INTRICARE held conference in Vaalsbroek, the Netherlands. During that occasion I had the honor of coaching the speakers with presenting their individual 15 video-updates. Those presentations were scheduled as mid-term evaluations of ten minutes each. In other words, a real challenge to present a good scientific story in that time-frame.

presentation training students PhD

Recently I worked with the – take a deep breath – “International Network for Training on Risks of Vascular Intimal Calcification and roads to Regression of Cardiovascular Disease” or INTRICARE. Imagine this INTRICARE consortium as a cooperation between three universities and 15 international top-ranked early stage researchers. These researchers focus on the processes associated with early atherosclerotic plaque formation. Part of the training of this new generation of scientists is about presenting their research approach and initial results. In short, that’s where my training came in.

Most of them had limited experience in presenting. On the other hand we are dealing with very intelligent and talented scientists. And above all, they love to learn new skills. Some of them are working in Sweden, others in Germany and a third group in Maastricht. That’s why we started with orienting consultations via Skype, one-to-one.

That first conversation made clear that the content had to be structured in a smart, streamlined and strategic way. Mainly because of the challenging time constraints of such a presentation. Scientists hate to skip their hard-fought data. For that reason I asked them to restrict their story to an appealing and inspiring outline of their approach. Because an introduction is required here instead of a complete scientific defense. The challenge is to inspire the audience by giving them the main idea behind the project.

The INTRICARE program started in 2017 and runs for 48 months. And at the end of their PhD projects the students will have to present their projects again. I am absolutely sure they will be prepared for that challenge.