Barcelona Science Park to take part in 1st ENABLE symposium

The Barcelona Science Park (Parc Científic de Barcelona, PCB) will be well represented at the first ENABLE symposium, a three-day international biomedical event organised by doctoral students and postdoctoral scientists from all over the world to underpin their professional futures in the European setting. The project is coordinated by the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (Institut de Recerca Biomèdica, IRB Barcelona) from its headquarters at the PCB and has been awarded €500,000 by the Horizon 2020 SwafS – Celebrating European Science programme.

The unique feature of the ENABLE (European Academy for Biomedical Science) symposia is that they are organised entirely by young researchers in life sciences from the four scientific institutions taking part in the project – IRB Barcelona, the Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences (Netherlands), the Centre for Protein Research (Denmark) and the European School of Molecular Medicine (Scuola Europea di Medicina Molecolare) (Italy) – and combine three fundamental aspects for their futures: discussing state-of-the-art science, boosting scientific careers and science outreach activities for the general public.

The Barcelona symposium is the first of the four annual events planned up to 2020 and will be held on 15-17 November at the Palauet Casades with over 300 participants. Entitled “Breaking Down Complexity: Innovative Models and Techniques in Biomedicine”, it will feature three key cross-cutting events: a Scientific Symposium, a forum for debate on the most cutting-edge breakthroughs in biomedicine and personalised medicine; Outreach activities, including short talks for patients’ associations, schools and the general public; and the Career Day, a chance for young scientists to get careers guidance which is run every year by the IRB in partnership with the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia and the PCB and that this year will be held as part of ENABLE.

Career Chats

The Barcelona Science Park will play a leading role at the ENABLE Career Day, which is to feature activities and workshops about scientific careers and showcase job opportunities across Europe.

Anna Serra, the PCB’s Director of Marketing and Communication, will be a speaker at the Career Chats, an innovative roundtable format where scientific training experts from a range of backgrounds use their personal experience to provide a broader vision of job prospects for PhD students and young postdoctoral biomedicine students.

Each session will last 30-45 minutes and will involve 15-20 participants, who will have the opportunity to interact with and ask questions to the expert participating in that session. At the end of the allotted time, participants will move on to another Career Chat with a different professional.

Opportunity Fair

On the ENABLE Career Day a number of organisations based in the Barcelona Science Park will also be at the Opportunity Fair where science-based companies, start-ups, academic institutions and other organisations will have the exclusive opportunity to present their business projects and reach out to other European companies and young researchers attending the event.

Image: The local organising committee is made up of 14 doctoral students from IRB Barcelona at PCB.