On May 21th, 2025 we met again for the NextGen Research Day in Bern. The motivated participants were resident pediatricians, senior pediatricians, master students, PhD students, postdocs as well as researchers from other related fields such as pediatric psychology or pediatric nursing.

The NextGen Research Day, as an innovative teaching event for young researchers in the field of pediatrics, included several workshops: a speed-dating session with experts as well as a scientific escape room where the participants needed to solve a clinical research challenge. Over lunch and coffee breaks many highly engaged discussions happened between the participants as well as also with the experts.

A highlight of the 2025 edition were the patient representatives that supported two workshops: A workshop on PPI and how to include patient representatives in a relevant way in pediatric research had been offered to the more experienced participants in module II. For the participants in module I, two patient representatives contributed to a workshop on communication to parents. The participants discussed and developed how parents can be approached with a trial proposal, even in emotionally difficult situations. We are very grateful for the contribution by experts of Frühchen & Neokinder Schweiz!

Thanks to our industry sponsors, AbbVie Inc. and Eli Lilly (S.A), we could offer this learning experience to an affordable prize to the next generation of pediatric researchers. We appreciate the financial support very much!

We are looking forward to new ideas and interested participants for the 2026 edition!