On June 4, 2025, the RETORNA consortium gathered in Cork, Ireland for the second annual meeting of the project, organized by Prof. Aileen Murphy and Prof. Ann Kirby from the Department of Economics at the Cork University Business School – University College Cork.
The european consortium RETORNA – “Targeting RNA as an approach for treating retinal disease,” led by the coordinator prof. Javier Sancho Pelluz from UCV, has started more than 2 years ago aiming to find new therapies against blindness using RNA and training 10 doctoral students to become the scientific leaders of tomorrow.
Advances in retinal diseases research
The sessions focused primarily on the work of the 10 doctoral students, each presenting their research results and receiving valuable input from the senior researchers and their peers. . The consortium provided ideas and suggestions that will help the doctoral students continue their research projects. These sessions strengthened scientific collaboration and offered new perspectives for the development of their research projects.
DCs are every time more confident in their our communication and presentation abilities, due also to the various conferences and events already attended and in which they presented their research.
During the afternoon presentations prof. Miguel Flores from our new associated partner University of Colorado – Anschutz Medical Campus joined the discussions, providing ideas and feedbacks on the research of the DCs.
Milestones reached in the first 2 years
The consortium celebrated the satisfactory evaluation of the first report by the European Commission, reinforcing the quality and commitment of the consortium.
Coordinator Prof. Javier Sancho Pelluz and the project manager Andreea Craciun shared the achievements made in the first two years of the RETORNA project:
- Results: 19 deliverables have been submitted and accepted by the European Commission, 9 of which are scientific.
- Publications: Universidad Católica de Valencia (UCV), University College Cork (UCC), University of Tübingen (EKUT), and Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) have published in international scientific journals, contributing to the advancement of knowledge in RNA-based therapies for retinal diseases.
- Mobilities: 6 of the 10 doctoral students have already participated in long-term secondments.
- Conference participation: The 10 doctoral students and supervisors have presented a total of 26 posters, reporting on the project’s progress and increasing the consortium’s visibility.
- Societal engagement: The consortium has organized 6 scientific outreach and awareness activities about retinal diseases, bringing science closer to the public.
- Development of scientific and transversal skills: onsite and online workshops and specific training sessions have been organized to improve students’ skills, preparing them for the challenges of tomorrow and providing them with an entrepreneurial mindset.
Consortium discussions were on also on the work of the 5 boards, secondments, deliverables, milestones, future conferences, activities of public engagement, communication and dissemination.
Workshop “Designing a Marie Curie consortium proposal”
DCs were involved in a creative workshop in which they had to put in act a group plan for creating a consortium proposal. Team work, creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, group and time management and communication have been just some of the skills students put in practice to finish the task.
With a lack of timing, as for all real life project proposals, they came out with brillant ideas that positively impressed their PIs.
Prof. Zohreh Hosseinzadeh – Supervision coordinator and part of the communication board, lead the workshop and expressed her satisfaction: “Their enthusiasm and creativity in designing collaborative research proposals were impressive. It’s clear that the next generation of scientists is full of vision and potential!
UCC Campus tour
After a long day sitting, the sessions finished with a walking and cultural tour of the UCC Campus in which the participants could discover the main buildings of the campus as well as a lot of curiosities and beliefs.
Acknowledgements
The consortium thanks Prof. Aileen Murphy and Prof. Ann Kirby for organizing the event, Prof. John Cryan – Vice President for Research and Innovation at UCC and Prof. Justin Doran – Director of the Department of Economics for welcoming us and Prof. Miguel Flores from our associated partner University of Colorado – Anschutz Medical Campus for his contribution and participation.
Thank you all for attending the event!
The RETORNA Consortium