Possibilities for research during and after the study

An academic training programme is characterised by a longer and consecutive period of research in the curriculum. Although the pharmacy study has a rather strong focus on the latter professional duty as a pharmacist, the curriculum contains an compulsary research project of a half year in the master phase. Every student comes in touch with scientific research, which contributes to the academic education.

The master programme Medical Pharmaceutical Sciences is more research oriented and provides a training in pre-clinical or clinical pharmaceutical research and can be combined with a dedicated training in Science, Business and policy.

A master research project can be done in one of the eight research groups of Pharmacy. In addition, possibilities are offered by the UMCG, e.g. at the Pharmacy of the Hospital or at the Clinical Chemistry department.

A master degree gives access to the postgraduate path (promotion path) and leads to the academic degree of doctor (PhD). The Groningen graduate schools, like GUIDE and BCN, offer training programmes for PhD students.

A job as a researcher with a pharmaceutical background may be found in the industry or at a university. Having a PhD degree is often a demand or at least a preference. Also hospital pharmacists are often involved in research, especially in the larger (academic) hospitals. More and more, hospital pharmacists carry out PhD research as part of their daily work. Finally, it is well possible to combine (patient directed) research with the work in a community pharmacy.