Education inspires, especially when it breaks existing frames and sparks curiosity. The successful project Role Models is looking for researchers who want to contribute to good and effective education — particularly now that the project has been awarded a scaling grant. Request more information directly.

A scaling grant allows an innovative educational idea, following a successful pilot, to be implemented more broadly. Physiology lecturer and education coordinator at the Heart Center of Amsterdam UMC, Elza van Deel, is one of the recipients who received the grant in early 2026. She believes that patients and their loved ones should be integrated into education far more often, earlier, and more naturally. “And not as objects, but as human beings and people with lived experience.”

With this grant, she can further develop her earlier project, Role Models. In this educational programme, future scientists learn about the physiology of disease from a scientist who has the disease themselves. Van Deel: “Too often we continue to see patients as people who need to be saved. By presenting the person behind the patient as a role model, students experience a different perspective. This way, we make learning tangible, break down stigmas, and challenge students to look beyond the academic bubble.”

“Students have solid (bio)medical knowledge about the disease, physiological processes, and possible treatments. But there is often too little attention paid to the person. The cells you later study in the lab, or the breakthrough a medication tries to achieve — there is a human being behind that disease.”

View the flyer below or ask your questions via the form: Role Model in (bio)medical Education

---