Copenhagen 2018

The Promise of Future Medicine: from Research to Therapy

In November 2018, the 2nd ENABLE conference for young researchers took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, and turned out to be a huge success, with 162 young researchers participating from 21 countries within and outside of the EU. The ENABLE 2018 event was split into three parts: outreach events, a dedicated career day and the scientific symposium.

Our 7 sponsors were enthusiastic of this initiative and their contribution allowed us to support a total of 50 travel grants. ENABLE 2018 demonstrated the determination of this consortium to continue organising unique high-level conferences, different from the classic scientific symposia to which we are used to, and with a special focus on the young generation of scientists.

Enable CPH 2018 at a glance

Scientific Symposium

Following the scientific theme of the symposium, “The Promise of Future Medicine: from Research to Therapy”, seven renowned keynote speakers from the field shared their expertise and experience in four sessions across several topics like new drugs discovery, targeted therapies in cancer, the fight against infectious diseases and biomarkers for diagnosis.

Check out our newsletter for post-conference interviews with Bali Palendran, Helen Lee, and Klaus Pantel.

Scientific sessions and keynote speakers

Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment
Turin, Italy
Biotech Research and Innovation Centre (BRIC)
Copenhagen, Denmark
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, United Kingdom
Novo Nordisk Foundation | Center for Protein Research
Copenhagen, Denmark
University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE)
Hamburg, Germany
Stanford University School of Medicine
Stanford, United States
European Institute of Oncology (IEO)
Milan, Italy
University of Oxford
Oxford, United Kingdom

Career Day

The aim of the career day was to provide chances for careers in science outside of the academic landscape. This was achieved through workshops on soft skills, career chats with non-academic science professionals, and an opportunity fair.

Workshops

Workshops were intensive courses for small groups to help the personal and professional development of young researchers.

  • Successful interviews
  • Effective presentations
  • Transferable skills
  • Protecting your ideas
  • Biotech Based Companies & Start-ups
  • Scientific writing
  • The gender gap in science
  • Science communication

Career chats

Career Chats overcome the classical format of career development roundtables providing a more direct interaction between PhD and Postdocs and professionals that hold a PhD but moved beyond academic research.

Each session lasted 30 min and involved 8-12 participants who had the opportunity to interact with and ask questions to the professionals participating in that session.

At the end of the allotted time, participants were able to move on to another Career Chat with a different professional.

Opportunity fair

During the ENABLE opportunity fair, representatives from more than 15 companies were be present:

FEBS – Federation of European Biochemical Societies, QVARTZ, IUBMB – International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Tang Prize Foundation, Budde Schou, ECACC – European Collection of Authenticated Cell Cultures, BBI – Biotechnology Business Institute Barcelona, eurodoc, University of Copenhagen, LeanBioPro, Gubra, symphogen, Corbel, ThermoFisher, YEBN – Young European Biotech Network, Catenion, oi720 – outside-in consulting, BIST – Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology.

Outreach activities

During several outreach events tailored for kids, teenagers, and adults, the ENABLE team engaged with the general public and shed light on the role of science in society.

“The activity was well thought-through. The students felt seen and well helped along the way, very adequate time was allowed to answer all of their individual questions.”

“We really enjoyed visiting you [CPR], and my class was very impressed with your facilities. Many mentioned that they thoroughly enjoyed the chance to talk to real working scientists.”

The organising committee

Scientific organising committee

SEMM

Camilla Galli – Cecilia Toscani – Sebastiano Trattaro

IRB

Lorena González Velasco – Enric Ros Simo – Marina Villamor-Payà

RIMLS

Lotte Mousset – Joshua Gillard – Jelle Vriend

CPR

Jose Alejandro Romero Herrera – Danyang Wang

Local organising committee

CPR

Alejandro Aguayo Orozco – Alexander Hogrebe – Alexander Junge – Alexandra Stripp – Bhargav Saligram Prabhakar – Camilla Colding-Christensen – Claire Guerillon – Diana Samodova – Dimitris Typas – Irene Gallina – Isabella Jørgensen – Leena Ackermann – Lisa Schubert – Moreno Papetti – Robert Francis Shearer – Sara Charlotte Larsen – Tanveer Singh Batth – Ufuk Kirik – Ulrike Kühbacher

Gallery

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 724115.