BIO&PHArmaceutical Materials science European Master

Unipi Team Leader: Simone Capaccioli, Department of Physics 

The European Master programme "BIOPHAM (BIO&PHArmaceutical Materials science)" is a two-year (120 ECTS) programme entirely taught in English and jointly operated by the University of Lille (France), the University of Pisa (Italy), the University of Silesia in Katowice (Poland) and the Polytechnic University of Catalunya (Spain).BIOPHAM aims to meet an international demand for qualified graduates with theoretical and applied high-level training in materials science and its applications to pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical materials. The BIOPHAM rich education and training programme (soft-matter, biomaterials, physical states and transformations of drugs, machine learning, modelling, advanced experimental characterization techniques including instruments available at large scale facilities) particularly aims at emerging the new discipline of “pharmaceutical materials science”. It will help reducing the severe lack of human resources in this field in the vast research-based pharmaceutical sector including academic centres, big pharma, SME’s, spin‐offs, start‐ups, contract research organizations or drug manufacturers.ln addition to academic formation, and due to the necessity for integration of expertise, BIOPHAM students will also benefit from the involvement of a large network of 13 large and small companies (Servier, AstraZeneca, Sanofi, Roquette, Eurofins Amatsigroup, etc), 3 international clusters of public/private bodies (including other Big Pharma industries), 5 large scale facilities (synchrotron and neutron sources) and 25 prestigious European and non-European Universities (China, USA, India, Japan, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Russia). They will contribute to the coordinated educational programme to prepare a future generation of “pharmaceutical material scientists”. These partners are committed to the programme and have provided input into its content to better reflect their needs as potential employers.The BIOPHAM Master's course will provide all students with various transversal skills such as competencies in entrepreneurship, project management, economic and strategic intelligence, marketing, bibliographical search and synthesis. Students will also have opportunities to acquire other soft skills (intercultural communication, research experience and scientific communication, national language of their host universities) enabling them to easily adapt to their future international professional environment.