During the five-day summit, we aim to give you a broad scientific perspective as well as the opportunity to expand your professional network.

Therefore, each day will have one themed scientific session, followed by other activities such as poster sessions, career activities, networking events and group work on a “challenge”.

As we believe that interactivity improves learning outcomes, we expect you to be actively involved in the group work and discussions with other participants and speakers throughout the event. We kindly ask you to bring your own laptop to look up materials, contribute actively to group discussions and to prepare group presentations.

The following topics will be covered during the Postdoc Summit:

Future of research

Machine learning has the potential to change health science and medical research drastically. The continual development of diagnostic tools and increased availability of ‘omics analysis means that a large amount of data can be acquired and mined for key information about disease. The goal can be ambitious, e.g., to use this data to develop personalised medicine. But, how do we get there? And what will the future of research hold?

Sex differences in endocrinology

Hormones play a vital role in many physiological processes, such as growth, development, reproduction and metabolism. Hormones are produced and secreted by the endocrine system and their presence/varying ratios is one defining feature of male and female physiology throughout one’s lifespan. Understanding these differences can provide valuable insights into the mechanisms underlying sex-specific differences in disease susceptibility, response to treatment, and overall health outcomes.

Stigmatisation

In our society, weight is highly stigmatised, but research shows that the fault should not be put on the person living with obesity. Indeed, when we look at the aetiology of this disease, many factors with complex interactions including genetic and environment are to blame. This stigmatisation can also be extended to other metabolic diseases and biases, whether conscious or unconscious, and should be addressed in order to increase life quality, including the use of people-first language.

Diverse populations

Most research related to diabetes, and non-communicable diseases more broadly, is conducted on Western populations and in high-income countries. Even within these countries, researchers tend to overlook minority populations, which can present unique challenges due to specific genetic variants or environmental constraints. Similarly, diabetes is increasing at an alarming rate in middle- and low-income countries, and it is therefore crucial to ensure that treatment options are diversely applicable and not just limited to Western Caucasians.

Career paths for postdocs

As a postdoctoral fellow, your career can go in many directions. In this session, participants will have the opportunity to broaden their career horizon by meeting people with diverse career paths, discussing different approaches and getting valuable advice. By talking to people working in different sectors, the participants will gain insight into pathways that their future career could take.

DDEA Postdoc Challenge 2023

Throughout the DDEA Postdoc Summit you will work on a special assignment, known as the DDEA Postdoc Challenge. This year we ask our participants to reflect on a question:

“Is the scientific publication, as we know it, dead?”

The scientific publication is one of the central pillars of academia. We all write papers, and counting the number of publications and citations is the way we measure our academic productivity. These metrics are critical for postdocs to ensure faculty positions and funding.

Remarkably, the scientific publication has basically been unchanged for the past 300 years. But with many recent developments, signs indicate that it might not be fit for its purpose anymore and we need to re-think the scientific publication.

Consider these points:

• An increasing number of papers are published as preprints on services like bioRxiv.org, sharing findings prior to the peer review process.
• The peer review process itself is threatened by a lack of volunteers, and an ongoing debate about lack of pay, while journals make large profits.
• Journals are moving towards open access, but does this really make science more accessible, or does it simply move the cost from the reader to the scientist?
• Science faces a reproducibility crisis, and
• The arrival of AI tools like ChatGPT means that it will soon be possible to produce reviews with minimal effort.

Are there solutions to these challenges? For example, does the scientific paper need to move away from being static, and perhaps be replaced with interactive notebooks where data is added continuously? Or should we choose another path altogether?

We invite you to discuss these issues and more, and share them with the world. Your input will be collected in a white paper about the future of publication, and presented at events at one or more Danish Universities, run by postdocs for postdocs. Together, we want the voices of postdocs to be heard and make their mark on what the scientific publication will look like in the near future.

If you have been confirmed a seat at the Postdoc Summit (informed by e-mail in July), you will receive an in-depth description of each challenge topic before signing up for one of the topics.