The main aim with this course is to try to cover the whole cancer research continuum, also to bridge the gap between the preclinic and basic research into the clinical and also, of course, look at the adaption of the health technologies that we have. But also to bring people closer to each other and get a good networking and for the expertise that are here, people can discuss. So bringing people together and increase their knowledge in things that maybe they haven’t been thinking about before in different fields.
The first course they ran in 2011 and it was organised by FEBS and in collaboration with the EuorcanPlatform. So they have already done this massive amount of work for a bunch of students. Now we hope to also run it next year again.
What do you hope delegates will take from this course?
For their knowledge, that they should be updated and hopefully some new ones but also getting another understanding of other fields because surely you sit with yours but it’s also good to say, “OK, what do my neighbours do?” and with that knowledge maybe think there are projects and work in a new way. If you have new contacts also, like bringing Europe together and researchers together, so if you find new friends here and colleagues and you can think of a project which has a new aspect, that’s fantastic. It’s also having had a chance to discuss with those which are at the front because even though there are good overviews here for the different fields there is also frontier news. So of course it’s exciting also to be able to discuss that part. So a lot of things. Hopefully also it will cover, the course, the gap that there is, because there are many courses perhaps targeted to different fields and topics but this one trying to get everything in is really valuable for the researchers. A lot of things I hope that they bring with them and I hope that they are happy.
Why is this course an important part of the EurocanPlatform Project?
The project is a project to create infrastructure in cancer research and it’s a network of excellence. Of course, also for the education in the bigger view it’s what we put in now that we will get back. But also, as I said previously, the translational part is… usually courses are more specific in different fields so this one is trying to get it all in. These kinds of courses are not that many yet.
What are the next steps?
For education we are doing this course next year as well so we hope it to become a recurrent activity. Then for the other parts of the project we are aiming to develop the strategies within prevention but early detection and therapeutics and then finally we also have economics and outcomes research.
