Training Overview
ETUDE provides an interdisciplinary training program on Functional Disorders (FD) to 15 Early Stage Researchers (ESR). The training program covers scientific, personal and complementary education. The ETUDE training program is based on the triple ‘I’ approach which stands for:
- Innovative
- International
- Intersectoral
Firstly, this means a training at excellent and attractive research institutions, where specific knowledge through original and innovative research practice will be gained. Secondly, this training includes international networking through meetings and secondments. Lastly, this program includes a strong interdisciplinary training involving both academia and industry. This enables the ESRs to develop excellent skills to transfer their knowledge to specific products with regard to their research project.
The ETUDE training is embedded in an ETUDE Graduate school that includes five thematic network-wide training events, project responsibilities, the participation at conferences as well as personal courses. Moreover, each ESR has to attend additional obligatory courses such as local courses, courses on sex and gender as well as Open Science practice. The individual process of each ESR is planned and recorded in a Personalized Career Development Plan (PCDP).
Network-wide training events
The ESRs will attend five network-wide training events. The first network-wide training event puts the clinical problem of FD in the center. The following four network-wide training events will contain a scientific topic of FD: mechanisms, diagnosis, treatment, and stigma. Theses network-wide training events are all composed of an Advanced Scientific Course (ASC), a matching Transferable Skills Course (TSC), a Dissemination Activity (DA) and a Clinical Crash Course (CCC). The ASC aims to educate each ESR in the theoretical framework of FD, the methodological process and the current state of the art. The TSC aims to educate each ESR in science communication, entrepreneurial skills, and patient involvement in studies. The DA aims to educate the ESRs to develop skills in writing texts for the project website, rewrite for instance Wikipedia entries or developing materials for Online Courses. CCC are organized for local health care professionals. Finally, there will be a Final Symposium organized by the ESRs. This will be combined with a Summer school and aims to transfer the ESRs’ knowledge and skills to the next generation of researchers. A list of ETUDE training events including time and lead institute can be found in the table below.
Training School | Training Courses | Month | Lead institute |
I Kick-off | ASC Clinical Training TSC Online Science Communication DA Project website | 10 | UMCG |
II Diagnosis | ASC Diagnostic classification and assessment instruments TSC Involving patients in research DA Wikipedia entries on FD | 16 | UKE |
III Mechanisms | ASC Conceptual models and their experimental, computational and epidemiological approaches TSC Entepreneurial skills and IPR DA Materials for Massive Open Online Course for general public | 24 | JGU/ELTE |
IV Treatment | ASC Treatment options and their evidence TSC Translation of research to care DA Materials for e-learning for professionals | 32 | UNIFI |
V Stigma | ASC Attitude and stigma TSC How to fight stigma DA Anti-stigma campaign | 40 | WMU |
VI Final Symposium | ESR’s organise symposium to present their final results TSC Inclusive science DA Summer school | 45 | UMCG |
Secondments
Additional courses
There are three additional obligatory courses to be attended by each ESR. There are local courses, a training on sex and gender and a course on the Open Science practice.
Local courses:
The ETUDE training is complemented by three obligatory local courses, that each ESR has do attend at their home university. Content will be the gaining of knowledge and skills in a) Research Data Management b) Project planning and management, and c) Research ethics and Scientific Integrity.
Sex and gender:
In online training Modules on Sex and Gender in Health Research by the Canadian Institute of Heath Research (CIHR), each ESR will gain knowledge about sex and gender in biomedical research, in primary data collection with human participants, and in the analysis of secondary data from human participants.
Open Science practice:
The ESR are trained through online lectures and online courses using the so called “Open Science Career Assessment Matrix” to develop Open Science skills. The training aims to gain an understanding of the nature of the Open Science practice, and the way to make research information accessible related to open access publications and open publication of research data.
Personal Career Development Plan (PCDP)
The PCDP serves to individually plan and monitor the development of each ESR regarding knowledge and skills. It is a tool that covers the process of learning including all goals and requirements of the ETUDE training program such as the network-wide meetings, and the additional obligatory courses. The PCDP has to be monitored by the involved primary supervisor and once a year send to the Training and Transfer of Knowledge Coordinator for reporting purposes and tracking progress.
