When we speak about science, the language of success often dominates: high-impact publications, breakthrough discoveries, prestigious grants. But Dr. Berent Prakken – professor of paediatric immunology, Vice Dean at UMC Utrecht, and one of the founders of the Eureka Institute for Translational Medicine – offers a refreshingly different lens. UniSR is a proud partner of Eureka, dedicated to training and strengthening the global community of professionals working in translational medicine.
In a conversation that followed his moving presentation at a recent event held in UniSR, Prakken spoke candidly about the importance of failure, the necessity of true collaboration, and the quiet transformation that happens when scientists are allowed to return to the heart of their work.
If there were no failure in science, it wouldn't be science at all. The answers would already be obvious. The question is actually more important than the answer. Failure teaches you. If you're scared to make mistakes, then you don't learn.
I recently wrote a paper for the Journal of Trial and Error, and it was refreshing – just writing openly about everything that went wrong. Too often, especially in academic conferences, you see senior people only talking about how smart they are, how well designed everything was. That’s not how it really goes. At Eureka, our very first idea was this: share your failures. It’s still one of the most liberating things we do.
It would change everything. Because failure isn't failure – what’s harmful is doing poor science, or hiding results just to get published. But failing in an honest attempt? That’s how you learn.
Science should be a process of asking questions, testing hypotheses, learning from what doesn’t work. If we could acknowledge that publicly – like in journals, in teaching, in conferences – we’d create a culture where people feel safe enough to really grow. Students feel enormous pressure to succeed. But once they realize that even respected scientists fail all the time, they feel free again.
First, we have to let go of our obsession with first and last authorship. In any big study, you only have two positions of status, and the rest are ignored. That’s not how real science works. We need to recognize the value of team science. Even the editor-in-chief of Nature told me – this obsession with numbers, metrics, and impact factors is a kind of fetish.
We should be rewarding collaboration. I once saw a student hesitate to reach out to someone who had the exact technology he needed, because he considered him a competitor. I knew both had been through the Eureka course, so I called him myself. He changed his flight, came to Utrecht, and they worked together in the lab that day. That’s the power of shared purpose – and trust.
It’s not a transformation into something new. It’s a return to something true. You see people come in with this hardened exterior, shaped by years of pressure. And then, something shifts. After a week, they’re thinking differently – not because we made them into something else, but because they reconnected with why they became scientists in the first place.
I always say: in life, you decide with your heart, then your hands, and then your head. But academia trains you to start only from the head. At Eureka, we invite people to return to their hearts. And when they do, everything changes – from how they collaborate, to how they plan their careers, to how they care for themselves and each other.
Dr. Prakken’s message is a timely challenge to the scientific community: to create spaces where failure is shared, collaboration is celebrated, and students are nurtured not as competitors, but as explorers. If we want a science that serves humanity, we may need to start by reclaiming our own.
UniSR is a proud partner of the Eureka Institute for Translational Medicine, dedicated to training and strengthening the global community of professionals working in translational medicine. Founded in 2008, the Eureka Institute aims to build a multidisciplinary international ecosystem capable of translating scientific research into tangible benefits for patients. In line with this mission, the Institute promotes numerous educational initiatives, including the International Certificate Course in Translational Medicine (ICC_TM)—an intensive program held annually in Syracuse that brings together researchers, physicians, and healthcare professionals from around the world.