Making progress in education: The EUROFORGEN master degree pilot project in forensic genetics.

There is a definite lack of common educational and training programs in Europe in Forensic Genetics and harmonization and implementation of expert qualification schemes are urgently needed. Currently, experts to carry out routine casework are recruited by governmental (Police, Justice), academic (Institutes of Legal Medicine), or private laboratories from academic graduates usually with a background in biomedical sciences but very often without specific quality educational schemes or experience in a forensic laboratory. This is a real handicap to provision of quality forensic expertise. The European Forensic Genetics Network of Excellence (EUROFORGEN-NoE, https://www.euroforgen.eu/) is a European project funded by the SECURITY programme of the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme, started in January 2012 and finishing by the end of 2016. The original network comprises 16 partners from 9 countries including leading groups in European forensic genetic research. EUROFORGEN aims to create a close