EIT awards label to RECIPE PhD school to fight antimicrobial resistance

School provides doctoral students with a cross-disciplinary environment

Two EIT Health Partners that have already established leading programmes addressing the challenge of antimicrobial resistance have partnered together to create RECIPE, an EIT Health degree programme that received this fall the EIT label.

EIT has awarded the EIT label to Research and Entrepreneurship Combining Innovation with PhD Education (RECIPE), a collaborative PhD school between Uppsala University and the University of Groningen.

RECIPE, with a focus on antibiotics and antibiotic resistance, received the highest score from the EIT review team, emphasizing the innovative and excellent potential of the programme.

RECIPE provides doctoral students with a cross-disciplinary environment, accelerating healthcare progress through international mobility and close interaction and co-creation with public and private partners, thus forming a new generation of health innovators within the scientific field of antibiotic research.

Antimicrobial resistance is a major concern because widespread misuse of antibiotics, and the ability of bacteria to mutate and develop resistance to medicine, is creating a growing number of antimicrobial resistant superbugs that require new treatments. If science cannot address this problem, this can lead to a dramatic increase in illness and mortality from diseases that were thought to have been conquered.

‘This recognition inspires us even further in providing our PhD students with the broadest possible understanding of the challenges of antimicrobial resistance’, says Linus Sandegren, senior lecturer in Medical Bacteriology and member of the management group for Uppsala Antibiotic Center.

The EIT label is a certificate of quality for programmes that combine excellent scientific education with innovation and entrepreneurship training, and EIT Health is very committed to support Uppsala University and the University of Groningen in implementing RECIPE and to build on this excellent start, says Ursula Mühle, director of Education, EIT Health.

RECIPE was one of three EIT Health degree programmes that recently joined the two that were already awarded the EIT Label. Graduates of EIT-Labelled degrees form the next generation of health innovators. The other two programmes to earn the label are: The Master of Technological Innovation in Health (MTIH) and The Common European Master’s Course in Biomedical Engineering (CEMACUBE).