MENTOR provides a structured PhD program to prepare the future European leaders in academia and industry to address the questions of growth and metabolism at a multidisciplinary level.

The training will be implemented through personalized research projects that include strong collaborations and secondments. To deepen their own background and acquire knowledge of the other disciplines, the DCs will participate in training events given by leaders in academia as well as industry (Cell Signaling Technology, BIT, Topadur). Each year, the annual conference will offer an opportunity for the DCs to critically discuss their data. This event together with the secondments in Institutions carrying complementary approaches will provide an intergrated training in the complementary MENTOR disciplines. The interaction with clinical departments, patient associations and pharmaceutical industries will expose the DCs to the needs, questions and strategies in either sector, and disseminate their activities to the patients, families, doctors, commercials and societal stakeholders. MENTOR training will cover the following three levels of competence:

1) Core research skills acquired at the local Institution through the following specific actions:

• High level research activity and quality of supervision: All 18 DC will benefit from the full range of facilities, research supervision and scientific/technical training provided by the recruiting institutions. They will be directly supervised by the Principal Investigator (PI) at the Institution where they are affiliated.
• Personal Career Development Plan
• Enrolment in local doctoral schools
• Gender aspects: Among the 15 research teams in the MENTOR program, six are led by women and one is co-led by a woman and a man.

2) Advanced/Additional research skills provided by the MENTOR consortium through the following actions:

• Secondments at both academic and non-academic institutions: Secondments of 6-8 months per DC in laboratories and companies will complement the research training of the candidates and give them an overall view of the career perspectives in academic and non-academic sectors. DCs will have direct access to facilities in all partner Institutions, both academic and industrial. Each DC employed in academic labs will spend at least 3 months in companies, while the two DCs employed in SMEs will spend at least 3 months in academic labs.
• Annual MENTOR Conferences: Each year DCs will present their research progress with significant discussion time for exchange between DCs, supervisors and invited scientists.
• International Conference-TOR de France: During the training program, MENTOR will also organize two sequential editions of the TOR de France conference. This is an international meeting gathering world specialists in the mTOR field with a broad background on metabolism, development, pharmacology, cancer biology, neuroscience, immunology, and plant biology (http://www.tor-de-france.fr/)
• MENTOR-specialized Schools: Each year, MENTOR partners will organize one School to develop the multi-disciplinary knowledge required for the DC project implementation. During the MENTOR program, the following Schools/training activities are planned:
  • School on Drug Discovery: From Target Identification to Clinical Translation (3 days) in 1st grant year (Tübingen, Germany)
  • School on metabolic control of cell growth (3 days) in 2nd grant year
  • School on mTOR pathophysiology (3 days) in 3rd grant year