ORPHEUS, the Organisation for PhD Education in Biomedicine and Health Sciences in the European System, is an association of biomedical and health science faculties and institutions. ORPHEUS is dedicated to the development of standards for the PhD.
History
ORPHEUS was established in April 2004 with a European Conference on Harmonisation of PhD Programmes in Biomedicine and Health Sciences held in Zagreb. It became clear that despite many similarities PhD programmes there are also important differences in content and the standard expected. Thus a PhD title may have different meanings in different parts of Europe. While some countries did not have any clinical PhD programmes, others had even two. Thus, the delegates coming from 25 universities and from 16 European countries agreed that there was a need for European harmonisation and they accepted 'The Declaration of the European Conference on Harmonisation of PhD Programmes in Medicine and Health Sciences', which contain the first European consensus statement what a PhD programme should consist of and aim for. Many of the ideas of the 'Zagreb Declaration' are also seen in the '10 Salzburg Principles' and in the subsequent paper from the EUA-CDE. The Second European Conference held in Zagreb in 2005, included delegates from 33 universities, from 21 European countries, issued a document ‘Guidelines for Organisation of PhD Programmes in Biomedicine and Health Sciences’ and launched the idea for the necessity to establish a European association of PHD programmes, for which the name ORPHEUS was accepted. Third ORPHEUS 2007 conference was held in Helsinki. Participants from 43 universities from 26 European countries issued a document: ‘Helsinki Consensus Statement on PhD Training in Clinical Research’ emphasizing the importance of PhD research in clinical medicine Fourth ORPHEUS 2009 conference was held in Aarhus with 165 participants from 33 European countries the main topic: Maintaining the quality of the PhD degree. A major outcome of the conference was the production of a position paper, "Towards standards for PhD education in biomedicine and health sciences". Fifth ORPHEUS 2010 conference was held in Vienna with 196 participants from 39 European countries with the main topic “The Advancement of European Biomedical and Health Science PhD Education by Cooperative Networking”. Sixth ORPHEUS 2011 conference was held in Izmir with 305 participants from 39 European countries with the main topic "PhD Quality Indicators for Biomedicine and Health Sciences”. Seventh ORPHEUS 2012 conference in Bergen with 200 participants from 30 European countries with the main topic "Establishing evaluation of PhD Training".
Aims
The aims of ORPHEUS are:
To safeguard the reputation of the PhD as a research degree and to strengthen career opportunities for PhD graduates.
To give active support and guidance to members of ORPHEUS in enhancing their contributions to medicine and society in general.
To provide information to members of ORPHEUS and all PhD candidates all over Europe.
To stimulate quality assurance of PhD research and education, and in particular to develop an accreditation process of PhD programmes in biomedicine and health sciences.
To cooperate with other associations with similar goals.
ORPHEUS documents
ORPHEUS has published . Joint publication with and . Published by , Aarhus 2012.. Other important ORPHEUS documents:
. The Declaration of the European Conference on Harmonisation of PhD Programmes in Medicine and Health Sciences, Zagreb 2004.
. Zagreb 2005.
. Helsinki 2007.
. Aarhus position paper 2009.
. Vienna consensus document 2010.
. Izmir consensus document 2011.
ORPHEUS conferences
. Zagreb 2004.
. Zagreb 2005.
: Biomedical and Health Science Doctoral Training. Helsinki 2007.
: Setting Standards for PhD Education in Biomedicine and Health Sciences. Aarhus 2009.
: The Advancement of European Biomedical and Health Science PhD Education by Cooperative Networking. Vienna 2010.
. PhD Quality Indicators for Biomedicine and Health Sciences. Izmir 2011.
. Establishing Evaluation of PhD Training. Bergen 2012.
