i2TRON - PhD Training Program

Career development and training opportunities

Characteristics of a Translational Scientist

Scientific and social collaborations 

All projects are embedded in the research group of the prospective supervisor and seven projects are also supported by co-supervisors. PhD candidates will thus work in a quality supervision environment. They are however expected to progressively develop autonomy on their individual project and lead their own personal development. 

Furthermore, all PhD projects and their research focus interlink within the DTU, providing a wealth of resources and support to succeed in the respective fields.

The Luxembourg research environment and the DTU i2TRON offer a highly interactive scientific environment. PhD candidates will be able to exchange (amongst others) at  

PhD candidates will also have the opportunity to actively participate in international scientific conferences by giving oral or poster presentations on their research work. Short research stays abroad are foreseen for certain PhD projects.

General PhD training offers 

Following training is accessible to all Luxembourg-based PhD candidates in life sciences: 
 

University of Luxembourg (UL) training courses: 

MANDATORY for all PhD candidates: Good Scientific Practice training to get acquainted with ethical standards in research and principles of research integrity 

Optional:

  1. Transferable skills and career development training
    Consult the current program of the winter semester 2020/2021

  2. Intense science communication training by DESCOM

  3. Entrepreneurship training by the UL Incubator 

  4. Scientific training by the Doctoral Programme in Systems and Molecular Biomedicine within the Doctoral School in Science and Engineering
    This includes but is not limited to Introduction to R, Computational systems biomedicine, Microscopy techniques

  5. Animal experimentation training (FELASA)
     

Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) training courses:

  1. LIH Training & Workshops
    Yearly series of short training sessions in four categories: scientific skills, transferable skills, methodology, intellectual property

    Consult the programs of 2020 (courses postponed due to COVID sanitary crisis), 2019, 2018 and 2017
     

  2. Career support workshops by Association Bernard Grégory such as “What’s next after my PhD?”, “Preparing for postdoctoral mobility” or “Writing efficient job applications”

i2TRON-translational training opportunities 

The translation character of this DTU further provides students access to a wider range of training.

  1. Translational research training, including


  2. Clinical studies training, including

    • Clinical research with a focus on personalised medicine and digital health
    • Successful planning of clinical trials
    • Introduction to biobanking
    • Medical Grand Rounds and Tumour Boards from clinical partners
    • The patient perspective in biomedical research

  3. Big data training, including

    • Introduction to bioinformatics
    • Theory and practice in the analysis of big health data
    • Health data in light of GDPR compliance
    • Elixier training courses: https://elixir-luxembourg.org/training

Further support 

The DTU is managed by a scientific coordinator, Prof Rejko Krüger, and two co-coordinators, Prof Simone Niclou and Prof Markus Ollert. 

A dedicated DTU administrator acts as a direct contact person for the PhD candidates. LIH also has a support unit for doctoral training related matters.