(Vienna, 6 April 2010) The European conference to harmonise PhD education in biomedicine in Europe will be held for the first time in Vienna in 2010. Under the motto “The Advancement of European Biomedical and Health Science PhD Education by Cooperative Networking” 200 representatives from more than 100 biomedical institutions from over 35 countries are expected to attend and hold specialist lectures in the form of presentations and workshops.
The European association ORPHEUS (ORganization for PhD Education in Biomedicine and Health Sciences in the European System) was founded in 2004 and aims to achieve a harmonisation of PhD studies in biomedicine and health sciences at European level. As these programmes are still far from uniform and therefore qualifications can have different meanings even in Europe, it is now the intention of ORPHEUS to create related quality standards without standardising existing education and training systems, however. For this reason, the initiative also constitutes a major part of the “Bologna process”, which aims to create a uniform European higher education area, and of the connected standards in bachelor and master studies.
This year’s conference will focus on the following main themes:
- How to manage joint PhD degrees between different countries?
- How to manage a PhD education partnership between universities, research institutes and scientific societies?
- How to manage a PhD education partnership between academia and industry?
- How to promote mobility of students from less developed European countries?
- How to promote “healthy” brain drain and brain gain to raise the scientific potential both in the higher developed as well as in the less developed countries?
- How to raise funds for joint PhD programmes, identify gaps in the national and EU funding systems such as PhD programmes that are missing in a variety of countries or EU programmes that exclude basically less developed countries and how to lobby for these new initiatives?
“The Orpheus initiative constitutes a key step towards achieving the goals of the Bologna process. We are therefore pleased to not only be able to play a significant role here but also to host the conference for the first time,” says Univ. Prof. Dr. Hannes Stockinger, the conference chairman.
The 5th Orpheus Conference will be held from 8 to 10 April 2010 in the Lecture Hall Centre of the Medical University of Vienna. More information about the Orpheus Conference can be found in
» MedUni Vienna’s online calendar
5th Orpheus Conference
The European conference to harmonise PhD education in biomedicine in Europe will be held for the first time in Vienna in 2010. Under the motto “The Advancement of European Biomedical and Health Science PhD Education by Cooperative Networking” 200 representatives from more than 100 biomedical institutions from over 35 countries are expected to attend and hold specialist lectures in the form of presentations and workshops.