Wroclaw Medical University with prestigious "Teaming for Exellence" grant

The Teaming program is a European Commission instrument aimed at so-called widening countries - countries where science is less developed than in European benchmark countries, such as Germany, the United Kingdom or France. The goal of the program is to create centers of excellence that, drawing on the experience of the best European institutions, will match their level within a few years.

- This is a unique project, one of the most prestigious that the European Union awards to scientific institutions in widening countries. The idea is to use the experience of the best centers in Europe to create a center of excellence based on these mechanisms in Poland," explains Prof. Piotr Ponikowski, rector of the Medical University of Wroclaw.

The partners of the Wroclaw project are two of the world's top academic institutions: the University of Oxford - consistently at the top of global rankings - and Charité in Berlin, one of Europe's best hospitals and medical universities at the same time.

More than three hundred institutions applied for the first stage. For the second, more than sixty passed. Nineteen were awarded funding. - I am proud to say that we are in this group of nineteen," says Rector Ponikowski, not hiding his satisfaction. - I believed that we would win.

Cardiology from Wroclaw among the world leaders

The choice of cardiology as a leading field was not accidental. According to one serious American scientific ranking, Wroclaw cardiology is ranked thirteenth in the world. - I am not saying that we have surpassed Oxford or the Karolinska Institute in practical cardiology," the professor stipulates. - But we are at the absolute top when it comes to the level of cardiology at the Medical University and the University Hospital at the Heart Institute. The Wroclaw center can also boast about the number of heart transplants.

Tailor-made treatment

The center of excellence will focus on heart failure. - In our opinion, patients with heart failure are still being treated suboptimally. In oncology, there has long been talk of personalized medicine, of "tailor-made" treatment. In cardiology we don't have that," admits Prof. Ponikowski.

Meanwhile, advances in the treatment of heart failure over the past three to four decades have been tremendous. Some patients today are entering the remission phase of the disease - similar to what happens in oncology. And this is where the key problem arises: it is not clear who can be safely weaned off drugs and devices that support heart function, and who still requires intensive treatment.

- Everyone takes lifelong medication and asks: how about this treatment? Or maybe another one? And we can't assess that either, although the disease is already in the phase of apparent cure," says the professor.

The center is intended to help identify the disease mechanisms underlying heart failure and personalize therapy based on these mechanisms - so that each patient receives treatment tailored to his or her individual biological profile.

They are not going to learn stenting. They are going for the culture of the organization

The partnership with Oxford and Charité is not about exchanging clinical knowledge, because in terms of cardiology techniques, the Wroclaw center is at least an equal partner. - We don't go there to learn how to stent arteries or repair the mitral valve, because we know that. We go to learn how the system works," stresses Prof. Ponikowski. It is the culture of the organization of science - its structure, career paths, the mode of obtaining grants, the relationship between scientists and administration - that Polish centers lack. The professor recalls his years at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London: - The system was friendly. I didn't have to collect a hundred signatures. Those two or three years were something that people were rewarded for all the effort. And most of that group today are heads of major centers in Europe.

Prof. Ponikowski dreams that in a few years, scientists from all over the world will say, "I worked for three years in the team of the Medical University of Wroclaw". - with the same pride with which today people talk about an internship at Oxford.

PLN 120 million for structure, not research

The project's budget - 120 million zlotys for six years (60 million from the EU and 60 million from the Ministry of Science) - is exclusively for building the center's organizational structure, not for funding specific research. - This is money for hiring people, building an organizational culture, creating mechanisms so that people want to come and work with us," the rector explained.

The center will have full autonomy: scientific, financial, organizational, decision-making and personnel autonomy. Instead of chairs, there will be research groups modeled on the structures of the world's best universities. Each group will be headed by an experienced senior researcher, supported by junior researchers and doctoral students. Each group will also be assigned a scientific project manager - a specialist who will take care of the entire administrative, formal and legal environment, freeing scientists from bureaucratic duties.

- You come to a research group, there is direction, there is help. You don't collect signatures, you don't apply to the bioethics committee yourself - because that's handled by a specialist. You do the science," Dr. Michal Tkaczyszyn of the UMW Heart Institute describes the concept. The center will also try to offer salaries comparable to European rates.

"Science cannot be done by the way."

An important motive of the project is the conviction that Polish clinical science is at a loss, because it is conducted, so to speak, by the way of medical work - between on-calls, visits, procedures. - As long as science is done by the way, it will be at the level by the way," Prof. Ponikowski says bluntly. The center aims to change this by offering attractive salaries, clear career paths and relief from administration, and wants to attract talented young doctors and scientists, who today do not have an attractive offer to combine scientific and medical careers in Poland. Prof. Ponikowski also mentions programs to return scientists from abroad. - Some people want to return. Only they need to be offered something meaningful," the rector says.

Plan for the future: grants and industry

Six years of EU funding is not the end, but the beginning. During this time, the Center is expected to develop mechanisms for obtaining more grants and establish cooperation with the pharmaceutical and diagnostic industries. - Companies involved in drug technology or molecular diagnostics have a number of ready-made solutions "hidden in the closet" and are waiting for the moment to test them. However, it is hard to find a partner with a clinical background, experience and infrastructure, who is able to quickly implement a given technology to the testing phase. We want to be such a partner," says Dr. Tkaczyszyn.

In the long term - perhaps fifteen to twenty years - the center is expected to contribute to a real change in the treatment of heart failure patients in Poland and Europe. - We believe that this project will enable personalized medicine for heart patients as well," Professor Ponikowski concludes.