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Study & Training

As a part of the University of Helsinki Faculty of Pharmacy, the CDR is a truly multinational and multidisciplinary research and education organization. Over 50% of our scientists come from abroad; and, our staff represents a broad range of scientific disciplines including Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Physics, Engineering, Biology, Bioinformatics, and others. We greatly value our participation in numerous international educational networks. These include:

ULLA -- European University Consortium for Pharmaceutical Sciences ULLA was founded in 1992 as a European Consortium for (Post Graduate) training in the field of Pharmaceutical Sciences. ULLA takes the name from the cities of the founding universities of the consortium, namely Uppsala, London, Leiden and Amsterdam. ULLA has since then been extended with five more member universities and now consists of the following members:

  • The Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Uppsala (Sweden)
  • UCL School of Pharmacy (United Kingdom)
  • The Leiden/Amsterdam Center for Drug Research, University of Leiden and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
  • Drug Research Academy, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen
  • The Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Paris Sud (France)
  • The Department of Pharmacy, University of Parma (Italy)
  • The Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) - (Faculty - KULeuven)
  • The Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki, (Centre for Drug Research)

The primary objective of the ULLA network is to enhance collaboration within education and research in pharmaceutical sciences between the European universities. The ULLA institutions are complimentary in their research and teaching missions and by coming together, possess a synergy that allows the consortium to have a greater impact on the European scene. Another objective is to give staff and students of the member institutions increased access to the combined resources of the institutions involved.

ERASMUS -- Erasmus Student Network (ESN) is one of the biggest interdisciplinary student associations in Europe, founded in 1990 for supporting and developing student exchange. They are present in 296 Higher Education Institutions from 33 countries, and the network is constantly developing and expanding.

GPEN -- Globalization of Pharmaceutical Education Network (GPEN) is an international post-graduate education network initiated by the University of Kansas, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry. GPEN organizes a post-graduate student symposium and several mini-courses every two years. GPEN is funded by donations from the pharmaceutical industry, and the contributing industrial partners may send their observers to the GPEN meetings. The next meeting (GPEN2014) will be hosted by the Universities of Helsinki and Eastern Finland and held at the Biomedicum Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, August 27 – August 30, 2014.

GALENOS -- GALENOS is a European Union FP6-funded Marie Curie EST network. GALENOS is coordinated from University of Saarland (Prof. Claus Michael Lehr); and, the network provides a Euro-PhD. program in Advanced Drug Delivery, organizes mini-courses, and offers 12-month stipends for foreign students willing to carry out part of their Ph.D. studies in the host laboratories.The CDR is one of the 10 host laboratories for foreign post-graduate students in the field of Advanced Drug Delivery.

CHEMSEM -- The Chemical Sensors and Microanalytical Systems graduate school (CHEMSEM) combines microfabrication and optical technologies of modern electronics with modern analytical chemistry and offers a high quality education for the needs of the current and future analysts.

CRS -- The Controlled Release Society (CRS) is an international organization that serves 3,000 members from more than 50 countries. Two-thirds of the CRS membership represents industry and one-third represents academia and government. The CDR participates in the Nordic Chapter of the CRS.

FinPharmaNet -- FinPharmaNet is a network of four national graduate schools for drug research training in Finland: Drug Discovery Graduate School (DDGS), Graduate School in Pharmaceutical Research (GSPR), Finnish Graduate School in Toxicology (ToxGS), and Clinical Drug Research Graduate School (CDRGS).

For more information or for inquiries about CDR participation in international educational networks, please contact the  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

The CDR participates in the FinPharma Doctoral Program (FPDP). FPDP is a consortium of 4 graduate schools in Finland that coordinates and informs about doctoral courses in the fields of drug discovery, drug development, drug research, and toxicology. FPDP enhances national and international networking through these international courses and laboratory visits. The CDR participates in the FPDP and organizes international doctoral courses in collaboration with other educational organizations. Participants can register and take these courses in person or virtually online. They are open to students, scientists, and professionals from industry. Scientists from abroad are welcome to register for course webinars. The next course organized by the CDR will be a practical course on G-protein coupled receptors and will be held in Helsinki in 2013. Future course and registration information will be listed here when available.
 
For questions, or for interest in collaborating with the CDR on developing or participating in a FPDP course, please contact the CDR.
At the CDR, we welcome the opportunity to host professional scientists wishing to further develop their skills in drug discovery tools and pharmaceutical nanotechnology. Investigators who wish to study and research here as part of a traditional sabbatical are encouraged to contact the CDR. In addition to academic arrangements, the CDR also hosts professionals from the pharmaceutical industry; and, we are open to industrial exchange programs at all levels.
 
FiDiPro - the Finland Distinguished Professor Program provides Finnish universities and research institutes like the CDR the opportunity to employ distinguished professor-level scientists from all around the world for a fixed term in order to carry out research and contribute to the advancement of scientific research. FiDiPro Fellow funding is designed for talented and experienced international researchers who are beyond their postdoctoral stage. Expatriate Finnish scientists who have long worked outside of Finland are also eligible for the FiDiPro program. Funding is awarded for a fixed term with a funding period of 2–5 years. Both Tekes and the Academy of Finland provide funding for FiDiPro Professors. The application for funding is made by a Finnish university or research institute and not by the international researcher personally. For more information about the FiDiPro program or if you are interested in working at the CDR as a FiDiPro Professor or Fellow, please contact the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
 
 
 
Postdoctoral education is one of the main functions of the CDR. The ratio of postgraduate students to postdoctoral students is about 2:1. Our postdoctoral students comprise more than 20% of the staff at CDR, and they come from many different countries and from a wide range of scientific disciplines. The working language of the CDR is English, and the environment is highly diverse and dynamic. Importantly, CDR postdoctoral students also serve as project supervisors for M.Sc. and Ph.D. students, which make for a highly collaborative environment and also allows for development of mentoring skills.
 
We welcome open applications for postdoctoral student positions. Preferred candidate backgrounds vary depending on available research projects, but can include pharmaceutics, biochemistry, chemistry, biochemical engineering, biology, medicine, or others. For questions or for more information on postdoctoral training opportunities, please contact the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Professor Arto Urtti, Director of the CDR, also directs a research-oriented program for M.Sc. students in the Faculty of Pharmacy. This M.Sc. program offers an opportunity for talented and motivated students to conduct advanced course work and to develop hands-on scientific skills early in their training, paving the way for continuing Ph.D. studies or for industrial research and development positions upon graduation. Among current Master's students, prospective students are selected via grades, performance on university entrance examination, and subjective criteria to complete the program in Finnish. Selection takes place during the spring semester of studies based on separate application and interviews. The Finnish degree requirements for a B.Sc. (Farmaseutti) and M.Sc. (Proviisori) in Pharmacy will be met.
 
The research-oriented M.Sc. program in Pharmacy program also includes rotations (minimum 2 months per year) in laboratories. Here, students engage in hands-on research work as a member of an established research group. To ensure that selected students are allowed to fully concentrate on their research work as a full member of a selected research team, students will receive a salary.
 
For more detailed information, see here. For questions about the research-oriented program in Pharmacy, please contact the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

As part of the Faculty of Pharmacy, the CDR contributes to education at every level - from undergraduate studies to postdoctoral education and beyond. We are committed to offering high-level teaching at all levels as well as to further developing the scientific research within the Faculty of Pharmacy and among our students.

Every scientist at the CDR contributes to teaching. With the expertise of our senior scientists, the CDR contributes to undergraduate teaching in many specific areas and has an especially important contribution to make in the following topics:

  • Computational, molecular, and pharmacokinetic modelling
  • Drug targeting
  • Peptide and nucleotide chemistry
  • Physical chemistry and biophysics
  • Bioactivity screening
  • Protein engineering

For the M.Sc. degree in Pharmacy, CDR researchers participate in student supervision. Notably, our scientists can also provide supervision of Master's students from a variety of related disciplines. More informtion about the M.Sc. degree program in Pharmacy can be found here.

CDR also hosts Ph.D. students and provides supervision of their doctoral research projects. Our students come from all over the world and represent a wide range of scientific disciplines ranging from various fields of pharmaceutical science to biotechnology, chemistry, mathematics, and more.

Inquiries for Ph.D. student positions can be submitted by email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Preferred candidate backgrounds vary depending on available research projects, but can include pharmaceutics, biochemistry, chemistry, biochemical engineering, biology, medicine, or others. More information about  Ph.D. studies at the Faculty of Pharmacy see here.

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