Print4Life – Advanced Research Training for Additive Manufacturing of the Biomaterials and Tissues of the Future

ongoing

The programme will deliver early-stage researchers with the necessary innovative technical and entrepreneurial training to provide advances in the understanding of the possibilities and limitations of additively manufacturing advanced biomaterials as well as 3-dimensional cell-containing models for advanced biological studies. These researchers will gain the necessary subject-specific, intersectoral knowledge and the wider innovation skills demanded by industry with which to deliver timely and cost-effective solutions to some of Europe’s most imminent healthcare problems. The career options for these researchers are wide-ranging, including academia as well as regulatory affairs, commercial R&D, management and policy, all of which comprise a significant leadership and innovation component. This aim will be achieved by a unique combination of hands-on research in leading research centres, industry secondments and wide-ranging workshops covering technical and transferable skills. Additive manufacturing, including bioprinting, and its possibilities for providing patient-specific solutions to tissue defects as well as new material performances and enhanced models for biological testing has received global attention due to its disruptiveness. This means that we are still learning and it is important to educate for this. It provides immense possibilities for the global economy, and for a sustainable world in particular, allowing for less material use as well as sustainable solutions to healthcare issues and increased resilience at the European level. In this program we will focus on degradable, antibacterial materials and tissues in light of the alarmingly increasing antimicrobial resistance worldwide. Here new materials as well as new test methodologies will be researched, while ensuring that we educate for the future in the disruptive technology that is additive manufacturing.