EARTIS will bridge the ‘valley of death’

An organisation has been launched to help bring more medical products to market and support the development of the European Research Area (ERA).

The European Advanced Translational Research Infrastructure in Medicine (EARTIS) will work across 60 European universities and research institutions.  The pan-European research infrastructure will focus on bringing drugs, vaccines and diagnostics into common patient usage, particularly in the area of rare diseases.

Speaking about the launch on the EU’s CORDIS website, scientific director Dr Giovanno Migliaccio said: “The inauguration of EATRIS activities comes after a lengthy preparation. We are confident that our research infrastructure will have a positive impact on the translational medicines field within the ERA and will deliver significant and tangible benefits to Europe’s citizens. This will also allow member states to avoid infrastructure duplications and facilitate more efficient use of the available resources in these scientifically and economically challenging times.”

A key goal of Horizon 2020, the EU’s next research and innovation framework programme, will be bringing more innovative products to market in addition to investing €2.4bn in research infrastructures under its Excellent Science pillar.

EARTIS will be based in Amsterdam in the Netherlands.