The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects, including life science technologies, are constantly evolving. Therefore, scientists require continued and lifelong training in innovative topics and methodologies during and after their doctoral studies. It is extremely difficult for individual universities, scientific institutions, and centres to accommodate their specific needs. There are few scientific training programmes that offer this tailored training to an international audience. The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) provides advanced training led by experts in state-of-the-art technologies for life science researchers, fostering scientific exchange. Topics covered in EMBL’s diverse course programme range from structural biology and cell biology to genomics, proteomics and synthetic biology, and include the analysis of respective data. Approximately 30 of these courses take place each year at the EMBL Advanced Training Centre (Heidelberg, Germany), which has excellent training laboratories and facilities. We receive around 2,500 applications from scientists worldwide for up to 500 places on these courses, which aim to provide hands-on training in cutting-edge laboratory technologies and techniques.

In a constantly changing world, particularly with regard to the scientific landscape, we, as providers of training programmes, must adapt to new trends and demands. In this study, we demonstrate how the challenges and opportunities of the last five years, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, digital transformation, geopolitical constraints and the rise of artificial intelligence, have affected our courses and, consequently, our target audience.

We showcase how we revise our programme of courses to align with these changes. This includes implementing our learning management system (EMBL eCampus), adapting the course design to incorporate blended and active learning approaches, and diversifying the course formats. Our aim in introducing virtual, hybrid and two-hub formats was to maintain the unique hands-on training experience and our core values without compromise. Participants' experiences were assessed quantitatively and qualitatively by feedback surveys after each respective course. These questionnaires provided information on participants' rating of the course, as well as whether the course had influenced their career and created potential new collaborations. An evaluation of course statistics indicates that participants benefit greatly from further developing their research ideas and troubleshooting their projects.

When paired with the geographical, gender and career level information of our audience, the findings indicate that the transformations enhanced our reach into new scientific audiences as well as increased the inclusivity of our course programme.

In conclusion, this study highlights the importance of advanced training opportunities for life scientists and illustrates how we adapt the programme, formats and delivery of our courses to a constantly evolving field and tackle consequences of world-changing events.

Keywords: STEM, advanced life science training, molecular biology, hands-on training, lifelong learning.