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PENS, the new joint Programme for European Neuroscience Schools: FENS and IBRO turn past into future

2005; Elsevier BV; Volume: 28; Issue: 10 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.tins.2005.07.009

1878-108X

Albert J. Aguayo, Tamás F. Freund, Sigismund Huck,

Neuroscience, Education and Cognitive Function

The Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS, http://www.fens.org) and the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO, http://www.ibro.info) joined forces early this year to promote and help fund the schools and courses that will train Europe's future brain scientists. These two international federations, representing most neuroscientists in the continent, have collaborated in the past on several educational and public information projects. They have now brought together their expertise and financial resources into a single project: the Programme for European Neuroscience Schools (PENS, http://www.fens.org/pens). Under PENS, some of the best teachers from around the world will volunteer to travel to the various PENS schools in Europe to share their knowledge with students and young researchers from across the continent. Schools, lectures and practical sessions will provide new knowledge and create expertise in the use of modern research technologies. The emphasis is to maximize discussion, creative thinking and the mastery of new skills, the training ingredients urgently needed to increase European competitiveness in science. A very special purpose of PENS is also to support new initiatives that bring together young people from the East and the West and forge the personal links that facilitate collaboration. Furthermore, PENS schools will provide opportunities for training in Europe for promising students from developing countries. These objectives are specified in the seven-point mandate given to PENS by FENS and IBRO:•increase the quality of neuroscience education in Europe•decrease gaps between different European neuroscience curricula and between Europe and the rest of the world, while maintaining regional and national research priorities•increase collaboration between young European neuroscientists•create a network of alumni and teachers capable of enhancing scientific collaboration and the establishment of international research projects within Europe•alert scientists from the graduate student to the young faculty level to the research possibilities offered by laboratories in and outside Europe•increase the visibility of European neuroscience educational programmes and their role in and outside Europe•assist the development of neuroscience outside Europe by providing opportunities in Europe for the training of promising students who intend to return to their home countries. In general, each of the PENS schools will last approximately two weeks and will enrol some 20 promising students to work intensively with distinguished teacher-scientists from within and outside Europe. The curriculum will focus on specialized issues in neuroscience but will usually change from year to year. Where the needs and infrastructure justify it, a successful school could be repeated in the same location or move elsewhere. PENS envisages that new funds will enable the programme to offer new schools in as many places as possible, even as a single, non-recurrent event. An additional ambitious goal is to create one or more ‘training centres’ in conjunction with strong existent research institutions in Europe. These would hold annual specialized theoretical and practical courses at the highest level, open to the most promising students. However, it is important to stress that PENS has not established these formats as the only ones for its schools but has provided them as examples of what it is seeking; ultimately, the schools to be chosen for funding will be those where local entrepreneurship offers what will best serve the aims of the programme in a specific research field and region. Proposals from European scientists will be evaluated annually by a PENS committee appointed by FENS and IBRO. Current guidelines and application deadlines are posted on the PENS website. PENS will provide the administrative framework required to organize these multinational activities and, with backing from FENS and IBRO, it will help generate the funds needed to support the best schools and courses. PENS organizers hope that private and government agencies will also support this programme and help expand it further. Why PENS now? The creation of PENS by FENS and IBRO derives largely from the need to build greater strength in the brain sciences. There is indeed a chronic under-funding of basic neuroscience in Europe, which results in progressive loss of well-trained scientists, largely to North America. Even young scientists from Eastern Europe now ‘jump over’ Western Europe to end up in the USA. They are unlikely to come back! The major brain drain from all parts of Europe is taking place at a time when the incidence of brain diseases is growing rapidly, in part because of the increasing age of the population and rapid socioeconomic changes on the continent. In the newly associated states of the European Union (EU), which increased the population of the EU by ∼72 million, the prevalence of neurological and psychiatric disorders is the highest on the entire continent. A recent study focused on twelve disorders (dementia, epilepsy, migraine, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, stroke, brain tumours, traumatic brain injury, addiction, anxiety, and affective and psychotic disorders) [1Andlin-Sobocki P. et al.Cost of disorders of the brain in Europe.Eur. J. Neurol. 2005; 12: 1-27Crossref PubMed Scopus (105) Google Scholar]. It indicates that for 2004 the total cost of these diseases was €386 billion; this estimate would increase to €447 billion if nicotine addiction and headaches other than migraines were included. Although this burden represents over 35% of the total expenditure on all diseases, brain research only received 8% of the EU research budget for life sciences. This is worrying not only because of its impact on the growth of health problems but also because future development in several fields of European industry, including the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors and information technology, is so dependent on the output of creative and dedicated neuroscientists. Thus, there is an unprecedented need for boosting basic and clinical research efforts at both European and national levels, and for a marked increase in resources to train new brain scientists who will serve these efforts in the various countries of the EU. The importance of the PENS schools for integration and coordination of European training at various levels of specialization, for establishing collaborative networks, and for the dissemination of knowledge to the less-developed regions, is therefore clear and timely. FENS and IBRO hope that others, including professional, corporate and philanthropic organizations, will support this initiative with new ideas, expertise and funds.