As part of the TRANS-GLIOMA project in the Program Italy-Slovenia, which aim is to increase the cooperation between the key actors in the field of biomedicine (research institutes, hospitals, universities and enterprises), to promote the transfer of knowledge and innovative biomedical techniques in the field of brain cancer (glioblastoma) and improving the competitiveness of research in oncology, we invited Barbara Žvar Baškovič , student of microbiology and Nika Šijanec, student of biology, to work as volunteer through The Interreg Volunteer Youth (IVY) Initiative.

The Interreg Volunteer Youth (IVY) Initiative is a pilot action to offer the possibility to young Europeans to serve as volunteers in cross-border, transnational or interregional programmes and related projects. The initiative is aimed at involving young European volunteers to support, promote and report the concrete achievements of these programmes and projects, as well as generally promote European Territorial Cooperation and related values such as solidarity.

Both students will actively participate as IVY volunteers in the TRANS-GLIOMA project, where they will help to establish a joint Slovenian- Italian regional tumor bank (called GLIOBANKA) and they will assist in the laboratory work, where the main focus is to find new treatment options for this tumor. They will be involved in the promotion and transfer of the basic research results data to the general public, aimed to help people understand the need for more “precision” like medicine in brain cancer field and to spread the awareness of incidence and treatment of this currently incurable disease.