As part of our mission to promote excellent research in a multidisciplinary environment,
we are committed to training scientists and maximizing the impact of our research on
society.
Coordinated by the Academic Office, with the collaboration of other departments, complementary training focuses on our PhD and postdoctoral researchers. However, community-wide training activities are also implemented.
Training activities
We offer a wide range of regular training activities (courses and workshops) beyond the bench that seek to develop and strengthen the core complementary skills required for a successful research career. Our training programme addresses mainly transferable skills but also includes more technical courses. Training activities fall into the following categories:
1. Career Development
Workshops to improve researchers’ knowledge, skills and experience, enabling them to leverage their science and open up career opportunities beyond academia.
2. Innovation Series
IRB Barcelona’s Innovation Department is actively involved in the design of innovation-related training activities (either delivering them or facilitating contact with experts). Training is designed to enhance a wide range of both hard and soft skills associated with entrepreneurship and business development.
This section includes workshops and training activities, which fall into four axes, namely
Technology Transfer, Entrepreneurship, Value Proposition, and Innovation.
3. Communication
Workshops on communications skills aim to help PhDs and postdocs to improve their oral/writing communication not only when addressing a scientific audience but also the public in general.
4. Scientific-Technical Training
Technical and scientific skills workshops seek to improve researchers’ abilities and knowledge with respect to specific techniques, computer skills, etc.
5. Personal Career development
Each PhD researcher is supervised by a Thesis Advisory Committee (TAC), composed of three members. This committee is responsible for tutoring, monitoring and guiding the PhD researcher in all aspects related to the thesis and career development. The TAC is intended not only to provide support and guidance on scientific issues but also to address any individual concerns that may arise.
Furthermore, following the principles of the European Charter of Researchers, as of 2020 IRB Barcelona is implementing a set of measures to reinforce career development in a personalised manner. In this regard, in 2019, various members of the Human Resources and Academic Affairs Department received specialised training as 'Career advisors' and are now developing individualised career development plans for PhD researchers, thereby helping them to identify, acquire or strengthen skills that will serve to enhance their employment prospects.
Activities Timeline
Innovation & Tech Transfer at IRB Barcelona: From the bench to the market by Innovation Department at IRB Barcelona
The group will comprise 15 participants, who will attend two 4h sessions, held over 2 mornings.
Tuesday 16 and Thursday 18 April. 09:00 to 13:00
You should download the trial version of Indesign onto your pc and bring it with you to the course.
Speakers/Trainers: Lídia Bardia, Anna Lladó, Nikolas Giakoumakis, Sébastien Tosi and Julien Colombelli
Speakers: Brian McCarthy and Peter Corry, Fundació Dr. Antoni Esteve
This session will cover an introduction to current techniques and the best approaches to perform a range of mutations in the mouse, including pro-nuclear injection and the use of mouse embryonic stem cells for gene targeting.
The second part of the session will cover the use of DNA sequence specific nucleases; The current state of the technology and it’s likely future development.
Places reserved for IRB Barcelona alumni.
How to discover new medicines: From target to drug candidates by Israel Ramos, Technology Transfer Consultant at IRB Barcelona
Scientists at IRB Barcelona are supported by an extensive range of common core facilities that provide state-of-the-art technologies and scientific services. The mission of the Biostatistics/Bioinformatics Unit is to conduct collaborative research and to provide consultation and quantitative research resources to all IRB Barcelona research groups.
We assist scientists by providing both short and long-term consultancy services in the following areas:
• Experimental design: sample size, study design, planning of statistical methodology • Data analysis: clinical or biomedical databases, genomics data • Assistance with statistical methodology in own or others’ research • Software: help in using software, development of software to meet special data analysis or study design needs
Research projects attractive for biopharmaceutical industry by Horacio Moreno, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at IRB Barcelona
If you love reading about the latest scientific advances and are interested in pursuing employment opportunities beyond the bench, then an editorial career might be for you. In this seminar, Brooke LaFlamme, Chief Editor of Communications Biology, will talk about her personal career path and what she thinks makes a great editor. Her presentation will also provide an overview of the editorial process at Nature Research and Communications Biology in particular, including how they decide which papers to send to review and how the publication process works. In the last part of her presentation, she will give advice on how to best organise and present manuscripts prior to submission, from an editor’s perspective. In the final part of the session, you will work in groups to edit your own abstracts, applying the principles learned.
This training workshop aims to:
Become familiar with the working of scientific argumentation.
Recognize the structure and content of different types of scientific documents.
Write a solid project’s abstract.
Learn a few tips and common mistakes in English.
Set the basis for writing of a scientific article.
Speaker: Xavier Lasauca, Knowledge Management (Directorate-General for Research, Generalitat de Catalunya)
Innovation Workshop Series – ‘Scientists as Entrepreneurs’
Technology transfer: turning academic results into business opportunities by Marc Ramis Castelltort, CEO at Tech & Business Innovation (TBI)
Speaker: Mathieu Carenzo, IESE Lecturer in Entrepreneurship / Business Angel / Partner at Venturehub
Speaker: Javier García, MBA, Business Consultant