The 3rd IRTG 2251 annual meeting was held in Dresden Germany

18/03/2020, Dresden Germany

From 2 March to 4 March, the IRTG 2251: ICSMD members met in the 3rd Annual Retreat in Dresden, Germany. The retreat presented the students’ excellent research progress that benefits from the cooperation, incentivized new project ideas of the second cohort, and strengthened the scientific ties between the two partner institutes.

Following a warm welcome on the retreat 70 participants from London and Dresden, Prof Bornstein, the IRTG TUD spokesperson, and Dr Rocio Sancho, the IRTG KCL spokesperson, gave an overview of the IRTG and transCampus. The growth of the IRTG 2251 was fascinating: the number of students increased from 19 to 45 in the last three years; the join-supervision structure functioned well and supported students to acquire expertise from TUD and KCL; the collaborative projects worked closely and already started to publish several joint papers.

During the retreat, students presented their projects and received constructive input and valuable feedback from their Dresden and London PIs and fellow PhD/MD students. After the presentation, students attended a series of career pathway workshops as part of a fundamental career development training in the structured doctoral programme. The invited workshop speakers were from the most prestigious companies and institutions, including Boehringer Ingelheim, Biosaxony, Miltenyi Biotec, Catenion, MPI and B CUBE. 

In the evening, participants had dinner at the impressive scenery of the Lingnerterrassen Dresden, along with a special city tour in the form of stories about hidden Dresden history.

At the end of the retreat, all parties acknowledged that they will help intensify existing cooperation and support the prolongation of the IRTG project for another four and a half year.