ITN BrainTrain’s Midterm Meeting in Uppsala

On december 10th 2011, the future generation of young neuroscientists of the BrainTrain ITN network held their annual meeting in Uppsala, Sweden.

All Nobel Laureates received their Nobel prizes during the Award Ceremonies at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm on the same day. It was as close as the students could get to the Nobel Prize at this moment in their professional lives.

The 17 BrainTrain early stage researchers and their supervisors shared their state-of-the-art research results during an inspiring meeting. Patrick Herlant, representative of the Research Executive Agency of the EU, also attended the meeting. The students were challenged in an intensive, competitive course given by Helena Danielson, CSO of Beactica AB and host of our meeting. The winning group received a (chocolate) Nobel Prize.

After this course, the young BrainTrain researchers presented their data during a full day of data discussions and plans. Most projects are well underway. Students were clearly in control of their own projects and able to provide a coherent and convincing view about the future directions. They gave excellent input into other projects within the work-packages and the rest of the scientific program. None of the project suffered from serious delays or complications during the start-up phase.

Mobility is the keyword in BrainTrain
Most of the students will enter their second year of their PhD period. They will expand their thoughts and experiences. Host organisations in several countries will welcome them for several, short periods of time. Before the end of 2012, all students will have their lives enriched by new experiences and experiments, new colleagues and lab cultures.
The BrainTrain program will get together again next summer in Trieste, Italy.