“This project really is a complete new experience”

For Nadi Shahid, her research project is a very interesting and totally new experience. Instead of working in a laboratory, as she was used to during her bachelor Molecular Life Sciences in Nijmegen, she is interviewing policy advisors. Now she actually can see herself working in this field. “I am very happy that it – rather incidentally - crossed my path”.

At first Nadi looked for a research project in the lab, in the field she graduated in. One channel she used for this was Konjoin, a Utrecht University webpage that advertises internship opportunities.

A mailing from programme coordinator Anje de Graaf about new projects that were published, put her on the track of her current project. Her application led to an interview that she prepared by also asking herself what she wanted to learn, and how she thought she could contribute.” I also formulated some questions myself, to show I really wanted to learn something and was  willing to contribute.”

For Nadi the research question is what the challenges and opportunities are of so called decentralized clinical trials for testing new medicines. This set-up lets clinical trials be conducted close to the patient, such as at the patient’s home.

The research project concerns reading a lot about the subject as well as conducting semi-structured online interviews with policy advisors across Europe, who advise their governments about which medication should or should not be reimbursed. Something she had no experience in at all, but that she finds she is really enjoying.

“This project really is a complete new experience”, Nadi says. “I am very happy that it crossed my path, rather incidentally.”