Health & Biotech Research Skills, Bioanalysis and Metrology for Talent Ecosystems

Relevant topic: HORIZON-WIDERA-2027-05-ERA-02 – Talent ecosystems for attractive early research careers

Thematic areas: Area 2 – Health / Area 3 – Biotech, agriculture and bioeconomy

About TÜBİTAK UME

TÜBİTAK National Metrology Institute (UME) is Türkiye's national metrology institute, providing measurement standards, certified reference materials, and calibration, testing and training services for industry, health and research. As a public research organisation employing researchers and serving industry, UME sits between academia and the non-academic sector – a natural node in a talent ecosystem.

 Contact person

Dr. Seyma Aydinlik Sanli, Senior Researcher (PhD, Molecular Biology), TÜBİTAK UME Chemistry Group Laboratories. Over a decade in health and biotechnology research (incl. 7 years at TÜBİTAK Marmara Research Centre) before moving into metrology – a cross-sector career path that talent ecosystems aim to enable. Experienced in Horizon Europe proposal writing, organising network meetings and acting as liaison between researchers, clinicians and external partners.

The skills gap we address

Measurement quality is rarely part of researcher education. Early-career researchers in health and biotechnology are typically trained to generate results, but seldom in how to ensure those results are reliable, comparable and traceable: method validation, measurement uncertainty, reference materials and quality systems. Yet these are exactly the skills that industry; diagnostics, pharma, medical devices, biotech ; and accredited laboratories expect. Bringing metrology into researcher training strengthens both research quality and employability, and is the core added value UME can bring to a talent ecosystem.

What we can offer to a talent ecosystem

- Training design and delivery: co-designing training programmes with industry partners so that early-career researchers gain skills the labour market needs

- Upskilling of researchers and other R&I staff, building on ResearchComp

- Hands-on, laboratory-based learning in a measurement science environment

- Mentoring and career development support, including guidance on cross-sector careers between academia, public research and industry

- Contribution to interoperable careers and talent circulation between universities, research organisations and companies

- Networking, workshops and knowledge exchange connecting ecosystem partners

- Willingness to work on organisational change in line with the European Charter for Researchers

 Training content we can contribute

- Measurement quality: method validation, traceability, uncertainty, reference materials, ISO/IEC 17025

- Health and biotech laboratory practice: molecular and cell-based methods, bioanalysis, preclinical and translational research, biocompatibility testing (ISO 10993)

Laboratory-based training can draw on UME's analytical infrastructure, including LC-MS/MS, ICP-MS, NMR, optical analytical techniques and electrochemical biosensing platforms. UME has experience hosting guest researchers within EURAMET collaborations.

What we are looking for

ERA-02 consortia in Health or Biotech bringing together universities, research organisations, biotech/pharma, diagnostics and medical device companies, SMEs and other national metrology institutes.

 We would be interested in contributing to work packages on researcher training, skills development, laboratory-based learning and academia–industry knowledge exchange.