UMC Utrecht in 2022 implemented six academic career profiles to evaluate researchers on a broad range of academic activities and just on publications and earning capacity. Since the career profiles are new and still raise many questions, we propose to set up a self-sustaining network of researchers, policy makers and supervisors. That will boost the familiarity and that will create role models to inspire early career researchers to choose new career profiles. To start and set up this network we propose to hire for one year a “Community manager Recognition & rewards”.

Mensen met ernstige verlamming kunnen niet communiceren met familie en geliefden vanwege hun onvermogen om te bewegen en spreken. Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) kunnen helpen door hun hersenactiviteit om te zetten in communicatiesignalen. Huidige BCIs missen echter robuustheid, generaliseren slecht tussen gebruikers en ondersteunen slechts beperkte communicatiestrategieën. BCI-Found biedt een nieuwe oplossing door gebruik te maken van zelf-supervised training en transfer learning om een fundamenteel model van hersensignalen te creëren. BCI-Found leert robuuste neurale patronen die generaliseren tussen individuen en biedt veelzijdige communicatieopties. Bij succes kan het BCI-technologie transformeren en het leven van mensen met verlamming aanzienlijk verbeteren.

New 3D bioprinting technologies can enable the production of functional man-made human tissues, which can be used in regenerative medicine to restore the lost function of damaged knee joints. Herein, we will develop an innovative ultra-rapid volumetric bioprinting strategy to produce stem cell-laden bone and cartilage grafts to tackle osteoarthritis.

Important current problems in the world such as climate change, pandemics and increasing healthcare costs affect the future doctor. These complicated problems cannot be solved if you only think and act from the perspective of medicine. It is important for prospective doctors to work together, to look beyond the boundaries of medicine, and to be creative and flexible, keeping patients and society in mind. Therefore, we develop a 10-week course aimed at complex problems that cannot be solved from a single discipline. We hope that this will enable the students to see the challenges of the future from different perspectives.

Most drugs tested in humans appear inefficient orunsafe, mainly because studies in cell- or animal models are poorly predictive. To improve this, laboratory studies should better resemble human complexity, for example by combined culturing of humen mini-organs. Such multi-organ-on-a-chip models however are complex, and broad implementation is difficult. We will investigate whether a newly-developed platform for combined culturing, using an automated microscope and Artificial-Intelligence-assisted image analysis, allows monitoring of a biological therapy. This would make the multi-organ technology more easy and broadly implementable, for example in drug development.