Competencies: A new currency for continuing professional development

“No research without trained researchers” has become the mantra of the EU-funded Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) education and training projects. However, it is often hard to determine the type of training required at different stages of a scientist’s career. The situation is further complicated by the constantly changing environment, e.g. the growth of disruptive technologies, societal expectations of biomedical sciences, the greater need for multi-disciplinary collaborations, and conservative or changing regulatory requirements. This article summarises the experience from a series of five EMTRAIN Public Private Partnership PhD workshops that included both scientific and transferrable skill training. This is followed by an example of a recently developed training programme, including a competency profile, for translational research and medicines development; the C-COMEND teaching programme. The emphasis is on competencies as a new currency for continuing professional development. Finally, this paper describes what we consider to be the next steps required by the scientific community to address solutions to the current training challenges so that society can benefit from the innovations that only science can provide

Finite element simulation of subsurface initiated damage from non-metallic inclusions in wind turbine gearbox bearings

The premature failure of wind turbine gearbox bearings significantly affects the reliability of wind turbine operation and energy production. Damage initiated from non-metallic inclusions known as White Etching Cracks (WECs) has been identified as the dominant initiation mechanism that causes the premature failure under the influence of transient events. In this study, the factors affecting the initiation of subsurface damage from non-metallic inclusions were investigated by finite element modelling. It was found that the direction of surface traction and loading-unloading cycle had a detrimental effect on stress concentration at the tips of the de-bonded non-metallic inclusions in bearing steel

Modelling Permafrost Distribution using the Temperature at Top of Permafrost Model in the Boreal Forest Environment of Whatì, NT.

Current permafrost models in Canadian boreal forests are generally low spatial resolution as they cover regional or continental scales. This study aims to understand the viability of creating a temperature at top of permafrost (TTOP) model on a local scale in the boreal wetland environment of Whatì, Northwest Territories from short-term field-collected temperature data. The model utilizes independent variables of vegetation, topographic positioning index and elevation, with the dependent variables being ground surface temperature collected from 60 ground temperature nodes (GTN) and 1.5 m air temperature collected from 10 temperature stations. In doing this the study investigates the relationship vegetation and disturbance have on ground temperature and permafrost distribution. The model predicts that 31 % of the ground is underlain by permafrost, based on a mean annual temperature at TTOP of < 0 °C. This model shows an accuracy of 62.5 % when compared to Cryotic Assessment Sites (CAS). Most inaccuracies, showing the limitation of the TTOP model, came from peat plateaus that had undergone burn in the most recent forest fire in 2014. These resulted in out of equilibrium permafrost and climatic conditions which TTOP cannot handle well. Commonly permafrost mapping places Whatì in the extensive discontinuous zone estimating that between 50 % to 90 % of the ground is underlain by permafrost. The study shows that a climatically driven TTOP model calibrated with CAS can be used to illustrate ground temperature heterogeneity from short-term data in boreal forest wetland environments. However, this approach likely underestimates permafrost extent and is perhaps not the best-suited modelling choice for near-surface permafrost, which is currently out of equilibrium with the current climat

Valuing pharmacogenetic testing services: a comparison of patients' and health care professionals' preferences

Katherine Payne, Emily A. Fargher, Stephen A. Roberts, Karen Tricker, Rachel A. Elliott, Julie Ratcliffe and William G. Newma