ORPHEUS

Throughout Europe there is growing emphasis on PhD education as the "third cycle" in the Bologna process. For health sciences this provides new opportunities for the advancement of clinical research as well as for strengthening basic research in the area.  This is, however, dependent on the content and quality of the PhD degree, and it was for this reason that ORPHEUS was established (http://www.orpheus-med.org).

ORPHEUS (Organisation for PhD Education in Biomedicine and Health Sciences in the European System) held its first conferences in 2004 and 2006, where standards for the health science PhD were discussed and defined.  In particular the "Zagreb declaration" was formulated ( http://www.orpheus-med.org/images/stories/documents/Zagreb%20Declaration%20UK.pdf), which defined the expected content of a PhD thesis. The third conference in 2007, attended by representatives of about 50 medical schools, discussed the role of clinical PhD programs in health science graduate schools. Position papers from each of these conferences may be found on http://www.orpheus-med.org.

The fourth meeting 23-25 April 2008 in Aarhus will have as its theme "Setting Standards for the PhD Degree in Biomedicine and Health Sciences".