Last Tuesday, October 1 took place the kick-off meeting of the Biomedicine International Training Research Program for excellent clinician-scientists (BITRECS), a project coordinated by IDIBAPS and co-funded by the European Commission and the “La Caixa” Foundation. BITRECS’ objective is to recruit young and motivated clinician-scientists, a professional profile especially necessary for IDIBAPS’ translational research environment.
The program provides beneficiaries - all of them brilliant postdoctoral professionals - with the opportunity to dedicate themselves fully to biomedical research for the next 3 years, with projects framed within the activity of IDIBAPS. During this time, researchers will either spend 36 months at IDIBAPS or move to a foreign center for 12 to 18 months and therefore return at IDIBAPS for the remaining period, 18 to 24 months. In addition, the program offers training, supervision, mentoring to each fellow along with the possibility of establishing new contacts and making a short stay in a non-academic entity.
The “Kick-off meeting” was attended by the seven “clinician scientist” recently recruited by IDIBAPS. The objective of the event was to get to know each other adn learn more about the institutional framework as well as practical aspects of the BITRECS program.
Following, the selected fellows and research group they joined (from left to right in the photo):
Luis Gerardo Rodríguez. He joined the research group “Mechanisms of progression in monoclonal gammopathies”, directed by Carlos Fernández de Larrea, with the outgoing format: part of his project will be carried out in Germany and part at IDIBAPS.
Lorna Leal. She joins the research group “AIDS and HIV infection”, directed by Josep Mallolas, with the outgoing format: part of her project will be carried out at IDIBAPS and part in South Africa, with a brief stay planned in the United Kingdom.
Gianluigi Li Bassi. He joins the “Applied Respiratory Diseases Research Group”, directed by Antoni Torres, with the outgoing format: part of the project will be carried out at IDIBAPS and part in Australia, with a brief stay planned in Brazil.
Marco Antonio Alba Garibay. He joined the research group “Systemic Vasculitis”, directed by María Cinta Cid, with the incoming format: he will carry out his project entirely at IDIBAPS.
Norma Verdolini. She joins the research group “Bipolar Disorders”, directed by Eduard Vieta, with the incoming format: she will carry out her project entirely at IDIBAPS.
Isabel Valli. She joined the research group “Multimodal neuroimaging in high risk and early psychosis”, led by Gisela Sugranyes, with the incoming format: she will carry out her project entirely at IDIBAPS.
Helena Ariño Rodríguez. She joins the research group 'Pathogenesis of autoimmune neuronal disorders', directed by Josep Dalmau, with the outgoing format: part of her project will be carried out in the United Kingdom and part at IDIBAPS.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 754550 and from “la Caixa” Foundation (ID 100010434), under the agreement LCF / PR / GN18 / 50310006.
