EATRIS - from bench to bedside

The EATRIS project is dedicated to improving translation of research into the clinical setting and streamlining research efforts, so that the enormously increased potential of basic biomedical research can be utilised effectively for the development of new treatments and diagnostic procedures. Research institutions and governmental institutions from nine European countries have come together under the EATRIS umbrella. Professor Rudi Balling, who coordinates EATRIS, says that the intention is to build a bridge between bench and bedside, across which information can pass in both directions.

Under EATRIS, infrastructure across Europe is to be built up to support the development of clinical applications, covering everything from the screening of possible active ingredients through production according to good manufacturing practice (GMP) standards to conducting clinical studies. Project managerDr Rebecca Ludwig explains, “We aim to equip existing institutions so that external users can use them to work on their research and development tasks, similar to the sharing of large-scale facilities in physics research.” During the preparatory phase up to 2010, the focus is on developing a joint strategy for building up the infrastructure. This also involves the organisation of an infrastructure which will be distributed over the entire European continent as well as the necessary European harmonisation for such an undertaking and the development of new training programmes.