ADVAnce ITN (2012-2016)

ADVance is designed to integrate 8 leading academic centres and 4 companies under a single umbrella to train young scientists in adenovirus (AdV) research. Our partners are internationally leading centres of excellence in key facets of research into the basic biology of AdV and their application as vectors for clinical protocols in cancer, cardiovascular disease and vaccination. All partners represent key areas critical to improved understanding of adenovirus biology and development of key underpinning technology for translational AdV research at the highest level. The ADVance ITN will recruit 16 researchers, 12 PhD students (for 36 months) and 4 post doc (for 12-24 months)and offer them the unique opportunity to perform top-level research and be exposed to the multidisciplinary environment of centres of excellence of academia and industry.

The research-training components will be further complemented by the partner EASCO, that will integrate into ADVance a broad interdisciplinary training and dissemination program. This will ensure the very best training in both scientific and complementary skills* for each recruited PhD student and post doc. We have also recruited Dr Glen Nemerow as a visiting scientistfor his depth of understanding and experience in AdV research over many years. PhD students will benefit extensively from the complementarity between the host institutes and strength in depth in training for future careers as well as elevated long term research links for host institutes and companies in the longer term. The network research training is based on a group of well-defined and highly innovative research projects applying state-of-the-art methodologies. ADVance will allow lasting collaborations between partners, with and extensive plan of inter-partners secondments of all the recruited researchers, which will and create a critical mass of focused adenovirus biologists and translationnal scientists and allow our recruited young researchers to start an excellent career in this field.

*management and financing of research projects and programmes, presentation skills, language courses, ethics, IPR, communication, entrepreneurship, etc...