Education: Call for scholarships for master's and doctoral internships

The Minister of Education, Ligia Deca, announced that the third edition of the call for scholarships for master's and doctoral internships and for master's, doctoral, postdoctoral and research internships abroad will be launched. The minister specified: "We have taken several steps that will support and encourage young people to choose to continue their studies here, at home, towards a research career. Scholarships for doctoral students have increased, since the last academic year, to 3,200 lei per month. We will soon launch the third edition of the scholarship call for master's and doctoral internships, for postdoctoral and research internships abroad. Now the scholarships have an amount between 1,100 - 1,200 euros per month depending on the destination country". According to her, in all fields there is a need to strengthen the relationship between the academic sector, research and practitioners: "Relationships between education and medical research for health must be among our concerns. (...) All European citizens have the right to education and health. We support the multiplication of research activities and international collaborations. Programs in the new research area can lead to innovations in treatments, diagnostics and medical technology. (...) Romania actively participates in addressing global challenges, aligning to European missions and partnerships where it has the potential to contribute with innovative solutions, and the national research-innovation system is already integrated into the European research area". Ligia Deca recalled that among the concerns of the Ministry of Education to support the efforts of universities to participate in such programs is the increase in the number of doctoral graduates compared to the number of higher education graduates, the participation of Romanian universities in European university alliances for accessing research funds in a much more competitive way, the modernization of university infrastructure and their digitization: "I expect medical students to be among the first to accept that modern technologies and artificial intelligence can improve and even transform the medical act. UMF "Carol Davila' understood that we need to adapt the educational offer to the new requirements of the market. (...) Universities have a role in creating essential knowledge to face contemporary global challenges, and public health and technological progress remain catalysts for innovation the labor market, with society, those in the academic system act as a catalyst for innovation, putting into practice the discoveries from medical research". The minister's statements were made at the "Medical education and research in research policies in Romania" event, held within the Alliance4Life Bridging the Research and Innovation Gaps in Life Sciences (A4L_BRIDGE) project, which aimed to analyze the difficulties related to the interconnection of research, teaching and medical practice in university health institutions.