15 years of promoting young talent in the interdisciplinary Life Sciences

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The graduate program "CiM-IMPRS", run by the Cells in Motion Interfaculty Centre (CiM) of the University of Münster and the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine, celebrated its 15th anniversary on Thursday, October 10. The celebration took place as part of an international scientific conference that the programme's doctoral students organize independently every year in Münster. 116 young researchers from the fields of Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics and Computer Science and Physics from 27 nations are currently completing their doctorates in the program and are undergoing joint scientific training. They are researching questions relating to molecular and cellular processes with a focus on technologies and applications of biomedical imaging.

"The interdisciplinary nature of this program is really something special," says Professor Sara Wickström, CiM-IMPRS spokesperson for the Max Planck Institute. "This benefits not only the individual doctoral students, but the research field as a whole." The young scientists are being intensively supervised in 50 research groups from the Faculties of Medicine, Biology, Chemistry and Pharmacy, Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Münster and the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine and are part of a very lively scientific network.

In a structured curriculum, they train not only specialist but also interdisciplinary skills: "Our training includes a wide range of seminars and workshops on presentation techniques, writing publications and applications, project planning and quality assurance in research and the pharmaceutical sector – all qualifications that are very important for a future career, whether in science or industry," says Professor Andreas Püschel, CiM-IMPRS spokesperson for the University of Münster.

Since its foundation in 2009, the program has given more than 226 aspiring young scientists from all over the world the opportunity to conduct research and complete their doctorates in an interdisciplinary environment at the interface of molecular and cellular biosciences and state-of-the-art imaging. The more than 500 scientific publications, some of which are highly interdisciplinary, testify to the excellent cooperation within the CiM-IMPRS.

Participation in the doctoral program is highly coveted: up to 500 applications from all over the world are received each year by the CiM-IMPRS coordination office, which is headed by Professor Martin Wild and Charlotte Käbisch. Around 25 doctoral students are accepted each year.

After a warm welcome by Professor Sara Wickström, Professor Monika Stoll (Vice-Rector for Research at the University of Münster) gave a welcoming address in which she emphasized the close links between the University of Münster and the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine, which enable interdisciplinary exchange at the highest scientific level. CiM-IMPRS alumna Dr. Anna Livia Linard Matos gave the audience lively insights into the graduate school. She is now coordinator of the Transregio Collaborative Research Center "Neutrophil Granulocytes: Development, Behavior and Function". Professor Lydia Sorokin, spokesperson of the Cells in Motion Interfaculty Centre and a scientific supervisor in the graduate program from the very beginning, gave an overview of 15 years of CiM-IMPRS. The anniversary was toasted at the reception that followed.

About CiM-IMPRS

The graduate program CiM-IMPRS is a cooperation between the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine and five faculties of the University of Münster. It offers doctoral students scientific training in the field of molecular and cellular biosciences with a focus on biomedical imaging.

CiM-IMPRS was founded in 2009 as a cooperative graduate program of the then CEDAD Graduate School of the University of Münster and the IMPRS Graduate School of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine. In 2012, the graduate school at the University of Münster was embedded in the "Cells in Motion" Cluster of Excellence, which was funded by the German Research Foundation for seven years. The cross-faculty research concept established as a result was structurally consolidated in the Cells in Motion Interfaculty Center (CiM) in 2019. The IMPRS was established in 2023 as the first International Max Planck Research School of the Max Planck Society.

The close cooperation between the Max Planck Institute and the University of Münster is reflected in the name CiM-IMPRS: "CiM" stands for the Cells in Motion Interfaculty Centre, which brings together more than 90 research groups from the life sciences, natural sciences, mathematics and computer science. They work together in the interdisciplinary field of "Cell Dynamics and Imaging", which is a key area of research at the University of Münster. "IMPRS" stands for the "International Max Planck Research School" of the Max Planck Institute, whose research focus is on molecular biomedicine.

• Website of the CiM-IMPRS Graduate Program