• Anne-Charlotte Fauvel, Head of European Affairs, EATRIS ERIC
• Prof. Dr. Christopher Baum, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the BIH at Charité and Chief Translational Research Officer of Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
• Dr. Barbara Hendriks, Robert K. Merton Center for Science Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

---

… maybe dig a little deeper into some of the new methods or approaches that may be valuable, may have considerable impact if properly integrated into European research programs for science and society to move forward together and hopefully attain some of the big impact goals…

...to give us the elevator pitch on translational research, what is it and why do you think it matters? …

---

… So we define translation simply by the sentence "Turning knowledge into health". So that means you convert information into something that's practically useful and is being used. …

…indeed, we are talking about a very complex process that involves multiple stakeholders and typically takes a long period of time …

So it's an art of team working … It's an own art and it's a lot about communication, data handling, organizing networks and managing projects. 

---

…certainly when we come to these global challenges.…a lot of the work programs are promoting concrete solutions, technological applications that provide fairly quick fixes to these very complex issues. But as you say, a complex process made up of hundreds, even thousands of discrete interventions, and how can we do that at scale? …

---

… what I think is special about the concept of translation is that it sees inclusion as a central requirement….

And I believe that this kind of inclusiveness is of central importance when it comes to dealing with global challenges, for example, social cohesion or global warming… 

…a boundary object that connects different stakeholders at the same time, but also values where the different stakeholders came from…

…translational medicine can be adapted to other collaboration and research areas, and in that sense, I would say, yes, I'm optimistic here, translational medicine offers a blueprint for addressing or tackling global challenges. 

---

… to add one point about translational medicine, its application also to other areas. … we try to identify what are the key characteristics of a translational scientist. And I have a few of these characteristics and some of them include boundary crosser, systems thinker, team player, process innovator and there's many more… They can also be quite relevant to other disciplines to tackle global challenge… it's also a lot about the translational mindset more than anything else…

---

… And we really have to become more exact in whatever we are doing there, we need metrics, we need classification systems, we need clearly identified paths of development so that we can judge how successful people are with their projects and that we can steer our resources better…

This is a special thing in Germany where we have a broad expertise distributed all over the country, the same is true for Europe, …but we never really use the potential of connecting expertise well across different locations.

---

…we have to be more specific what we mean when we talk about translation…. there is translation of research, there's translation of medicine, there is translation as such. ….But if we ask our staff what translational research or translational medicine means, we are getting different answers. This is really problematic for organizations who have to perform translation and have to show that a translation is successful. Because how do you know that translation is successful when you're not know what translation is?

---

… I think it's important, that there's candor and openness that this is a messy space, it's opaque and there's a degree of uncertainty or a lack of clarity. Because if we are, as a community, perceiving this - and even maybe gathering the data and the evidence - that this is a very effective way of tackling wicked complex problems, then there needs to be a clearer understanding of what it is and how it can be systematically brought into different programs and projects.

---

…There's even also a need for more clarity within our own field that we're working in. And what we strive to do is really also expand this culture of translation. … we also need to do a lot more work in those organizations, in the institutions to provide those conditions, provide those outlying conditions for translational research to thrive and to flourish. …

---

…There are clear metrics that is internationally accepted … the technology readiness levels that can be adapted to medicine. And then you have a staging system already of a process of translation that is already giving you a lot of clarity on what people are doing and how far they want to get with their given amount of money. And we just have to agree on one of these fundamental metrics, the systems that are around, and then we can be much clearer in future...

---

….from what I see in our research is that we have nowadays more evaluation criteria for translational research or new evaluation criteria that have to be met. But I also see that the people … have always also to fulfill the criteria, for example publishing, third party funding and so on. … I would say it's not so, so easy to fulfill just ... Maybe it's easier from a viewpoint of an organization, but for the individuals involved, it's more complicated…

….also clinician scientists and physicians don't only think in these big pictures…

…you have to make translation rewarding for those individuals who are practicing translation. … Because there is a career system and researchers don't get money for doing translation and bringing solutions to the world, but they get money and rewarding for doing research or patient care…

---

…translational research is about failing early or early failure... having enough awareness and knowledge about those red flags, regulatory, IP, etc., freedom to operate, to also say, okay, the project should be finished now and there should be no further public funding put into that research. …

---

... we haven't really talked about very much today [about] Researcher Competence Frameworks. …

… if we see this as a valuable, effective approach to tackling complex global challenges, … how do we move forward with skills and training? And should this become part of fundamental scientific training, either at doctoral level or before, is this appropriate at post-doctoral level? …

---

…. the first training we actually organized was called The Mindset of Translational Medicine,… But what we focus on in our training is very much about... the process, translational process, but also transversal skills…

But what's important moving forward is having more of these types of programs embedded in the curricula, even at undergraduate level, doesn't have to be only a PhD, because we need to be able to bridge the perceived differences between basic researcher or translational researchers. We tend to have … this dichotomy between this hypothesis-driven research on one side and translational and applied research on the other side. So I think from early on for young researchers, we need to have those programs that that really bridge those differences so they can share also the same language right from the beginning of their career.

---

… what I learned in my research is that it becomes very important to speak many different languages, the language, for example, of basic research, and you have to speak the language of medical application in order to communicate and to translate your ideas. …

…So it's not only about having a mindset, but also about knowing and understanding the other side. So what are the main problems? What is the method people are using? What are the resources and so on, understanding different disciplines … those translators are quite important because they are the people who really can connect both fields, meaning basic research or clinical research and medical applications.

---

…That's very important, mindset, but there are also clear skills that need to be developed: communicator skills… How do I organize … a team constituted of multiple components in different locations? Project development and management skills…

…It's a nice challenge! …

…at the same time, you can still be a regular scientist and if you have a good team around you, you can combine the two worlds and then it's really a positive challenge to have translation embedded in your scientific culture…but very important is that …You really have to be open to other disciplines, and anticipate who else could make a positive contribution to your project and contact people as early as possible. And that can be fun, ideally, so the thing is about contacting the right people at the right time.

---