ORPHEUS (Organisation for PhD Education in Biomedicine and Health Sciences in the European System) is an association of European PhD programmes in biomedicine and health sciences (http://www.orpheus-med.org/)

The organisation was founded in 2004 in the belief that development of high quality PhD programmes and the setting of uniform criteria for PhD degrees in Europe was necessary. To achieve this goal, ORPHEUS was founded. ORPHEUS is dedicated to promote harmonisation of PhD programmes in biomedicine and health sciences, 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. Delegates from all of Europe have since 2004 attended the annual conference and contributed to the development of a consensus document.

The Vice-president of the organisation is Mike Mulvany, former Head of Graduate School of Health Sciences, Aarhus University. Representatives from the PhD association have been attending the annual conferences held by the organisation. The 2011 conference was held in Izmir, Turkey, with the main topic: “PhD Quality Indicators for Biomedicine and Health Sciences”. A consensus document is currently under preparation.