One of the main strategic initiatives of EFMC was the establishment of the four Committees approved at the Council meeting in Istanbul 2006:
- Education & Training Committee (ETC) - Chair: Peter MATYUS
- European Commission R&D Initiatives Committee (ECIC) - Chair: Ferran SANZ
- Industry Liaison Committee (ILC) - Chair: Brigitte LESUR
- Information & Communication Committee (ICC) - Chair: Gerhard ECKER
Within this chapter we will give regular updates on the activities of our Committees.
This issue focuses on the Education & Training Committee and the Industry Liaison Committee.
The next issue will provide insights into the work of the European Commission R&D Initiatives and the Information & Communication Committee.
Education and Training Committee (ETC)
In order to ensure a strong, sustainable and internationally competitive discipline of medicinal chemistry within Europe, it is important that this topic is taught effectively. Training the next generation of medicinal chemists within Europe, at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, is therefore crucially important and EFMC has set-up an Education and Training Committee (ETC) to address this.
In order to quantify existing undergraduate and postgraduate level training courses within Europe, a questionnaire on 'Teaching and Training in Medicinal Chemistry' was sent to all EFMC council members late 2006 to provide baseline information from all EFMC member countries. The deadline for completion is April 13th, and a report identifying best practice will be published by 31st May 2007. If you wish to contribute to this project please contact Henk Timmerman at henktim@planet.nl
Our success will depend on strong industry-academia cooperation, and the ability to provide a platform to identify and develop future training needs. Our efforts to achieve these goals will be summarised in a future newsletter. However, key near-term objectives are:
- To summarise career destinations for Masters and PhD level medicinal chemists, and identify core skills gaps in each country
- To identify deficiencies in the current teaching and education of medicinal chemistry in Europe, and establish means of addressing these
- To summarise and publicise currently available software for e-learning of medicinal chemistry
In the longer-term, ETC hopes to explore (1) a possible role in the accreditation of PhD programmes and postgraduate training and (2) promotion of networking amongst PhD students and Schools, initially by gathering information about existing PhD Schools having a medicinal chemistry focus, and joint PhD programmes with another university. For EFMC approved schools, please see activities at www.efmc.info
ETC would welcome your knowledge, experience and ideas. If you wish to contribute towards our objectives, please contact peter.matyus@szerves.sote.hu
Péter Mátyus (Chair)
Industry Liaison Committee (ILC)
The over-arching objective of EFMC is to be a key representative body for the medicinal chemistry community in Europe. Within EFMC the Industry Liaison Committee (ILC) objective is to promote and improve liaison and cooperation between industry and EFMC.
Initially we are encouraging companies to become Corporate Members of EFMC, the advantages of which include acknowledgement in EFMC primary literature and website, reduced rates on a full page advert in the EFMC Yearbook "Medicinal Chemistry in Europe”, and invitation to participate in round-table discussions organised by the ILC during EFMC sponsored events.
Corporate membership will help the EFMC with its objective of advancing the science of medicinal chemistry and can be achieved in several ways:
- by making a cash donation of at least 2500 Euros
- by sponsoring an official EFMC award
- by providing EFMC travel grants for attending the ISMC
- by sponsoring an EFMC international conference
For more information please contact Dave Alker at davidalker@btinternet.com or visit the web-site at http://www.efmc.info/member.php?langue=english&cle_menus=1110387737
Other near-term ILC objectives are
- to improve the visibility of EFMC activities within companies which employ medicinal chemists or for whom medicinal chemistry is an enabling science,
- to position EFMC as a link between industry and academia for the exchange of ideas, information and knowledge in medicinal chemistry,
- to facilitate EFMC role as a forum for industrial and academic medicinal chemists to discuss the evolution of medicinal chemistry within Europe and
- to promote opportunities for short-term industrial training periods for students.
Longer term, ILC intends to set-up a site for job offers and CVs on the EFMC web-site and also to compile a directory of European centres of specific expertise in drug research.
ILC would welcome your knowledge, experience and ideas. If you wish to contribute towards our objectives, please contact blesur@fr.netgrs.com
Brigitte Lesur (Chair)
