Structural Components

Interdisciplinarity and translation of research results

Interdisciplinary Co-supervision: All projects focus on basic sciences but will involve a second supervisor with a different background either coming from a different discipline or from different areas in basic science. In addition, all projects have an international advisor hosting the postdoc for several weeks in the third year of the project to provide critical impact for finalizing projects for publication.

Physician scientist as postdocs: There is a lack of structured training programs for medical doctors in the experimental sciences. Numerous young clinicians are research-oriented, but are overwhelmed with clinical duties not leaving sufficient time for serious experimental scientific education. To overcome these deficits medical doctors are also welcome to apply to the RegenerAging network for a fulltime postdoc free of clinical duties.

Involvement of bioinformaticians/systems biologists: Given the increase in data generation in modern biomedical sciences, there is an increasing need for interdisciplinary researchers with background in both mathematical and biomedical sciences. Involvement of scientists with a background in bioinformatics/mathematics in wet lab science will help to overcome these barriers.

Women in Science

At FLI, many actions have already been taken to improve compatibility of family and work. These include, but are not restricted to family-friendly seminar schedules, e-quality certificates (confirming equality measures taken at FLI), parents-child room at the institute, welcome-back fellowships for young mothers after their maternal leave and cooperation with child-care infrastructure. In addition, mentorship has been identified as an important factor for the advancement of women in science. To this end, care was taken that most of the supervisor/co-supervisor/external advisor committees of the projects include a female scientist.

Supporting activities

We will complement the strong scientific program of RegenerAging through supporting activities, aiming to shape the personalities of the postdocs, to (i) enable them to discover and clarify career choices; (ii) learning how to manage their career effectively; (iii) build a professional skill set which enables them to become world leaders in academic and non-academic careers. These activities include:

• Progress reports and internal networking
• Courses on fundamental questions of sciences and scientific writing
• Leadership and management qualification
• Networking and career planning
• Teaching course
• Involvement in panels/and or committees