As RETORNA continues advancing its scientific and training mission across Europe, several Doctoral Candidates (DCs) have recently completed impactful secondments in partner laboratories and industry settings. These exchanges represent a core component of the MSCA DN vision and of RETORNA: fostering interdisciplinary skills, strengthening collaboration between the organizations of the Consortium, and accelerating progress toward innovative retinal therapies and RNA‑based technologies. Over the past months, DCs have traveled across the Consortium—from academic groups to clinical units and industrial R&D teams—gaining hands‑on expertise that complements their primary research projects.
Below you can find a summary of the latest secondments.
Claire Willmington (UCC/Cork University Business School, Ireland)
Salutem Insights, Ireland
In September, DC Claire began her secondment at Salutem Insights, our associated partner, specialising in health economics (HTA, burden of illness studies, systematic reviews, and Irish health‑system analyses). The placement offered Claire first‑hand experience in an industry environment, team coordination, and network building relevant to her health‑economics project. Thanking Sandra Redmond and her team for receiving and training our DC.
Read Claire’s word here.
Chiara Ceresoni (UCV, Spain) University of Colorado Anschutz, USA
Last year DC10 Chiara was hosted at the University of Colorado (Denver/Anschutz) under Prof. Miguel Flores‑Bellver where she could learn techniques related to retinal organoid cultures and imaging workflows. October marked her final month on site, with organoids maturing week by week. She returned to Spain after a highly formative period of intensive lab work, personal growth, and scientific results and now she is ready to go back and finish her second part of the secondment.
Read Chiara’s words here.
Maria Zawadzka (Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine, Italy) University of Alicante, Spain
DC9 Maria undertook a secondment at University of Alicante (Alicante), working with the teams led by Prof. Nicolás Cuenca and Prof. Natalia Martínez Gil. The stay supported shared experiments and strengthened the collaboration between the 2 beneficiaries. Maria improved her knowledge and techniques on mouse retinal explant culture, RNA Isolation and qPCR among others. Nevertheless Enola and Ceren participated in making this stay even more pleasant.
Read Maria’s words here.
These secondments are central to RETORNA’s commitment to preparing a new generation of highly skilled scientists capable of working across scientific, clinical, and industrial boundaries. They also reinforce collaboration between partners, ensuring that RETORNA’s research builds on the collective expertise of the entire network and preparing RETORNA DCs for careers that bridge academia, clinics, and industry.
Several additional secondments are already planned for the coming months, expanding the training portfolio and continuing to build synergies across RETORNA’s academic and non‑academic partners.
Greetings,
RETORNA team