Dr Ruth Barrington, Chief Executive of the Dublin Molecular Medicine Centre has announced the launch of a new Fellowship Programme to train the next generation of academic medical leaders in Ireland. The first intake of the Molecular Medicine Ireland Clinician Scientist Fellowship Programme will comprise at least 22 Fellows competitively selected from medical graduates at registrar level who wish to undertake PhD training.
The Fellowship Programme, which has received funding of €11m from the Higher Education Authority under the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI), will be organised on a national basis by Molecular Medicine Ireland and delivered by the participating institutions: National University of Ireland, Galway, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork and University College Dublin.
Commenting on the significance of the programme, Dr Barrington said that ‘This programme is one of the most important advances in Irish medical training. Until now, medical graduates who wished to pursue a career in research often had to do so abroad. This programme gives some of our best medical graduates the opportunity to train to the highest standards as clinician scientists in Ireland.’
The Fellowship programme will address one of the key challenges of modern medicine – how to speed up the translation of advances in research into more effective ways of preventing and treating disease. The Fellows will undertake their research in areas in which Irish universities and academic hospitals are strong; such as neuroscience, infection and immunity, cancer, regenerative medicine, respiratory medicine, and cardiovascular disease
Dr Michael Kamarck, Chair of the Dublin Molecular Medicine Centre, welcomed the initiative saying ‘this training programme transcends institutional boundaries to give Fellows unparalleled access to the top biomedical researchers in the country, and to state-of-the-art basic and clinical research facilities. It will also attract to Ireland high calibre medical graduates who wish to undertake their training in this well structured programme, and it will build Ireland’s international reputation in biomedical research.’
