EMERALD, the first European-wide PhD program for medical doctors, coordinated by the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona, has today launched its 2nd call for applications with the aim of recruiting 15 Fellows from any nationality, to work on a PhD in 8 top biomedical research centers across Europe, 3 of which will be hired by CRG. The deadline for applications is the 28th August, 2022.

The 4.5-million-euro programme is bridging the gap between laboratory research and clinical practice by providing doctors with biomedical research training at one of eight research institutes across Europe.

Despite rapid advances in biomedical research, new discoveries do not always find their way to clinical practice, which would improve diagnostics or result in new and better treatments. Bridging this gap, known as the “valley of death”, is key to tackling global health challenges such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and cancer.

Physician-scientists, medical doctors with a PhD in biomedical research, are uniquely placed to overcome this gap through their clinical insights, scientific knowledge and academic experience, helping identify where innovative research is most urgently needed and expand that knowledge for the benefit of patients.

“Medical doctors provide a unique drive and vision to biomedical research. In fact, many of the most important breakthroughs in biology have been led by medically-trained scientists. However, this has only occurred when medical doctors have been provided with opportunities to complement their clinical training with scientific training in top labs. This is particularly true now that new technologies such as genomics, organoids, or artificial intelligence are becoming central to modern medicine,” says Jorge Ferrer, MD-PhD, Coordinator of the EMERALD Programme and Group Leader of the Regulatory Genomics and Diabetes lab at CRG. “EMERALD is a great opportunity not only to offer excellent scientific training for physicians, but to push forward the development of European-wide MD-PhD programmes”.

Eight biomedical research institutes are overcoming this challenge by providing medical doctors with unique opportunities to move to a different country to conduct a cutting-edge PhD research project, participate in tailored summer schools, benefit from peer-mentoring and explore and establish new collaborations.

Each position will be based at one of the eight host institutes, each with strong experience in research training programmes and with most of them having previously run training programmes specifically for physician-scientists. Alongside the host institutions, there are more than 30 EMERALD partners from 10 European countries, including universities, hospitals, patient associations, pharmaceutical companies and publishers, with each partner offering secondment opportunities, collaborations and bespoke training for the medical doctors.

The host institutions are:

• The Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona, Spain
• The Institut d'Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS)
• The Institut Curie in Paris, France
• The Biotech Research & Innovation Centre (BRIC) at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark
• The Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian - Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC) in Lisbon, Portugal
• The Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) in Berlin, Germany
• The Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• The Flanders Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) in Ghent, Belgium

Further details on the application process can be found on the EMERALD programme’s official website. The deadline for applications is the 28th of August 17h CET, 2022.