Report VWGÖ:
Next Generation Immunologists (NGI) Summer School 2024
The NGI Summer School 2024 took place at short notice in a shortened form from September 18 – 20 in Vienna at MedUni Vienna, as our venue in the Waldviertel was unfortunately affected by the storms. Nevertheless, the 27 participants from Vienna, Tyrol and Styria, as well as our speakers Cliona O’Farrelly, Ghada Alsaleh and Miriam Unterlass traveled to Vienna and we were able to carry out our scientific program and workshops as planned. We started on the first afternoon with the keynote lecture by Cliona O’Farrelly on “Uterine immune microenvironment and infertility”, after which the participants introduced themselves and their research projects with a short presentation. We ended the evening with a poster session. The next day was dedicated to the scientific graphic design workshop with Miriam Unterlass. After an interesting introduction to concept design and valuable tips on creating scientific graphics, the participants had the task of graphically presenting the key messages of their projects on a piece of paper. The participants were encouraged to present their graphics to each other and give feedback, making the workshop very entertaining and interactive overall. In the evening, there was another opportunity for networking at our pub quiz. On the last day, we started the day with the keynote lecture by Ghada Alsaleh, who took us on an exciting journey into space with her presentation on “Ageing in space and time”. In addition, our participants were taught other important skills for their PhD studies in workshops on project management, self-organization, mentoring and laboratory bookkeeping. After an introduction to publishing and the reviewing process, we also introduced the Preprint Club, a weekly journal club that we help organize and which gives students the opportunity to practice critically reading and evaluating publications. We ended the summer school with a short hike through the vineyards and a visit to a wine tavern. The summer school was a complete success and we received consistently positive feedback from the participants that they learned a lot of new things and, above all, that they made new acquaintances and networked. The participants exchanged ideas about their projects, but also about other topics that concern them during their PhD studies. In addition, the participants continue to network in the WhatsApp group that was set up afterwards. Building a peer group of young immunologists in Austria was the main goal of our project to make the NGI and the ÖGAI more attractive to young members, and this seems to have been successful. Once again, we would like to thank the VWGÖ, our sponsors and the ÖGAI for making this project financially possible. We would also like to thank CeMM, which spontaneously agreed to hold part of the Summer School there, as well as the flexible NGI organization team and all participants.
