
Project Partners
Masaryk University


A brief presentation of the organization
Masaryk University (MU) is the second-largest public university in the Czech Republic. At present, it comprises ten faculties with over 200 departments, institutes and clinics. Recognized as one of the most important teaching and research institutions in the Czech Republic and a highly-regarded Central European university, it has been infused with a strong democratic spirit ever since its establishment in 1919. Starting with only limited numbers of mobility within the programme Socrates – Erasmus, now MU is involved in almost all European mobility and research programmes and projects. Since 2007, MU has been involved in the Erasmus Mundus Action II program as one of the first EU institutions. Masaryk University's involvement in EM2 projects gave MU the opportunity to establish further cooperation with many countries worldwide; this includes the Middle East, Central Asia, Latin America, South Africa, Russia, Western Balkan and Eastern Asia regions. Masaryk University has over 31,000 students; more than 5,100 workers and offers over 180 bachelors, 200 masters and 130 doctoral full-time study programs, some of them being offered in English or German, and in combined form. The employees consist of professors (5,3 %), associate professors (9,3 %), assistant professors (17,4%), instructors (3,5 %) and lecturers (3,5 %) and also of specialized employees (10,9 %), research experts (1,1 %) and R&D workers participating in educational activities. The rest of the MU employee qualification structure is created by other employees (47,5 %).
Université Paris Cité
A brief presentation of the organization
Established in 2019 from the merger of the universities of Paris Diderot, Paris Descartes and Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Université de Paris is a fully comprehensive university. The ambition of Université de Paris is to lead and develop an exceptional potential to meet the challenges of tomorrow’s society and promote French excellence in Europe and around the world. With its exact and experimental sciences, broad and well-established human and social sciences and a strong tradition of work at the interface of disciplines, Université de Paris is completely multidisciplinary, in terms of both training and research. Its strategic portfolio of academic partners around the world enables it to offer its students cutting-edge and innovative training courses, ranging from bachelor's to doctoral level, and spread over its three faculties: Health, Science and Society and Humanities. Université de Paris is part of the Circle U. European University that brings together the universities of Oslo, Paris, Aarhus, Humboldt in Berlin, Belgrade, King’s College London and Université catholique de Louvain. Circle U. aims to create a European university ecosystem that trains committed citizens, promotes quality and excellence in education and research, and is open to society. Circle U. focuses on three flagship themes: Climate, Democracy and Health. Key figures: - 61,000 students (27, 400 for the Faculty of Health), - 7500 staff: researchers and teacher-researchers, administrative and technical staff (5 700 for the Faculty of Health), - 142 research laboratories (49 for the Faculty of Health). About the Faculty of Health: Being the first Faculty of Health in France, it offers high-level training and cutting-edge research in Medicine, Pharmacy, Odontology, Nursing, Midwifery and paramedical training. International cooperation is a component of the Faculty of Health strategy. The Faculty of Health has developed a high number of international cooperation from international mobilities for students and staff to European and International Projects both in research and pedagogy. The Faculty of Health trains 10% of the French doctors, 10% of the French pharmacists and 15% of the French dentists in France (biggest School of dentistry in Europe). The Faculty of Health works closely with the biggest French hospitals (among them APHP) and laboratories and research centers (first partner of the INSERM).


UNIVERSITY OF PECS


A brief presentation of the organization
University of Pecs (UP) is a public higher education institution that was established in 1367 in Hungary. The UP's main disciplinary fields are medicine, engineering and business and economics, due to them UP has been able to achieve leading position in the country and is among the best in the region. UP is the oldest university in Hungary and one of the largest universities of the country with its 10 faculties and 32 clinics and patient care institutions. UP offers a broad range of training and degree programmes, with more than 25,000 students and nearly 2,000 teaching and research staff UP is considered as the Knowledge Centre of South Transdanubian Region. In order to meet the demands and the needs of the surrounding community for continuing education, UP has started to develop its programmes within the area of lifelong learning. UP attaches great importance to training in the colleges for advanced studies. Nearly every faculty offers training in the framework of this organisation that encourages students to pursue their own research. Altogether 20 doctoral schools at UP offer doctoral degrees that cover a wide spectrum of science, scholarship and art, ranging from classical humanities through social sciences to medical and natural sciences. Due to the credit system, first introduced in Hungary at UP, an increasing number of Hungarian and international students participate in international study programmes as an integral part of their education, and likewise, an increasing number of international students and researchers come to UP to study and conduct research every year. Therefore, the university continuously works on expanding and improving its co-operation with other universities and international research institutions and is already part of a large network at different levels. One of the strategic goals of the UP is to intensify its international activities in order to offer more opportunities for its students, teachers and researchers to measure their knowledge in international environments and also to attract more international students to its campuses. Currently, it has 50 bilateral agreements in 24 countries in Europe, Asia, and Americas. These agreements provide the framework for mutual visits, short term student, teacher or staff mobility, and joint research projects. UP also actively participates in the Central European mobility programme (CEEPUS). UP plays an active role in the different international university associations (EAIE, EUA, Danube Rectors’ Conference, Alps-Adriatic Rectors’ Conference, Compostela Group of Universities). UP has been participating in the ERASMUS programme since 1998 with the aim of providing academic and teaching opportunities to our students and professors by deepening their knowledge at partner institutions in an international environment. UP has also put a strong emphasis on integrating its courses given in foreign languages into undergraduate studies. The Szentágothai Research Centre (SzRC) of UP is a research institute established in 2012 on the basis of modern international science organizational and management normative. It covers all aspects of education, research and innovation in the fields of biomedical, natural and environmental sciences. The infrastructure, instrumentation and expertise of its 22 research groups operating on the premises provide an excellent basis to become a well-known, leading research facility in Hungary as well as in Middle-Europe with an extensive and fruitful collaboration network. SzRC hosts the Hungarian Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (HECRIN) Consortium which brings together the Hungarian pharmaceutical clinical researches. The leader of the Consortium is Prof. Kovács L. Gábor who has a considerable experience in the field of clinical researches. The members of the Consortium are the 4 Hungarian medicine faculties, national institutes, the Medicine for Children Research Network and the Hungarian Pediatric Network.
UNIVERSIDADE NOVA DE LISBOA
A brief presentation of the organization
UNL is one of the two public universities in Lisbon, composed by 9 Schools, 9 Libraries and 3 Student Residences. UNL’s academic offer includes 28 Bachelor Programmes, 12 Integrated Masters, 105 Masters and 82 PhD Programmes. With over 20500 students, 1800 academics, and 889 non-academic staff, UNL has 41 R&D units and 77% of these have been evaluated with "Exceptional", "Excellent" and "Very Good". UNL is one of the top 1.4% universities in the world with above-average performance in the QS World University Rankings. It has been the only Portuguese University in the Top 50 universities founded less than 50 years ago, as well as the sole Portuguese institution in the global average of reference in the Leiden Ranking. It is an active member of UNICA and YERUN networks. In January 2017, UNL was transformed into a Public Foundation, as a legal profile is clearly more adjusted to reward merit at all levels and to foster internationalization. UNL has a consolidated experience within European programmes: Tempus, Erasmus, Erasmus Mundus, ERC, Erasmus+ and H2020. It has been also actively involved in cooperation with North-American, African and Brazilian universities. These successful partnerships have helped strengthening and expanding the initiatives of joint degrees, facilitating science and technology advancement, innovation and competitiveness. In the present proposal 3 of UNL academic units/schools will be involved: NOVA Medical School (NMS) is the Medical School of UNL. Currently NMS has 1631 students in the Integrated Master Degree in Medicine, 58 students in the bachelor degree in Nutrition Sciences, 378 postgraduate students and a total of 693 professors and researchers, NMS is the Medical School with the best tutor/student ratio (1/3) during the clinical years in Portugal and its students obtain excellent results in the medical specialty assessment. NMS is associated with several health units, allowing a more comprehensive knowledge of hospital reality and primary health care. In addition, the creation of the University Medical Center of Lisbon, a consortium between NMS and the Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa Central, allow to offer better teaching and clinical research conditions. NMS is at the forefront of medical education offering 11 Master Programs (e.g. in Clinical Research Management) and 6 PhD degrees in Medicine and Biomedicine. The Chronic Diseases Research Centre (CEDOC) is the NMS research center bringing together biomedical, translational and clinical research under a collaborative spirit. CEDOC hosts 40 groups and 447 researchers (186 PhD researchers and 164 PhD students) devoted to understanding a variety of chronic pathologies, from diabetes to rare diseases. NOVA Information Management School (NOVA IMS) is the School of Statistics and Information Management of the UNL. It was created in 1989 in response to a large number of graduates who specialized in Information Management and the growing need for the use of new information technologies. Today NOVA IMS provides education at the highest level to more than 1000 students including undergraduates, postgraduates, master and PhD degree students. NOVA IMS has proven experience in both creating and developing learning resources in an e-learning environment since it was the first Portuguese HEI to develop and provide a full e-learning master degree, the degree in Geographic Information Systems and Science which has been offered since 2000 and its coordinated by 2 team members. Besides participating in ongoing CONSCIOUS project, NOVA IMS has also successfully implemented ablended learning program, using open source resources, In Mozambique and Cape Verde such as Su GIK and AgIM which were based on blended learning with face to face sessions supported by a Moodle platform. More recently NOVA IMS, has introduced a MOOC (Massive Online Open Course), TecGEO and TecGEO.ORG which featured and served a population of of around 6000 lifelong learning students entirely for free.


UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK


A brief presentation of the organization
University College Cork (UCC) is in the top 2% of universities worldwide. Since 1845, UCC has been the comprehensive university of the south of Ireland. It offers programmes in the arts, humanities, social sciences, business, law, engineering, architecture, science, food science, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing and the clinical therapies. UCC has 21,000 students. These include 15,000 in undergraduate programmes, 4,400 in postgraduate study/research, and 2,800 adults in continuing education. Its student body includes 3,300 international students, representing more than 100 countries worldwide. UCC has educational outreach programmes in over 40 locations nationwide. With a staff of 2,800, the university is one of the largest employers in the region. CONSCIOUS II will be run from the HRB Clinical Research Facility at UCC (HRB CRF-C). It is co-funded by University College Cork (UCC) and the Irish National Academic Health Research funder, the Health Research Board (HRB). The HRB CRF-C provides the dedicated infrastructure, experienced research and support staff and the necessary quality and oversight programs that are critical for the successful conduct of world-class patient-focused research. It supports national and international research undertaken through UCC and affiliated hospitals, as well as in the primary care setting. The HRB CRF-C has a core staff of over 45 staff, including the full range of skills and expertise required to deliver world class patient-focused research and education: Education, Quality and Regulatory Affairs, Biostatistics, Research Pharmacy, Research Nurses, Trial Management, Data Management, Research Methodology, etc. The CRF-C also maintains a variety of facilities dedicated to supporting patient-focused research, including research support offices and units located throughout UCC, the Mercy University Hospital and Cork University Hospital (study sites). The CRF-C has an excellent Educational team, led by the UCC partner applicant Dr Frances Shiely. Dr Shiely is the Director of Education at the HRB CRF-C, founder and Programme Director for the MSc Clinical Trials (online), UCC principal investigator for the HRB Trials Methodology Research Network (HRB TMRN) and co-lead for the UK Trials Methodology Research Partner (MRC-NIHR-TMRP) Communication Working group. Dr Shiely leads a team of 14 educators and trial methodology researchers. In addition to undertaking research the Facility plays an important role in providing the Quality System under which Regulated Academic Clinical Trials in UCC are conducted. UCC co-applicant, Maire McCarthy is a highly valued member of the Quality and Regulatory Affairs team. It provides the oversight and monitoring functions that allow UCC to comply with its legal obligations when serving as a Trial Sponsor in this highly regulated environment. The HRB CRF-C is also equipped to support and help investigators design data management and data sharing plans at the application stage. HRB has supported a number of Host Institutions (including UCC) to train data stewards in line with FAIR principles. One of these data stewards is employed in the HRB CRF-C in the Statistics and Data Analysis Unit. Data management/stewardship plans (DMP) are nowadays widely accepted as part of good research practice. The HRB CRF-C is a member of the Irish network of Clinical Research Facilities the NCTO (National Clinical Trials Office - https://ncto.ie/).
UNIVERSITY OF SZEGED
A brief presentation of the organization
The University of Szeged (Szegedi Tudományegyetem, or also known as SZTE) is a prestigious institution in Hungary, where study fields of all walks of scientific life are represented in 12 faculties and the Teacher Training Centre. The SZTE is one of the largest domestic higher education complexes where the number of its academic research and teaching staff reaches 2200 teaching and training up to 21,000 university students enrich their knowledge, including more than 4,100 foreign students. The University offers high-standard training programmes in fields including Health Sciences, Arts, Economics, Law, Natural Sciences, Teachers’ Training, Agriculture, Engineering and Creative Art. There are 19 Doctoral Schools postgraduates can choose from to obtain PhD degrees. The University’s main mission – which is inseparable from education - is to maintain its competitive research university character and to ensure a European-level healing work. Also, the University of Szeged being the biggest institution of the Southern part of the Great Hungarian Plain takes an active role in the social, economic and cultural development of the region. The University of Szeged has a unique achievement in the European Union because it is the only university which was able to get into the 500 universities of Academic Ranking of World Universities from an EU NUTS 2 region with the GDP per head (in PPP) below the 50% of EU28 average. The strengthening of internalization must be realized considering the University’s double mission. On the one hand University Szeged is one of the leading research oriented, internationalized unit of Hungarian higher education, on the other hand it has to contribute to regional development. One of the challenging tasks of university management is to keep balance between these two aspects in the allocation of resources. Three global/European trends frame the next decade to which the University of Szeged has to find its reply in close cooperation with European partners. All of these trends are very directly related to health challenges: - decreasing and ageing population, - climate change, - technological changes (often labelled as 4th industrial revolution). The University of Szeged presents the capacities and abilities to cope with the above listed challenges. The mission of the University of Szeged is to cultivate science and internationally competitive research work and to advance its research university nature. Its research and creative work that is realized as part of national and international research programmes comprises basic and applied research, creative arts, product and service development. We are very proud of continuing the heritage of Albert Szent-Györgyi: besides our research results, this is demonstrated by the thousands of patients cured in the world -class, new 265-bed hospital building. Eleven patient care units are housed in this fivestorey complex. They include the Emergency Care Unit, equipped with the most up - to - date instruments and run by the most modern patient management system. We are very proud of having produced the most modern Surgical Centre in Hungary. Our intention is to evolve from a regional-level institution into a leading European university. Based upon the research and developmental potential of the University, we seek to meet the educational, research and arts promoting requirements of the 21st century with the development of the teaching hospitals, the establishment of the Science Park around the ELI-ALPS Research Centre and the modernisation of the infrastructure of the Faculty of Arts.

