Institut Pasteur International Docotal Program

Project Information

PASTEURDOC

Grant agreement ID: 665807

DOI

10.3030/665807

Project closed

EC signature date 7 May 2015

Start date 1 October 2015

End date 31 December 2020

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 4 708 800,00

EU contribution

€ 2 354 400,00

Coordinated by

INSTITUT PASTEUR
France

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - PASTEURDOC (Institut Pasteur International Docotal Program)

Reporting period: 2017-10-01 to 2020-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

PASTEURDOC is an advanced educational and research program, hosted by the Institut Pasteur in Paris. Its goal is to train junior investigators possessing medical and/or scientific educational backgrounds to become future leaders in academic education and research institutions, international organizations, private companies, or administration. PASTEURDOC is intended to co-fund and advance the already well-established and very successful Pasteur Paris University International Doctoral Program, in operation since 2009 in partnership with four renowned Parisian universities. PASTEURDOC will enhance the host capacity to train young researchers, while strengthening the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions recommendations for professional development of early-stage researchers. The PASTEURDOC objectives and mid-term accomplishments are the following:
1) To provide the highest scientific education through panoply of multidisciplinary research projects and scientific approaches;
2) To provide an exceptional nurturing environment combining practical research, scientific and transferrable skills training and educational follow up, by a well-established Teaching Department running and International Doctoral Program;
3) To provide the early-stage researchers with a large international and multicultural network of fellows and institutions, in both developed and developing countries, and within the academic and the private sectors;
4) Two calls have been launched to train thirty early-stage researchers: Fifteen started in October 2016 and other fifteen in October 2017. They are in total 16 men and 14 women, coming from Europe, including Eastern Europe, from North and South America, and from Asia. All signed three-year full time work contracts with full social benefits (i.e. medical care, maternity coverage, retirement, etc.), and additional subsidies. They are all enrolled in doctoral programs in one of the four associated Paris universities and are well integrated in their respective laboratories. Their progress, training accomplishments and satisfaction are being monitored by the close supervision of: 1. their project principal investigators (thesis supervisors), 2. independent individual senior scientists (tutors) and 3. thesis advisory committees specially appointed for each early stage researcher. Finally, the Pasteur International Doctoral Program Dean and Graduate Office members ensure general training organization and individual follow up.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Achievemnets of Pasteurdoc:
1) The highest scientific education through panoply of multidisciplinary research projects and scientific approaches: The different projects being developed by the thirty highly selected early stage researchers encompass an array of biomedical research fields crucial for human health. Subjects represent all the scientific department of the Institut Pasteur, including, Microbiology, Virology, Cell Biology & Infection, Genomes and Genetics, Mycology, Neuroscience, Structural Biology & Chemistry, Developmental & Stem Cell Biology, Immunology and Parasites & Insect Vectors.
2) We provided an exceptional nurturing environment combining practical research, scientific and transferrable skills training and educational follow up, by a well-established Teaching Department running and International Doctoral Program: All early stage researchers followed scientific and technological training related with their own research projects, as well as complementary skills training in good laboratory practice, biological safety and ethics in biomedical research. These will be complemented by training in oral and written communication, entrepreneurship, technology transfer and others. The Institut Pasteur campus provides a crowd of multidisciplinary science opportunities through weekly conferences given by internationally renowned scientists, in campus thematic congresses and thematic and technical workshops. Pasteur state-of-the art technology core facilities utilized by early stage researchers as they need provide with additional opportunities for training and scientific development.
3) We provided the early-stage researchers with a large international and multicultural network of fellows and institutions, in both developed and developing countries, and within the academic and the private sectors: This was accomplished through off campus scientific retreats of the Pasteur International Doctoral program, as well as common training and social events that gather all early stage researchers coming from all over the world. Meetings organized by the scientific departments and by the young researchers associations, together with funded possibilities to attend to national and international meetings provide them with additional opportunities to meet worldwide scientists and professionals. Finally, the existence of an International Network of 33 Pasteur Institutes all around the world give an extraordinary opportunity to meet and collaborate with scientists from those institutes through annual meetings, mixt research laboratories, task force common actions, etc.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

PASTEURDOC enhanced and will significantly advance the international visibility and the training capabilities of the Pasteur International Doctoral program, of the French Doctoral Training system, and of the European Research Area. This was accomplished by gathering top graduate students from all over the world without distinction of origin that contribute with their academic and cultural backgrounds to the richness of our educational environment. PASTEURDOC fostered their scientific and personal capacities useful in both academic and private sector institutions. It will enrich Europe with a new generation of fully trained professionals and it will provide other countries, in particular developing nations, with fully trained professionals prone to collaborate with any other country in the world through an extended network of colleagues.
To the date of publication of this summary, 23 ESRs out of 30 succesfully defended their PhD thesis and the 7 remaining will have done it by the end of 2021. Together, their published more than 38 peer reviewed publications in internationnaly recognized journals in a borad range of research topics covering from today very relevant infectious disease to fundamental molecular biology. They benefited from multiple training activities going from robotics to women leadership,giving them the tools to further progress on their career path, would that be in academia or in the private sector.

Picture of the Pasteurdoc ESRs at a retreat in 2018 with the whole Pasteur-Paris University group