NEWS

Professional Traininig 2 - Career opportunities in industry and academia

2025.12.10

On December 4th, 2025, our doctoral students attended an inspiring professional training workshop hosted by Prof. Christoph Gerlinger, featuring two excellent speakers who shared open and insightful perspectives on career paths in industry and academia.

Dr. Katrin Walkamp, Lead Statistician at Bayer AG, walked us through her journey from Biology and Mathematics into clinical statistics. She explained the organizational structure at Bayer, the three stages of clinical trials in drug development, and offered a behind-the-scenes look at the work environment, interdisciplinary team dynamics, the responsibilities of a project statistician, and broader data science opportunities beyond traditional biostatistics.
Dr. Darren Dahly, Principal Statistician at the HRB Clinical Research Facility, University College Cork, shared a reflection on his nonlinear academic career. He spoke about embracing uncertainty, following unexpected opportunities, and the importance of flexibility, applied methods, and essential “soft” skills such as writing, communication, collaboration, and leadership.
Our doctoral researchers also had the chance to ask questions, engage with the speakers, and reflect on their own career paths. The insights and conversations shared during the session sparked fresh motivation and inspiration, encouraging them to explore different possibilities for their professional development.

We extend our sincere thanks to our speakers for sharing their experiences, and to our students for their curiosity and active engagement!

Workshop: Scientific Writing

2025.12.03

As part of our ongoing professional training programme, we organised a two-day workshop on Scientific Writing, led by Tim Korver. The workshop focused on providing our doctoral students with clear, practical tools to strengthen their scientific communication.

Over the two afternoons (2025.11.27 & 2025.12.01), our researchers:

• Learned fundamental principles of clarity, cohesion, and coherence

• Practiced applying these principles to real scientific texts

• Mapped key messages using structured frameworks

• Completed exercises on sentence flow, topic–stress positioning, and improving paragraph cohesion

• Analysed examples of good scientific writing

• Practiced revising their own work and supporting peers

• Learned about the Scientific Storytelling Arc and how to use it to structure their research narratives

• Reflected on ways AI tools can support the writing process

• Shared practical insights and experiences to enhance writing productivity

• Completed a 20-minute focused writing session, followed by peer feedback exchanges to improve clarity, structure, and communication

The workshop included targeted activities and example texts designed to help researchers strengthen how they present problems, structure arguments, and create flow across paragraphs. This interactive training forms an important part of the SHARE-CTD commitment to equipping our doctoral candidates with strong research communication skills.

A warm thank-you to Tim Korver for the excellent training and to all our doctoral researchers for their active participation.

Professional Traininig 2 - Data access & communication between stakeholders

2025.11.11

This professional training brought together leading experts from academia, industry, and research infrastructures to discuss patient-level data access and the future of data sharing in health research.

The session began with a comprehensive overview of the Vivli data sharing platform, presented by Julie Wood (COO, Vivli), Catrin Tudur Smith (Professor of Biostatistics, University of Liverpool), Rebecca Sudlow (Global Lead Patient Level Data Sharing, Roche), David McAllister (Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Medical Informatics, University of Glasgow), and Georgina Humphreys (Secretariet Independent Review Panel). The speakers explained how researchers can access patient-level data for evidence synthesis, the difference between individual patient data (IPD) and summary-level data, and the key steps from data request to analysis and dissemination. Case studies illustrated the workflow from both the researcher’s and data provider’s perspectives, highlighting Vivli’s transparent and collaborative approach to responsible data reuse.

Following this, Catia Sousa Pinto (Shared Services for Ministry of Health, EPE) presented the European Health Data Space (EHDS), which is a landmark EU initiative establishing common standards, governance, and infrastructure to facilitate secure, cross-border health data sharing. The EHDS aims to empower citizens, support evidence-based policymaking, and advance research and innovation across Europe.

Finally, Sergio Contrino (Head of Data Projects, ECRIN) introduced tools developed by ECRIN, including the Metadata Repository and Data Sharing Repository, which promote interoperability and sustainable access to clinical research data within the broader European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) ecosystem.

This training offered valuable insights into how collaborative infrastructures like Vivli, EHDS, and ECRIN are shaping the future of open and responsible data sharing in health research.

Second Schooling in Lyon

2025.10.25

From 20 to 24 October 2025, the 2nd Schooling took place in person at the Domaine Lyon Saint Joseph in Lyon, bringing together international doctoral students, principal investigators, partners and guest speakers. S2_1 Topics such as IPD-MA, data protection, meta-research, the GDPR, and the legal aspects of data sharing were on the agenda, as were panel discussions with two patients representants as well as a discussion with a sociologist about marginalised populations.

Alongside the demanding and intensive scientific programme, there was also time for culinary and cultural experiences, including a guided tour of Lyon's old town, visits to the Musée Lumière, and a meal at a traditional Lyonnais restaurant, which provided a welcome break. S2_2 We will meet again during the week beginning 8 February 2026 in Zeist, the Netherlands, where Datathon 2 will take place under the direction of Valentijn de Jong (University Medical Centre Utrecht). Then it will be time for the doctoral students to get back to programming, analysing and presenting!

Second datathon in February 2026 in Utrecht

2025.09.09

Under the lead of PhD Assistant Professor Valentijn de Jong (University Medical Center Utrecht) the second SHARE-CTD Datathon will take place in Zeist from February 9 to 13, 2026.