ORPHEUS is an association of European PhD programmes in biomedicine and health science with a full name: Organisation for PhD Education in Biomedicine and Health Sciences in the European System.

(ORPHEUS is an Associate Member of the Council for Doctoral Education - European University Association; CDE-EUA) 

• In April 2004, European Conference on Harmonisation of PhD Programmes in Biomedicine and Health Sciences was held in Zagreb. It became clear that PhD programmes are so different that even a PhD title has a different meaning in different parts of Europe. While some countries did not have any clinical PhD programmes, others had even two. Thus, the delegates coming from 25 universities and from 16 European countries agreed that there is a need of European harmonisation and they accepted 'The Declaration of the European Conference on Harmonisation of PhD Programmes in Medicine and Health Sciences' ('Zagreb Declaration'), which contain the first European consensus statement what PhD programme should be. High similarities among 'Zagreb Declaration' and '10 Salzburg Principles' (Bologna Seminar, Salzburg, 2005) should not be surprising…

• The Second European Conference held in Zagreb in 2005, included delegates from 33 universities, from 21 European countries, issued a document ‘Guidelines for Organisation of PhD Programmes in Biomedicine and Health Sciences’ and launched the idea for the necessity to establish a European association of PHD programmes, for which the name ORPHEUS was accepted.

• Third ORPHEUS 2007 conference was held in Helsinki. Participants from 43 universities from 26 European countries issued a document: ‘Helsinki Consensus Statement on PhD Training in Clinical Research’ (‘Helsinki Consensus Statement’) emphasizing the importance of PhD research in clinical medicine

• The General Assembly held in Graz, September 20-21, 2008 recognised the 2004 and 2005 Zagreb conferences as the First and Second ORPHEUS conferences.

• Fourth ORPHEUS 2009 conference is scheduled for April 23-25 in Aarhus with the main topic: Setting Standards for PhD Education in Biomedicine and Health Sciences.

• To give active support and guidance to members of ORPHEUS in enhancing their contributions to medicine and society in general.
• To provide information to members of ORPHEUS and all PhD candidates all over Europe.
• To represent higher education and research in biomedicine and health sciences and to influence policy making at national, European and international level.
• To encourage cooperation among members of the Association and the development of effective bilateral and multilateral networks.
• To promote cooperation in research and development of joint PhD programmes.
• To promote harmonisation of PhD programmes in biomedicine and health sciences
• To encourage mobility of PhD candidates and academic staff through all regions of Europe.
• To stimulate quality assurance of PhD research and education, and in particular to develop an accreditation process of PhD programmes in biomedicine and health sciences.
• To cooperate with other associations with similar goals.