BIOTIN - MSCA COFUND Project (Cofunded by EU & TÜBİTAK)

Spinning discoveries out of research institutions requires expertise and ecosystem that is hard to bring together in the academic environment. One of the main challenges is the lack of qualified personnel having multidisciplinary technical skills endowed with transferrable skills. Biomedical Technologies and Innovation (BIOTIN) doctoral programme features an international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral approach to provide 20 doctoral candidates (DCs) a unique blend of research training skills at the convergence of life sciences, engineering, and computational & data sciences, and entrepreneurship skills, with the aim of advancing innovation in biomedical research. The programme aims to facilitate translation of scientific discoveries in the field of biomedical sciences into potential diagnostics and therapies, in line with national and European roadmaps and strategies fostering output- oriented research and innovation through excellent doctoral programmes.

BIOTIN offers 20 doctoral research projects addressing the challenges in three intertwined themes of biomedical field: 

1) drug development, 

2) diagnosis, 

3) tissue engineering and artificial organs.

BIOTIN Consortium consists of Türkiye’s top technology-focused universities (İzmir Institute of Technology, IZTECH and Boğaziçi University, BOUN) alongside a life science themed-research centre (İzmir Biomedicine and Genome Centre, IBG). BIOTIN fellows also benefit from secondments-and short-visits to associated partner organizations in Europe and beyond, including prominent universities, NGO, large enterprises and start-ups, alongside the opportunity to develop and practice entrepreneurship skills in leading technology development zones of Turkey. A total of 29 associated partner organisations including 18 academic and 11 non-academic organisations contribute to the programme.

BIOTIN actively cultivates a symbiotic relationship between life sciences, engineering and data science uplifting one another. It brings together experts in different fields (e.g. Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science, Engineering, Molecular Biology, Informatics, Computer and Data Science) to foster collaborative and focused research; train the next generation of talent in convergent science principles; and establish sustained pace of innovation and discovery in biomedical area.

BIOTIN programme is based on three pillars:

International mobility: All Doctoral Candidates (no nationality criteria but need to be coming from abroad) engage in international academic secondments with a duration of 6 months in Europe and beyond. In addition, doctoral research projects of BIOTIN offer industrial secondment opportunities in abroad.

Intersectoral exposure: Non-academic partners (industrial partners, NGO, TTO, Technopark) involved in BIOTIN provide DCs industrial and entrepreneurship exposure to increase their employability potential and future career prospects.

Interdisciplinarity: BIOTIN ensures appropriate opportunities for fostering an interdisciplinary approach in each doctoral thesis project. DCs have the opportunity to work in a diverse and inclusive research environment, which benefits from the interdisciplinary team of supervisors. A total of 31 academic supervisors who are experts in different fields of engineering with biomedical focus, and basic and applied life sciences are contributing to the programme.

This project is submitted to MSCA-COFUND 2022 call and funded in 2023. It has started on January 1st, 2023 and will end December 31st, 2027. During the course of the project 10 PhD students will be funded.

This project is cofunded by European Commission and TÜBİTAK together.

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Volga Bulmuş – volgabulmus@iyte.edu.tr)

Dr. Başar Şirin  – basarsirin@iyte.edu.tr)