The MedTrain+ Programme aims to enhance the creative, entrepreneurial, and innovative potential of researchers, via advanced training, international and inter-sectoral mobility. Fellows will be based at one of nine CÚRAM academic organisations: University of Galway (NUI Galway), University College Cork (UCC), University College Dublin (UCD), the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), Trinity College Dublin (TCD), University of Limerick (UL), Dublin City University (DCU), National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT), and Technological University of the Shannon (TUS).
The three-year Fellowships include secondment to a non-academic research partner, located in any country of the world appropriate to further the research, training and career development needs of each fellow. Two fellowship levels will be offered to 50 candidates over two calls, ensuring varying depths of experience:
- Level 1 candidates will have less than four years’ experience post PhD;
- Level 2 candidates will have four or more years’ experience post PhD.
MedTrain+ Fellows will be recruited across two calls over the four-year duration of the programme (2022-2026).
Who is eligible
- Must be experienced researchers, as per the MSCA definition: at the submission deadline (for call 2, 12 February 2024), they must be in possession of a doctoral degree or have at least four years of full-time equivalent research experience. Full-time equivalent research experience is measured from the date when a researcher obtained the degree which would formally entitled him/her to embark on a doctorate, either in the country in which the degree was obtained or in the country in which the researcher is recruited, irrespective of whether or not a doctorate is or was ever envisaged.
- Must comply with the MSCA mobility rule: have not resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Ireland for more than 12 months in the three years immediately prior to the submission deadline (call 2, 12 February 2024). Compulsory national service and/or short stays such as holidays are not taken into account.
What is offered
- Living allowance: 4,334 Euros (Level 1 fellows) and 5,216 Euros (Level 2 fellows)
- Mobility allowance: 600 Euros
- Family allowance: 495 Euros
The total gross remuneration costs for a Level 1 researcher without family per month is €4,934 and for researcher with family per month is €5,427.
The total gross remuneration costs for a Level 2 researcher without family per month is €5,816 and for researcher with family per month is €6,311. Please note that all or part of these allowances will be liable for taxes and other deductions. e.g. deduction of PRSI (employer social security (11.05%)), and if applicable, pension (20%) contributions.
In addition, the MedTrain+ Fellowship provides contribution to research cost €1,250/month per Fellow- to cover consumable costs, costs of communication, dissemination and exploitation, and travel to international conferences, workshops and secondments.
Research Areas
Biomaterials and Drug Delivery: Controlled delivery of therapeutic molecules to injured tissue remains one of the greatest challenges facing the translation of novel drug therapeutics. These developed chemistries are being processed for clinical application and integration into medical devices to provide selective, delivery strategies for drugs. CÚRAM’s expertise in the application of biomaterials to disease targets extends from target identification and lead optimisation, formulation design, physicochemical characterisation, toxicity testing, bioavailability to efficacy in preclinical models.
MedTech AI, Machine Learning, Medical Imaging and Soft Robotics: Machine learning is becoming an invaluable tool for medical device research given its ability to enhance the speed and accuracy of computational models, big data management and high-performance computing so they are available to researchers and clinicians to enable better predications in real time for more accurate results and diagnostics. Radical new techniques such as soft robotics are beginning to be used to created bio-inspired designs for devices with implications for a range of medical applications.
Immuno Engineering: Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine is a key area of research at CÚRAM with a goal of finding solutions to chronic health problems and conditions of unmet medical need. Scientific advances in stem cells, gene therapy, biomaterials, medical device technology, growth and differentiation factors, and biomimetic environments have created unique opportunities to fabricate tissues in the laboratory from combinations of engineered extracellular matrices ("scaffolds"), cells, and biologically active molecules. With a focus on biomimetics and regenerative medicine, CÚRAM is developing innovative approaches, assays and tools for comprehensive and accurate analysis of complex biological systems and their interaction with medical devices and associated therapeutics.