European Network for Neuroscience

Professor Harry Steinbusch, director from Euron (the European Graduate School of Neuroscience) and coordinator Dr Nicole Senden are proud of the European research network that has gone from strength to strength for early stage scientists in the field of neuroscience.

Euron, the European Graduate School of Neuroscience has created a university network where eleven European universities are bonded by collaboration in neuroscience research. Euron offers an opportunity for PhD students and other scientists to add research competencies through the network, via workshops and coordinated courses. Started in 1995 specifically as a collaboration between prominent European universities in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands with the School for Mental Health and Neuroscience (MHeNS) of Maastricht University as the coordinating centre, Euron offers an opportunity for PhD students and other scientists to add research competencies through the network, via workshops and coordinated courses.

The aim was then, as it is today, to improve coordination of research and make the research in neuroscience highly efficient in its approach, so that researchers do not work in isolation, oblivious to the progress and ideas of European counterparts, and all those involved are linked in pushing in the same direction together. Further to this, the students themselves will gain much in experience of other university approaches and research environments.

The European Commission first recognised Euron as a Marie Curie Early Training Site in 2001 under the Framework Programme 5, and in 2006 under Framework Programme 6. As a result, over 180 PhD students all over Europe are effectively probing the rich field of neuroscience within this learning collaborative network.

Fifteen years after it's conception in 1995, the director of Euron – Professor Harry Steinbusch – has developed the initiative into a thriving community among the eleven partner universities and Euron now hosts an extensive PhD programme for PhD students in the field of neuroscience. Euron has to date trained 61 Marie Curie fellows spanning 12 nationalities. With these successes as reference, the time has now come for the next stage; Euron is applying for a PEOPLE-FP7-MC-ITN grant, this time with the innovative concept of stimulating collaboration between industry and university, once again presenting new opportunities for PhD students.

Dr. Nicole Senden, coordinator of Euron, has a full time job nurturing the personal development of MC fellows, stimulating the educational committee for developing a good programme and developing new lines for the future.

“It is a lot of work but it is fulfilling,” she says. “All these new opportunities for students to cross the border have a real benefit, as does our work in creating new collaborations, that’s what it is all about. Of course these steps can only be taken by support of the EU and with our continued hard work.” Currently, all the MC training sites are filled and the MC fellows are performing their research in the field of neuroscience in the laboratory of one of the eleven universities in Europe. After defending their thesis, most of the PhD students will receive the Euron Certificate in addition to their local PhD degree.

Euron has made a tangible difference to many research fellows and importantly their field of research. One of the first Marie Curie fellows was Dr. Pilar Martinez; she left Valencia, Spain, to go to Maastricht for research into the autoimmune disease myasthenia gravis. Now she is an assistant professor in the neuroimmunology group of Maastricht University leading a research with focus in the molecular mechanisms of neurodegenerative and neuroinflammatory diseases. Another great ambassador for Euron can be seen in Tim van Mierlo (Msc, PhD student) who started in 2006 at Maastricht University, and who spent three months in the US, afterwards moving in 2007 with his wife and newborn baby to the University of Bonn in 2008 to finish his PhD as a Marie Curie fellow. He works on a project that deals with the research of the environmental and genetic influences on Alzheimer’s Disease, with a focus on the role of disturbances in the cholesterol metabolism in the pathological development of this neuronal illness. Euron equips researchers with the means to really make a difference in their chosen direction within neuroscience.

As established as the training initiative Euron is, it offers more than just training sites. Euron also invests in an international educational PhD programme. These courses, in which collaborations between partner universities is visible, are open to all PhD students. Because of the financial support from Brussels, the registration fee is low and courses are accessible for PhD students of Euron, as well as other PhD students, also from the East European countries. Basic and also ‘hands-on’ courses (stereology, electrophysiology, rodent neuroanatomy), special topics courses (glial activiation, neurotrophic factors) and the translational courses are available. The Psychopharmacology course, as an example for a translational course runs the 6th edition in March 2010, for the second time in Portugal (hosted by University of Minho, Braga). In this interactive workshop PhD students in the field of pharmacology and neurological disorders meet in a closed venue and work together with prominent lecturers. This creates a unique research culture that bolsters every participant’s perception of their studies. The work of Euron must go on, and the programme has only recently received another grant from the EU for the development of an international Master (European Master in Neuroscience; EMiN), and is now applying for a PEOPLE-FP7-MC-ITN grant, this time with the innovative concept of stimulating collaboration between industry and university, once again presenting new challenging opportunities for PhD students.

For more information on the project, contact info@euronschool.eu

Published: Thursday, 4th February 2010 by Tom Freeman

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