Our Trainings
Preparing for an Audit (by Customer or Regulator)
Regulatory or customer audits can be daunting for young biotech companies, but with the right preparation, they become an opportunity to demonstrate quality, reliability, and readiness for growth. This compact two-day course provides a clear, startup-friendly introduction to what auditors from the FDA, EMA, or the PEI/AGES/local authorities expect, and how to prepare your team and documentation accordingly.
Through practical guidance, real-life examples, and interactive exercises, participants learn how to build lean, audit-ready processes, communicate confidently with inspectors, and avoid common pitfalls. The course also covers essential QMS elements, data integrity, audit logistics, handling difficult questions, and writing effective CAPAs.
Topics include:
- Understanding customer vs. regulatory audits
- Key expectations from FDA, EMA & regional authorities
- Lean and scalable QMS essentials for startups
- Preparing for an audit: logistics, roles & readiness checks
- Communicating with auditors: do’s & don’ts
- Common findings and how to prevent them
- Responding effectively to observations & CAPAs
Perfect for early-stage biotech teams looking to strengthen compliance and face audits with confidence. Let your next inspection be a milestone, not a setback.
How to get your paper published
Publishing your scientific work is the cornerstone of each career of a scientist. In the publish-or-perish world and time-limited contract situations effective publishing and interaction with journals and editors is key. This two-day training course aims to introduce the aspiring author to the path of manuscript submission, starting from manuscript optimisation, interaction with the editor and efficient response to reviewers’ requests. The course is in an interactive format, actively engaging the participants and encouraging them to write their own texts and interpret editorial policies. The course climaxes in an interactive table top exercise where the participants have to play all the key positions in the submission process and so bring a manuscript through the revision process towards acceptance.
It covers the following topics:
- Introduction to scientific publishing
- Roles of a corresponding author
- How to identify a suitable journal
- How to identify predatory journals
- How to read and handle the “Information to authors”
- Prepare the manuscript
- Journal, editor, reviewers, excluded reviewers – what is this?
- Prepare the letter to the editor
- Submit: online submission systems
- React to the Revisions
- Writing the Rebuttal letter
- APC Fees
- What are repositories such as Github, Jupyter, BioRxiv or arXiv and their strategic use
- Becoming a reviewer yourself: How to handle it
- Table top exercise: A manuscript wants to get published
First Aid in the life science laboratory
Working in a life science laboratory requires quick, confident responses when accidents occur. This practical first-aid training equips participants with essential skills to manage common lab injuries, perform CPR, and respond effectively to chemical or biological exposures. With dedicated modules for BSL-3 environments, the course ensures teams are fully prepared for emergencies, understand critical safety protocols, and can take decisive action to protect themselves and others in high-risk laboratory settings.
- CPR (Cardio-Pulmonary Reanimation)
- Injuries of the skin (cuts, burns, chemical burns, freezings)
- Injuries of the eye
- Injuries of the lung
- Shock
- Chain of rescue
- Recovery from dangerous areas
- H&P statements and GHS (formerly R/S statements), SDS
BSL3 specific
- BLS (Basic life support) in a contaminated area
- Recovery from a contaminated area
- CPR in a contaminated area
- Treatment of exposed skin/eye/lung in a contaminated area
- OSHA considerations when designing and working in a BSL3 laboratory
International Science Project Management for Researchers and start-up founders
Modern scientific projects increasingly rely on collaboration between multiple laboratories, often spanning various disciplines. This necessitates that organisers possess the versatility to effectively manage large, heterogeneous teams, fostering motivation and alignment towards a common goal, culminating in the successful acceptance of a joint publication. This two-day course is designed to equip participants with essential competencies in multi-site project management, effective communication of ideas and guidelines, and navigating challenges arising from cultural and disciplinary differences. Delivered in an interactive format, the course actively engages participants, encouraging them to analyse their current project environment, identify potential risks that could hinder successful completion, and develop strategies for their mitigation.
It covers the following topics:
- Scientific collaborations: A variation on a theme
- Identify a common goal
- Take my money and shut up: collaboration is more than the hunt for funding
- Project management 101
- Identifying and managing stakeholders
- Designating tasks, establishing rules
- Cross discipline collaboration: defining a common vocabulary
- Understand and embrace cultural differences: people management
- Determining authorship norms
- Organising a joint meeting/conference
- Joint publishing
- Table top exercise: Organising a joint meeting/conference
Scientific Communication Skills for Researchers and start-up founders
Modern research relies not only on high-quality experimental work, but also on the clear, compelling, and accessible communication of scientific results. Whether writing a manuscript, preparing a poster, designing figures, or presenting at conferences, researchers must be able to translate complex data into narratives that resonate with scientific and non-scientific audiences alike.
This five-day interactive course provides early-career researchers with a comprehensive introduction to the principles and practice of scientific communication. Through a combination of lectures, hands-on activities, guided exercises, and structured homework tasks, participants will develop foundational skills in scientific writing, data visualisation, literature search, and oral presentation.
Designed to be highly practical, the course emphasises learning-by-doing: participants will work with their own data to create figures, write and refine abstracts, and develop both a poster and a short slide presentation. A series of Q&A and feedback sessions ensures continuous support and personalised guidance.
The course covers the following topics:
- Foundations of scientific communication
- Principles of effective data visualisation
- Crafting clear and engaging abstracts
- Improving scientific writing through article analysis
- Conducting efficient and systematic literature searches
- Designing graphical and written abstracts
- Preparing scientific posters: layout, design, and messaging
- Writing scientific manuscripts
- Creating compelling scientific slide decks
- Giving confident and effective oral presentations
- Science communication & medical writing as career paths
- The role of artificial intelligence in scientific communication