Mechanistic integration of vascular and endocrine pathways for subtyping hypertension: an innovative network approach for future generation research training
Hypertension is the key determinant of cardiovascular disease and the No.1 ‘silent killer’ of humans worldwide. Despite progress in understanding the causes of hypertension and improvements in clinical management, >85 million people in Europe suffer from cardiovascular disease, costing the EU €210 billion/year. Currently, there is a crucial gap in understanding the dynamic interactions between vascular and endocrine pathways in hypertension. Such knowledge would facilitate redefinition of hypertension subtypes to improve current prevention and treatment. MINDSHIFT will offer a top-level interdisciplinary research programme to bridge this gap, using an integrative framework approach fed by new data and insights from cutting-edge experimental and clinical studies. To enable this advance, MINDSHIFT will implement and run an innovative EJD-programme, combining first-class scientific research with in-depth professional and transferable competence-skills trainings. ESRs will develop the integrative and entrepreneurial capacities that hypertension research demands by nature. Above and beyond, the programme will challenge the ESRs to build their capacity for self-directed learning, career development and personal-professional leadership. The highly capable academic and non-academic partners in MINDSHIFT have co-designed an extraordinary high-quality programme of research projects and network-wide training elements, to achieve the required and sustainable impacts on the ESR careers, scientific results and ITN-wide learning and innovation. Based on the excellent synergies and shared commitments, the MINDSHIFT consortium seeks to establish a European School for Hypertension Research, to propel future health science and industry towards more effective prevention of and cure for this silent killer.