Central project 2 Management

Management and support

Summary

Central project 2 manages all administrative issues of the research unit FOR 2240.
The basic areas of management work will continue in the second funding period. These include maintaining the connection of all continuing individual projects to each other with monthly seminars for progress reports, and working to incorporate the new projects, first-time applicants, and new external co-applicants. In addition: organizing the visits of invited guest speakers and visiting professors, the yearly research group retreats and the FOR 2240 symposium, coordinating travel to scientific meetings, help with publications, as well as the coordination of network funds for all these activities, including communications related to financial issues, staff contracts with the grant departments and administrations of the Universities in Cologne and Erlangen, and formal project issues of PhD and MD students.
A further goal of central project 2 is to further the integration of clinician-scientists in the research unit. This is considered key for the future success of FOR 2240 and to build a research-friendly infrastructure in Cologne’s Department of Ophthalmology. The addition of a Mercator Fellow Module will strengthen the activities to be carried out in the Network Funds Module with its Visiting Professor program and in the Project-Specific Workshop Module by formalizing the element of continuity. The continuation of the Project-Specific Workshop Module will allow an international meeting in Cologne at the end of the second funding period.
In the second funding period, further development of the FOR 2240 website (www.for2240.de) will be undertaken, and cooperation with the press office of the University Hospital of Cologne will be intensified. This coopertation will involve an outreach event for the general public and patients curious about the innovations made possible in the research unit, media training for the scientists and clinician-scientists, with priority given to young and female scientists and, “Secondary translation” coaching for young and senior clinicians and scientists on how to spread their findings to a lay audience in different media formats.
The goal of the module “Gender Equality Measures in Research Networks” is to help female scientists and clinician-scientists in the research unit on their path to leadership roles in specified ways, with the goal of increasing their numbers in such roles, and helping parents of babies and younger children in the research unit to combine scientific work and family life in specified ways.

Central project 2 headed by Prof. Cursiefen and Prof. Langmann manages the administrative issues of the research unit. They have built a framework to connect all individual projects with monthly seminars for progress reports and by continuing the invited guest lecture and visiting professor series. They will also continue the yearly research retreats and organize an international meeting in Cologne at the end of the first funding period. They have implemented a specific secretary who coordinated the development of the FOR 2240 website and who maintains the website. The secretary furthermore coordinates the central budgets for travel costs and publication fees and is also responsible for coordinating the GEROK rotation positions, for all communications related to financial issues and for staff contracts with the grant departments of the Universities in Cologne, Erlangen as well as the Franziskus Hospital in Münster. The secretary offers support in the preparation of manuscripts and in the management of the formal project issues of PhD and MD students.

Publication

Cursiefen C, Bock F, Clahsen T, Regenfuss B, Reis A, Steven P, Heindl LM, Bosch JJ, Hos D, Eming S, Grajewski R, Heiligenhaus A, Fauser S, Austin J, Langmann T. [New Therapeutic Approaches in Inflammatory Diseases of the Eye – Targeting Lymphangiogenesis and Cellular Immunity: Research Unit FOR 2240 Presents Itself]. Klin Monbl Augenheilkd. 2017 May;234(5):679-685.