Chronic pain is a key societal challenge, affecting one out of five adults. Chronic pain is in general poorly treated and its impact is far-reaching and considerable for society.

The programme FrontierResearchCompentences@CNAP (FRESCO@CNAP) has installed eight early stage researchers (ESRs) at CNAP, doing frontline research on novel tools for identifying and modulating key features of human pain mechanisms. Our aim is to offer our FRESCO@CNAP fellows the best possible research training. Our FRESCO@CNAP fellows are enrolled in Aalborg University’s Doctoral School in in Medicine, Biomedical Science and Technology, along with more than 200 other PhD students. Here they have access to a range of different PhD courses, some of specific scientific relevance to their own PhD project, and others of a more general character, offering training in transferrable skills such as communication, research and project management, ethical issues, Intellectual Property Rights, or entrepreneurship. This training is supplemented with participation in joint events such as journal clubs, workshops, and symposia.

Based on the combination of first class PhD supervision and extensive training, our ambition is that our FRESCO fellows will serve as first movers in a new generation of researchers, capable of exploiting the synergies between different research disciplines and technologies, and in this way optimising and boosting innovation. The long-term perspective of the research therefore forms a basis of the next generation pain management and is as such important for reducing the load of pain on a personal and a societal level. CNAP is recognised as a unique Centre of Excellence due to the multidisciplinary approach to the studies of pain.

This programme has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 754465.