21-24 April 2020 as online meeting
circRTrain BioBusiness School
In March 2020 circRTrain network partners and students were looking forward to a week of scientific exchange and training in entrepreneurship hosted by the CRG in Barcelona, Spain but COVID-19 pandemic changed all plans last minute.
Nevertheless a great team of trainers from Technology and Business Development Office (TBDO) at CRG and Simon Gifford from Mashauri Limited translated the program of the ESR BioBusiness School into online format. During this 4-day course circRTrain ESRs together with students and postdocs from CRG learnt about business concepts; the ideation process and problem definition; markets, customers and competitors; value proposition and evidence and funding opportunities.
As part of the course, teams pitched their business ideas to a panel of entrepreneurial experts with background in finance, start-ups and technology tranfer.
1 – 4 July 2019 in Utrecht (Netherlands)
ESR training workshop
After a successful evaluation during the Midterm Review Meeting in February 2019, ESRs met for a training workshop at University Medical Center Utrecht hosted by project leader Jeroen Pasterkamp. This workshop combined soft skill training on Leadership & Mentoring by Matt Lane from The Researcher Development Partnership where ESRs learnt how to interact with peers of all levels and how to build and maintain a successful network with technical training in biostatistics given by staff of the UMC Julius Center.
Additional training on the analysis of circRNAs in RNA sequencing data was provided by computationally working ESRs of the network.
ESRs enjoyed the summer’s beginning during a boat tour on the canals in the beautiful Utrecht city center.
A big thank you goes to the Pasterkamp lab for welcoming circRTrain students to their lab BBQ and to our two circRTrain students in the Pasterkamp lab, Andreia and Mateja, for organizing the whole event!
March 11-14, 2019 in Aarhus (Denmark)
circRTrain winter school
Our partners at Aarhus University in Denmark offered a winter school to circRTrain ESRs to learn about “RNA analyses by Nanopore and Nanostring”. The course included intense and hands-on modules about Oxford Nanopore and NanoString, two new sequencing technologies that are mastered at our partner site. The training was complemented by a soft skill workshop on “Publishing your Science”.
29 October – 1 November, 2018 in Berlin (Germany)
1st technical workshop
CircR
Train project leader Stephan Preibisch and Andrew Woehler, head of the Systems Biology Imaging Platform at the Berlin Institute of Medical Systems Biology (MDC), gave a four-day workshop on “Tissue Clearing and Lightsheet Microscopy” where ESRs received hands-on training in tissue clearing and sample imaging using lightsheet microscopy. 
Additionally, they were trained in data processing by KNIME software developers Stefan Helfrich and Benjamin Wilhelm as well as in big data handling by Stephan Preibisch.
ESRs enjoyed networking during dinner and at the EXIT escape game.
May 21-23, 2018 in Siena (Italy)
2nd transferable skills workshop
During their soft-skill training young circRTrain researchers received an overview on science communication provided by Caron Fraser Wood from Mindset Method. Lectures included training on academic writing and data visualization followed by a session on successful research presentations. What they have learnt during their training students could already apply during the network meeting right after the workshop.
The training was finalized by a guided tour through Siena and dinner in town.
circRTrain PhD candidates catch up and enjoy Siena.
September 7-8, 2017 in Berlin (Germany)
1st transferable skills workshop
After 3 scientific days, circRTrain young researchers received their first soft skills training organized at the Max-Delbrück-Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC). The first workshop provided by Steve Hutchinson focused on efficient time and project management. On the last day concluding the full week event which kicked-off circRTrain activities, Dr Simon Borger from the 24IP Law Group gave all students an introduction to Intellectual Property (IP) / Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).
circRTrain PhD candidates enjoying first training and social events in Berlin
