Organised so far by PhD students and postdoctoral researchers at IRB Barcelona, RIMLS, CPR and SEMM, the ENABLE conferences will be funded by FEBS and IUBMB, which guarantee the continuity of future gatherings. The 2022, 2023 and 2025 conferences will be held in Europe while the 2024 event will be held outside Europe.
Funded under the Science with and for Society Programme of Horizon 2020, ENABLECARES will deliver high-level training in open science, entrepreneurship and other relevant transferable skills to young scientists in Europe. Building on the expertise of IRB Barcelona's Innovation Department and Radboud University on entrepreneurship and Open Science, ENABLECARES will implement two training curricula in these subjects (nodes) at all four partners through co-creation and Train-the-Trainers strategies.
The ENABLE international conferences, which have been held annually since 2017, are scientific gatherings organised by and for young researchers that seek to ensure the next generation of scientific leaders.
Initially funded by the European Commission's Horizon2020 programme, the first four conferences were held in the cities hosting the headquarters of the four entities leading the project: the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) in Barcelona, Spain; the Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences (RIMLS) in Nijmegen, The Netherlands; The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research (CPR) in Copenhagen, Denmark; and the Scuola Europea di Medicina Molecolare (SEMM), in Milan, Italy.
For the next four FEBS-IUBMB-ENABLE events (2022-2025), the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) and the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB), which have sponsored the conferences since 2017, have signed an agreement by which they will fund the organisation of the gatherings, thus guaranteeing their continuity.
"ENABLE conferences are a unique opportunity to experience science in a different way. By combining top-notch scientific discussions with career development and public outreach activities, ENABLE empowers young researchers to become the biomedical professionals of tomorrow, " says Gianmarco Di Mauro, organiser of the 1st ENABLE conference (Barcelona 2017).
Associated research centres and intercontinental rotation
In this new cycle of FEBS-IUBMB-ENABLE conferences, in addition to the four core research centres, other international research institutions can apply to become associated centres and host one of the events. Regarding the associated centres, FEBS-IUBMB-ENABLE will look for one in a non-European country to ensure that one of the conferences is held on another continent.
ENABLE (now FEBS-IUBMB-ENABLE) conferences are international and interdisciplinary meetings involving audiences from a variety of backgrounds, cultures and generations. The incorporation of associated research centres allows further enrichment of the FEBS-IUBMB-ENABLE conference programmes and provides greater added value, both for the PhD students participating in the Organising Committee and those attending the events.
The essence of FEBS-IUBMB-ENABLE conferences
The FEBS-IUBMB-ENABLE conferences are organised by a Scientific Committee composed of young researchers (PhD and postdoctoral students) from several European institutions and members from FEBS and the IUBMB Young Scientists Forum (YSF).
The annual ENABLE conference includes a scientific symposium, addressing current issues in molecular life sciences, and a series of activities focused on providing guidance on employment opportunities. FEBS-IUBMB-ENABLE also seeks to engage the general public through outreach events.
ENABLing CAReErS: priming talent for success in biomedicine
Also, February 11 2021 witnessed the launch of the kick-off meeting of the ENABLECARES project, where members from the 5 project beneficiaries and the European Commission gathered online to sync up and discuss all the points to guide the project to success.
ENABLECARES is a consortium formed by IRB Barcelona, Radboud university medical center, Radboud University, the European School of Molecular Medicine and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Centre for Protein Research at the University of Copenhagen. The multidisciplinary background of project team members includes research managers, academic officers, members of innovation and technology transfer departments, entrepreneurs, data scientists, data stewards, and open science managers, among others.
ENABLECARES came about as a response to a need for career counselling for young biomedical researchers, identified during the successful EU-funded project, Enable. Clara presented the main project goals and the expected impact on researchers’ employability, the excellence of the partners’ training programme and ultimately the potential contribution of the project to European Policy.
Coordinated by IRB Barcelona, the European project ENABLECARES will provide training in Open Science, entrepreneurship and innovation management to young scientists joining IRB Barcelona through this call and others. This training initiative is based on empowering these researchers and giving them the tools necessary to excel in their professional careers.
ENABLECARES gathers a variety of expertise, all of which will be put to the service of enhancing the career opportunities of young researchers.
ENABLECARES will enrich the transferable skills course catalogue of its five partners (IRB Barcelona, Radboud University Medical Center, Radboud University, the European School of Molecular Medicine and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Centre for Protein Research at the University of Copenhagen) with state-of-the-art training on advanced competencies increasingly demanded by emerging professions.
Training curricula in entrepreneurship and open science will be established through co-creation and train-the-trainers strategies based on the expertise of IRB Barcelona, Radboud University Medical Center and Radboud University.
Participants will benefit from the support of local career advisors trained by IRB Barcelona’s Academic Office. These advisors will help personalise their training itineraries with the most suitable combination of workshops and additional transferable skills courses available locally.
The ENABLECARES project will last 2 years, but it will optimise the training of young researchers at IRB Barcelona well beyond as it follows a "train-the- trainers" system. This approach allows a well-orchestrated transfer of knowledge from experienced staff to reference trainers, thereby retaining expertise at the Institute and benefiting future generations.
ENABLECARES will track the career paths of participants after they have completed the courses. This information will set the basis for further actions to modernise PhD programmes to ensure greater employment opportunities.
