EICOS offers suitably qualified journalists and all kinds of communicators of science from any European country and from Israel the opportunity to participate in laboratory research by working closely with experts at the cutting edge of their scientific field.

Working together facilitates a dialogue in which on the one hand journalists might gain a deeper understanding of the scientific endeavor and attitudes of scientists, while scientists on the other hand learn how science is reported and what influences and constraints shape the media content.

Journalists have the additional benefit of being able to share with, and get to know the problems of journalists from other European countries and other branches of media. At the heart of the initiative is the Hands-on Laboratory which is performed at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen. Journalists doing this course will work eight days tohether with scientists on projects from the current research of these experts.