CONVOCATORIA 2008 (Periodo 2013 – 2016)

PROGRAMA DE FORMACION Y SU COORDINACION

Objetivos del Programa Formación (Training Programme Objectives)

The main aim of the Training programme is to enhance the research activities of all RETICS members, to promote the development of hypothesis-driven high quality research within and outside the RETICS, in the main areas of the RETICS scientific Programme, namely the prevention and clinical management of impaired neurodevelopment and  adverse nutritional and metabolic from the foetus to the adolescent.
More specifically, all training activities developed and carried on by the RETICS related to its main areas of its Research Programme will be focused on methodology and technical skills needed to design, develop, perfume and publish high quality research. In this regard, activities will cover the following areas:

1)  Epidemiological methodologies. It will include training courses or workshops on the following areas: design and performance pharmacological and non-pharmacological clinical trials in perinatology and paediatrics (methodological, ethical, legal and regulatory aspects), training to design and conduct non-interventional, high-quality epidemiological studies, data management and statistical analysis, design of a research protocol and a proposal for peer-review funding...

2) Analytical methodologies. It will include exposure to different methodologies used for the measurement of specialised techniques related to different system functions (cerebral activity and oxygenation...), cellular (flow cytometry...), sub-cellular (biochemical, haematological...), molecular analysis (PCR...), imaging (PET...), among others    

3) Experimental models. Basic methodologies in foetal and juvenile animal models of interest and related to the main areas of the RETICS' objectives: neurodevelopment (foetal growth restriction, exposure to different toxic environmental or drug substances and hypoxic-ischemic insults, neonatal and post neonatal brain insults (brain trauma, hypoxia-ischemia, lung insufficiency of different aetiology, shock... ).

Esquema del Programa Formación (Scheme of the Training Programme)

The global aim of this program is to try to achieve a greater involvement of all RETICs members in other Research Groups' activities and obtain an interdisciplinary knowledge to all RETICS full members, contracted research personnel and trainees by providing training in topics related with RETICS Scientific ProgramŽs objectives and research activities. This will be achieved through the following actions:

1) Mobility Program. The aim of this Programme is to facilitate the interaction between individuals of the RETICS Research Groups, in order to improve the technical skills and scientific capabilities and to learn new techniques and methodologies. Moreover, this will allow research to keep in touch with different research environments, increase their scientific knowhow and expand their contacts,
An application form will be available for all RETICS' members. The applications will be evaluated by the Training Committee, taking into account the interest of the stay for the researcher and his/her group within the RETICS objectives.

2) Attendance to Courses and Conferences. The main goal is to facilitate the involvement of RETICS researchers in course and conferences organized by external groups, in order to share the research conducted through the RETICS and provide researchers in training to obtain the necessary experience to present their research in public.
Financial assistance could be provided to all RETICS's members for registration fees, travel and maintenance to attend courses and other educational activities, as long as are considered of interest for the RETICS objectives, Democratic rules for transparency to assure equal opportunities for all possible applicants. Applications by trainees and personnel hired by the RETICS will be prioritised for funding.

3) Workshops, Courses and Symposiums organised by the RETICS. The RETICS will collaborate with other partner in the organization of international symposiums related to the main topics of the RETICS Scientific Programme. All symposiums and different training courses will be open to RETICS' researchers as well as to other individuals and groups interested in the topics. No registration fees will be set for RETICS' members
Apart from that, annually, the RETICS will organise a Workshop in order to discuss and share the advances in all research activities of the RETICS. Young investigators will be invited to deliver oral presentations of their research activities to facilitate their active role in these meetings and to generate synergies with persons from other groups.

4) Evaluation of these training activities. All training program activities (courses, conferences, workshops, symposiums,…) wll be reported in the RETICŽs Project manager to be displayed in the RETICS' website for dissemination to all interested stakeholders.
In order to evaluate the results of the program each researcher who performs a training activity will complete a short report in a predesigned template form that will include a summary of the activities, attendees, and an evaluation of the activity survey by assistants in a standardised RETICS template, In addition, after each annual workshop the Coordinator, through the Project Manager, will perform a summary of activities developed during the workshop that will also be displayed in the RETICS' website.
The Coordinator will prepare a summary of activities at the end of each year. Moreover, every two years he will evaluate the fulfillment of Training Program goals through preset indicators such as: personal staff involved in training activities compared with the number of RETICS' Research Groups, number of oral presentations by researchers in training in congress, conferences and RETICŽs annual workshop, among others.

Coordinación del programa de Formacion (Training Programme Coordination)

The RETICS' Coordinator, Prof. Adolf Valls-i-Soler has been elected by unanimity by the RETICS' members and will represent the Consortium and negotiate on its behalf, if necessary. The RETICS' Coordinator together with the Executive Board will be responsible for the effective overall execution and implementation of the Training Program. The Executive Board will be constituted by 4 members: RETICS' coordinator, Training Program Deputy Coordinator, to be elected, and two Groups' leaders, also elected between RETICS' Research Groups. The RETIC Coordination will be the Executive and Training Committees chairperson. There will be two yearly meetings. The Executive Board will be directly advised by an External Scientific Committee.

The RETIC Coordinator will be supported on all administrative tasks by a Project Manager that will be directly responsible for all communication with the Groups and the ISCiii, the funding agency.
All actions and decisions regarding the Training Programme will be taken in accordance with full transparency under democratic rules.

Evaluación de los resultados del Programa de Formación (Evaluation of the results of the Training Programme)

The results of the Training Program as well as its timely development according to the detail plan established will be evaluated by the Training Committee, other the leadership of the Deputy Coordinator. In case of significant deviations from the preset plan, it will make proposals to the RETICŽs Coordinator to propose corrective actions that will be taken after consultation with the RETICŽs Executive Committee.

Presupuesto del Programa de Formación (Budget for the Training Programme)

The budget assigned for this program is approximately of € 10.000 for the first year of 2013. An annual increment of 20% has been planned, representing a bit over 1.7% of the total annual RETICS' budget. We are fully aware that this is a much limited budget that constrains the development of the trainings activities that would be required. For this reason, great efforts will be dedicated to identify possible alternatives sources to complement the RETICS' Training Programme activities.

Possible sources for funding the RETICŽs activities could possible come from public funding agencies at European level (DG SANCO, ECŽs Tempus programme...), Spanish national level (ISCiii, Health and Finnancial Ministries...) or SpainŽs autonomous regional level  (Health and Educational Departments...). Moreover, privet institutions at all previous mentioned levels (Research and clinical funding organisations, Pharmaceutical industries, Clinical and Laboratory manufactures and providers...).  

Training Program budget coordination. The RETICS Training Programme Board, through the Project Manager will be responsible for the management of the budget dedicated to training, financial coordination, preparation of an annual report of activities, preparation and dissemination of meeting and funding calls and requirements for the proper operation of the RETICS external relations and partner liaison, coordination of training activities, final report, and the coordinating of meeting agenda and arrangements.
Moreover, the project manager will be responsible of continually updated and maintained RETICS website (www.redsamid.net). This website will become the central source of project information for parents, the public, the project partners as well as other researchers and stakeholders. All RETICS documents will be posted to the Intranet Area of the website, which only partners can access. This ensures that all partners have immediate access to the most up to date versions of all important RETICS documents.