Grant: Collaborative Research and Training Experience

Researchers with graduate degrees have an extra responsibility to become leaders in research. To do this they must be excellent researchers, outstanding leaders, and have excellent people-skills. Traditional scientific graduate degrees address only the first point, leaving new researchers to fend for themselves when dealing with subordinates, supervisors, budgets, planning and the various other pressures associated with leadership. Our new degree will enhance the strong scientific training our students have always enjoyed by introducing new courses in areas such as process chemistry, medicinal chemistry and drug development. Our plan is to offer many of these courses in collaboration with major Canadian pharmaceutical companies, holding the courses at the companies themselves. This will expose our graduates to material that is otherwise not available in a university setting, and at the same time will provide opportunities to interact with medicinal chemists working in industry. Our graduates will have the opportunity to meet some of the key researchers in the Canadian pharmaceutical sector, to begin the networking that will enable them to find jobs at top quality companies in Canada. These young scientists will be leaders in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors, and the development of management backgrounds will enable them to compete better in industry and academia. We will provide them with knowledge, understanding and tools to succeed and excel in an industry that is currently maturing by developing, in collaboration with the Telfer School of Management of the University of Ottawa, courses specifically designed to address the needs of young managers in the Biopharmaceutical industry.