The sixth transMed consortium meeting & training was again held via video conferencing due to the uncertainties and risks that the COVID-19 situation still causes all across Europe. During three consecutive days (Sept. 30 - Oct. 02, 2020) the ESRs, PIs as well as transMed’s partner organisation and advisory board members gathered virtually. The ESRs gave an update on their project and had the opportunity to discuss within individual monitor group meetings their project as well as potential problems encountered. Time was also allocated for the planning of secondments, meetings, training courses and collaborations.

The training focused on career planning. It included round table discussions, a keynote lecture on ‘how to shape career in industry’ presented by Christer Säfholm and practical exercises (CV and letter of motivation writing) with subsequent feedback and advice.

Due to the Corona crisis, the 5^th transMed consortium meeting (30 months) could not be held as originally planned, on site, at Tübingen University (Germany). Instead, the transMed partners arranged for a two-day virtual meeting, held via video conferencing, from 29^th to 30^th June, 2020.

As for conventional network meetings, the virtual meeting started with progress presentations from all 13 transMed ESRs. As opposed to previous occasions, here, more time was allowed for discussions on individual progress reports. Although most of the training courses originally planned for the Tübingen meeting could not be held, on the second day of the virtual meeting three training lectures were given. The first of these was given by Sigrid Diether on “Project Management”, followed by a talk from François Paquet-Durand on “How to generate scientific impact”, and finally, Thomas Wheeler-Schilling on “Time Management”.

The meeting concluded with a “virtual round table” discussion on essential soft skills for researchers.

The 4^th transMed consortium meeting (24 months) was held at the University of Iceland, in Reykjavík in Iceland, in the premises of the children’s hospital, from 20^th to 22^nd January, 2020.

The meeting started with educational lectures, the first of which was given by Olöf Birna Olafsdottir (HI) on the development and application of retinal oximetry as a biomarker for a diverse set of retinal and CNS diseases. This was followed by a second educational lecture given by Christina Fasser, president of the international RD patient organisation Retina International (RI), who talked about the challenges for RD patients who are now, for the first time, facing real therapeutic opportunities.

Further talks included the progress presentations from all 13 transMed ESRs, as well as discussions with the external advisors Peter Humphries, Janet Hoogstrate and Christina Fasser.

On the afternoon of the last meeting day, the local hosts arranged for a tour of some of the most impressive Icelandic sights in the vicinity of Reykjavik. The departure of the transMed consortium members after the meeting was delayed by a severe storm and the temporal closing of Reykjavík airport. Both ESRs and PIs used this extra day for informal meetings and discussions in smaller groups, to further define joint projects, collaborations, and activities.

From 12^th to 15^th February 2019 the 2^nd transMed consortium meeting was conducted in conjunction with the mid-term review meeting. At the time of the 2^nd consortium meeting all transMed fellows had been hired and they displayed their first research results in a series of scientific presentations.

The meeting was also used to discuss future research activities, training courses, and joint projects.

After the consortium meeting the successful mid-term review ensued. The representative of the EU expressed great interest in the individual projects and the progress made. After the meeting all transMed fellows remained in Prague for another hands-on course on the manufacturing of drug delivery systems organized by the local partner InoCure