On 15 July 2026, the BioTransform consortium welcomed its newly recruited Doctoral Candidates (DCs) during a full-day online introduction event. The meeting brought together the DCs, supervisors, trainers and the project management team from partner organisations across the network.
The event opened with a welcome and overview of the BioTransform project from the coordinator, Prof. Nina Hermans from the University of Antwerp, followed by a round of introductions. All Doctoral Candidates introduced themselves and presented a brief overview of their backgrounds, research interests and individual doctoral projects. This session provided an initial insight into the breadth of expertise represented across the network and helped participants identify links between the different research projects.
The programme also introduced the Doctoral Candidates to the structure and implementation of BioTransform. Sessions covered the project work plan, planned secondments, the training programme and the network’s governance structure. The Doctoral Candidates also received an introduction to Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Networks, including their roles and responsibilities, career development planning and the preparation of their Personal Career Development Plans. A dedicated communication and outreach session outlined the relevant European Union requirements, the network’s expectations and the first communication activities to be undertaken by the Doctoral Candidates.
The afternoon focused on the training session “Nutritional Clinical Trials: Design, Strategy, Analysis and Data Reporting”. The session addressed key principles of nutritional clinical research, including study design, ethics, recruitment, intervention implementation, participant adherence, statistical analysis, biomarker monitoring and the collection and reporting of high-quality data.
The event concluded with interactive group work in breakout rooms, during which participants applied and discussed the topics introduced throughout the day and sorted out the aspects of GCP for nutritional clinical trials by working on publications of different types of clinical trials. The groups presented their results in a joint plenary session before the meeting closed with a final wrap-up.
The introduction event marked an important first step in building connections among the Doctoral Candidates and establishing a shared understanding of the BioTransform research, training and collaboration framework.