Erasmus+ not only enables teaching stays abroad, but also training stays on a wide variety of topics for all Med Uni Graz staff members, regardless of whether they are general or scientific staff or whether they work in clinical or non-clinical areas. The opportunities are diverse, as the wide range of training visits in 2023 shows.
Daniel Auinger from the Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine had the opportunity to get to know the work of the anesthesia teams and intensive care physicians at the University of Queensland and the associated Princess Alexandra Hospital as part of an observership and to further his training in his specialist field by exchanging ideas with his Australian colleagues.
Learning about various sequencing methods in a workshop on next generation sequencing and gaining insights into the work of the laboratory at the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at Tel Aviv University in Israel were the aims of the Erasmus+ training visit of Patrick Wiedner from the Division of Medical Physics and Biophysics. Anna-Lisa Pignet from the Division of Plastic, Aesthetic and Reconstructive Surgery completed a further training visit to Tel Aviv University in the field of burn treatment research, as did Oleh Myronenko from the Division of Pulmonology with a focus on cardiovascular research methods..
Two staff members from the Human Resources, Stefanie Paar and Andrea Resch, were able to gain insights into university administration at the Albanian partner university during a week of job shadowing at the University of Medicine Tirana. Veronika Rechberger from the International Office-Welcome Center used a mobility to UC Chile to learn about best practice examples with regard to supporting international researchers, staff members, students and guests and to further improve the services offered at Medical University of Graz as a result.
Three other members of staff - Julia Fink from the Divison of Plastic, Aesthetic and Reconstructive Surgery, Alexandra Bergmann from the International Office and Francisco Fernandez Hernandez from the Division of Oncology took part in an international staff week at the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC) in the Dominican Republic. This brought them closer to the Dominican (university) culture and offered numerous opportunities to network with colleagues from a wide range of universities, but also to learn about the research methods or work processes used by colleagues from their own research or work areas at INTEC.
An Erasmus+ training stay enabled Gerhilde Schüttengruber from the Institute of Nursing Science to gain further training in the field of research methods and to get to know the teaching and research work of the Faculty of Nursing Science at the Universidad CES in Colombia.
In 2023, Karin Pankratz from the Division of Cell Biology, Histology and Embryology and Birgit Reiter from the ZMF took part in English language courses at the Atlantic Language School Galway in Ireland (Intensive General English and English for the Educational Workplace), while Eva Reininghaus from the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapeutic Medicine attended a General English course in Cork, Ireland. The varied courses consist of lessons as well as cultural activities such as city tours and optional excursions. Lively exchanges with the other international participants on the course round off this enriching experience.
Daksh Verma and Alina Stockner from the Division of Cardiology spent a training stay at Bayer in Wuppertal, Germany, through Erasmus+. During their stay, they visited Bayer's research and development center and received training in transthoracic echocardiography in rodents. A further visit was made by Alwin Sokolowski from the Department of Dentistry and Oral Health at Queen Mary University of London in England. The purpose of the stay was an observership at the Division of Restorative Dentistry in order to take away suggestions in the field of teaching, but also to present the treatment concepts and therapies practiced at the Medical University of Graz, to exchange knowledge and to lay the foundations for future cooperation..
In December 2023, two more Erasmus+ staff mobilities for training purposes took place at the Wrocław University of Technology (Politechnika Wrocławska) in Poland. Corina Madreiter-Sokolowski from the Division of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry visited the research group of Joanna Wolska for the development of a new immobilization method of nematodes in fluorescence microscopy. This visit served as a kick-off event for the international cooperation project "Scientific and Technical Cooperation" (STC), which will begin in January 2024 and is funded by the Austrian Agency for Education and Internationalization (OeAD). At the same time, Armin Sokolowski from the University Clinic for Dentistry and Oral Health used the visit to investigate the chemical resistance of various 3D-printed and milled materials for the CAD/CAM-based production of restorative dental restorations.
In addition to training visits, four teaching visits were also funded via Erasmus+: Stefano Angiari from the Chair of Immunology at the Otto Loewi Research Center gave lectures and talks at Chiang Mai University, Thailand for medical and PhD students in the field of immunometabolism - his research focus at the Medical University of Graz. Nandu Goswami from the Division of Physiology & Pathophysiology taught at Walter Sisulu University in South Africa in the field of coronary vascular function assessment and conducted a hands-on workshop. Also in South Africa, at the University of Cape Town, Regina Roller-Wirnsberger from the Department of Internal Medicine used the case-based learning format to teach her specialty, geriatrics, using real patient cases in courses with 4th and 6th year medical students. Teaching lectures in the field of mechanical ventilation and post-operative care of newborns and children as well as the prevention of post-operative infections were the aim of Hinrich Baumgart's mobility from the Department of for Paediatric and Adolescent Surgery at Kathmandu University in Nepal.
The International Office is looking forward to supporting numerous Med Uni Graz staff members on Erasmus+ teaching and/or training stays abroad in the new year.
