Paediatric Research
Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences at University of Copenhagen
This course is free of charge for PhD students at Danish universities (except Copenhagen Business School), and for PhD Students from NorDoc member faculties. All other participants must pay the course fee.
Anyone can apply for the course, but if you are not a PhD student at a Danish university, you will be placed on the waiting list until enrollment deadline. This also applies to PhD students from NorDoc member faculties. After the enrollment deadline, available seats will be allocated to applicants on the waiting list.
Learning objectives
A student who has met the objectives of the course will be able to:
1. Propose ways of studying mechanisms of long-term impact of early life exposures.
2. Evaluate research reports in terms of pediatric relevance as regards age and maturity.
3. Discuss the need of enrolling children in research and the special requirements.
Content
Children are not just small adults, and pediatric research is not just a question of downscaling. Due to the dynamic biological development (not least in utero and during early childhood), the diversity in gene expression across age groups, and the complex psychosocial development and interaction between the child, the parents, and other significant individuals in the child’s environment, pediatric research in general requires a different approach compared to that applied for adults. Furthermore, although special legislation aims to protect the child when eligible for participation in research programs, this may fall short of its objective, because of the difficulties in the application of some of the basic ethical principles during childhood, e.g. the principles of autonomy and full information prior to consent.
This course will focus on three main topics:
1. Child, family, and society (keywords: Nature and nurture, socio-biology, psychosocial determinants, deficits and handicap, quality of life, international comparisons)
2. Age, maturity, size and time (keywords: Growth, development, reference values, pharmacology, biologic programming, secular trends, animal models).
3. Ethics and regulations, and philosophical consideration when dealing with paediatric research (keywords: Informing children, the child's choice, parental authority, risk, pain, and inconvenience, non-therapeutic research, studying normal children, register-based studies, international collaboration, the child as an independent self-defining individual).
Format: A mixture of lectures by invited speakers and group sessions w/ presentations by the participating students. The duration of the course is three days (20 hours). Students are expected to prepare for the course.
Participants
PhD students, other active researchers and physicians under paediatric training.
Max. 24
Relevance to graduate programmes
The course is relevant to PhD students from the following graduate programmes at the Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences, UCPH:
All graduate programmes
Language
English (if any participants not fluent in Danish)
Form
Each theme is developed over one day from short, focused presentations by teachers and participants.
Course director
Lone Graf Steensballe
Tel.: +45 35459727
E-mail: Lone.Graff.Stensballe@regionh.dk
Prof. Gorm Greisen,
Tel.: +45 4046 0747.
E-mail: gorm.greisen@regionh.dk
Prof. Klaus Bønnelykke
Tel.: +45 3867 7360
E-mail: kb@copsac.com
Per Torp Sangild
Tel.: +45
E-mail: pts@sund.ku.dk
Teachers
Kjeld Schmiegelow, Klaus Bønnelykke, Gorm Greisen, Lone Graff Stensballe, Ayo Wahlberg, Anja Pinborg, Elsebet Østergaard, Per Torp Sangild, Jon Trærup Andersen, Jens-Christian Holm, Rikke Beck Jensen.
Dates
27.-29. October 2025
Course location
Rigshospitalet
Inge Lehmanns Vej 7
Stairhall 7, 3. th. floor. Department 7034- Conference room 3
2100 Copenhagen Ø
First day of the course:
Landbohøjskolen
Dyrlægevej 68, Ground floor
1870 Frederiksberg C
Registration
Please register before 19. September 2025.
Expected frequency
Seats to PhD students from other Danish universities will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis and according to the applicable rules.
Applications from other participants will be considered after the last day of enrolment.
Note: All applicants are asked to submit invoice details in case of no-show, late cancellation or obligation to pay the course fee (typically non-PhD students). If you are a PhD student, your participation in the course must be in agreement with your principal supervisor.