Nanotechnology in medicine - making recommendations for Horizon 2020

(Nanowerk News) On the 1-2 October leading industrial and academic experts, national authorities, and European Commission representatives will meet for the 2013 European Technology Platform on Nanomedicine (ETPN) Annual Event and General Assembly. Within the two days leading experts and specialists from all over Europe will discuss the implementation of recommendations identified by the nanomedicine community that will shape the future of the sector in Europe. The event takes place in Grenoble, France and is organised by CEA-Leti, a leading French research and technology organisation focused on nanotechnologies and their applications in healthcare.
The event aims to provide further details on the ETPN’s recommendations for nanomedicine under the upcoming Research Framework Programme Horizon 2020, the EU's main instrument for research funding in Europe, launching from 2014-2020.
Patrick Boisseau, chairman of the ETPN, said: “The first line has been crossed with the official renewal of the ETPN as a European Technology Platform, which represents an increasingly key element in the European innovation ecosystem and a main bridge between the community and the European Commission that is needed to implement Horizon 2020.”
He added, “We look forward to welcoming all European stakeholders involved in the nanomedicine field during the ETPN GA at CEA-Leti. Organising our annual event at this widely recognised scientific location will bring the ETPN even closer to the nanomedicine community and will provide participants with the opportunity to visit state-of-the-art facilities on site.”
The event focus on establishing the ETPN’s new action plan with a strong attention on strengthening industry engagement and extending the platform’s community as nanomedical R&D is expected to progress in the upcoming years from the pre-clinical to the clinical testing stage. Furthermore, future milestones will be set for the implementation of the recently released White Paper’s concept elaborated by the NANOMED2020 European consortium to drive innovation across Europe in nanomedicine. The White Paper “Contribution of Nanomedicine to Horizon 2020” (pdf) can be downloaded on the ETPN website.
To support and manage the translation of excellent research into innovative medical products in areas of unmet medical need efficiently, the nanomedicine community strives to set up a Translation Hub as an umbrella of dedicated new infrastructures. Notably, this includes a certain Translational Advisory Board to select, guide, and push forward the top applicable concepts: A novel funding instrument for SMEs, and an EU-NCL infrastructure with the strong involvement of its U.S. counterpart, the Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory (US-NCL) in Frederick, Maryland.
On October 1, following keynote openings from high-level representatives of the French government and the European Commission, selected experts and leading industry specialists will introduce the latest issues evolving around the nanomedicine ecosystem and value chain.
The ETPN GA preliminary programme and online registration form are available on the ETPN Website: http://www.etp-nanomedicine.eu/ga2013.
About ETPN
The European Technology Platform Nanomedicine was established in 2005 as a joint venture of the European Commission and CEOs of large industrial companies, SMEs and academic research institutions to investigate and advance joint activities in the area of nanotechnology in medicine. Since 2005 the ETPN published a number of strategic documents outlining the needs and roadmaps for nanomedicine research in Europe. The ETPN contributed to set up numerous European funded projects providing a first impression of the conditions for a suitable social and economic environment and the structural requirements for an efficient translation of R&D results into innovative nanomedicine. The ETPN supports its members in coordinating their joint research efforts and improving communication amongst the members as well as towards the European Commission and the European Member States.
About NANOMED2020
NANOMED2020 is a Coordination and Support Action under the FP7-Health aiming at delivering concrete recommendations to the European Commission to push forward the field of nanomedicine under Horizon 2020. Amongst other activities, NANOMED2020 is focusing on 1) federating the nanomedicine community and establishing a European landscape via mapping all relevant actors, projects and infrastructures and 2) identifying the key bottlenecks of the value chain to focus on to leverage the translational possibilities of the development process and to bring in the end more products onto the market. This project involves seven partners across Europe including the ETPN Secretariat, the CLINAM foundation (Switzerland), the National Institute of Health Carlos III (Spain), Bioanalytik-muenster e.V (Germany), Nanobiotix SA (France), the Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi ONLUS (Italy), and SINTEF (Norway).
Source: VDI