Fiocruz and Eatris sign partnership for translational science

The Center for Technological Development in Health of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (CDTS/Fiocruz) and the European Infrastructure for Translational Medicine (Eatris) signed, in September, a letter of intent with the goal of promoting initiatives in translational sciences. The partnership includes not only education and training projects within this theme, but also the creation of a Global Hub of Drug Repositioning, with an initial focus on neglected and rare diseases. Following the invitation by Eatris, the CDTS/Fiocruz will also be part of the Translation Together international consortium, an initiative involving both public and private institutions that work in the field. 

“Eatris is one of the world’s largest translational science organizations. It is a network consisting of 110 research institutions spread over 13 European countries. This partnership has great potential to generate cooperation projects, not only for the CDTS, but for Fiocruz as a whole. It is a fundamental phase to consolidate practices of translational science in the institution”, explains Marco Túlio de Barros e Castro, lawyer of the Innovation Office of CDTS/Fiocruz.

Also known as translational medicine or translational research, translational science is the field that aims to articulate basic research in laboratories and clinical research or practical applications of studies, bridging the gap between basic science and society. In the field of education, the partnership with Eatris will begin this October. The institution granted a scholarship to researcher Carmen Penido of CDTS/Fiocruz to participate in the Translational Medicine Explained (TMEx) course. 

Also in October, the CDTS/Fiocruz will be participating in the annual event of the Translation Together consortium, an initiative formed by institutions such as the National Center for the Advance of Translational Science (NCATS - NHI) and the NGO Open Source Pharma Foundation, with a partnership with the Japanese Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED), with English LifeArc, and Canadian Admare Bioinnovations. The consortium brings together different agents that work in drug repositionings, such as researchers, drug companies and manufacturers, stimulating collaborative projects based on the concepts of open source and open data (open databases). The official introduction of Fiocruz will be formalized soon.

The partnership with Eatris has the main goals of identifying potential translational research collaborative projects, the exchange of information on the financing mechanisms for translational medicine; promoting seminars, symposiums and academic meetings; and exchanging academic materials, papers and other information. The institutions also intend to evaluate the development of new collaboration models (public-public and public-private), regionally or internationally, in order to accelerate knowledge exchange and to create collaboration networks within the context of translational research. 

Eatris

Eatris is a European non-profit consortium of research infrastructure. A reference in the area of translational science, the institution facilitates collaboration between academics, physicians and developers. It stimulates projects that support the industry, foments public-private partnerships, and develops training and qualification activities, always with the goal of promoting the advance of translational science. Formed by a European consortium of 13 countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden, Spain and Latvia), Eatris brings together an infrastructure of 110 institutions of biomedical research.