as a key priority for improving the health of the human population and will actively engage with policy makers to ensure the realisation of this vision.