European researchers have made leading contributions to the large genomic, transcriptomic and clinical datasets from patients with chronic diseases. Advances in information science provide unprecedented opportunities for using these datasets to elucidate the complex biology of these disorders, its influence by environmental triggers, and to personalise their management. Currently, exploitation of these opportunities is limited by a shortage of researchers with the required informatics skills and knowledge of requisite data protection principles. HELICAL addresses this unmet need by developing a trans-sectoral and interdisciplinary training programme that builds on the expertise and existing collaborations of its partners. It provides 15 early stage researchers with training in analysis of large datasets, using autoimmune vasculitis as a paradigm as it is scalable, and as comprehensive biological and clinical datasets are already available. The HELICAL training program focuses on three complementary areas: application of informatics to such datasets to gain new biological insights; translation of these into practical clinical outputs and management of ethical constraints imposed on such studies. The programme will be delivered through a multidisciplinary, trans-sectoral partnership of Academic and Industry researchers with expertise in basic biomedical research, epidemiology, statistics, machine learning, health data governance and ethics. Therefore, HELICAL exploits recent advances in data science to link research datasets with longitudinal healthcare records, based on the robust ethical foundation required for linkage studies using near-patient data, to address key experimental questions. The results will have obvious potential for transforming healthcare in the field of autoimmune disease. The training provided addresses a key skills gap in the European workforce and should make the ESR eminently employable in academic, industrial and clinical sectors.

The stated goal of RHAPSODY is to define a molecular taxonomy of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) that will support patient segmentation, inform clinical trial design, and the establishment of regulatory paths for the adoption of novel strategies for diabetes prevention and treatment. To address these goals, RHAPSODY will bring together prominent European experts, including the leaders of the diabetes-relevant IMI1 projects to identify, validate and characterize causal biomarkers for T2D subtypes and progression. Our plans are built upon: (a) access to large European cohorts with comprehensive genetic analyses and rich longitudinal clinical and biochemical data and samples; (b) detailed multi-omic maps of key T2D-relevant tissues and organs; (c) large expertise in the development and use of novel genetic, epigenetic, biochemical and physiological experimental approaches; (d) the ability to combine existing and novel data sets through effective data federation and use of these datasets in systems biology approaches towards precision medicine; and (e) expertise in regulatory approval, health economics and patient engagement. These activities will lead to the discovery of novel biomarkers for improved T2D taxonomy, to support development of pharmaceutical activities, and for use in precision medicine to improve health in Europe and worldwide.

This proposal will create a European network of early American history. It is designed to foster international collaboration between early Americanists throughout Europe. As such, it provides a multilateral European alternative for the practice of early American history - an increasingly international field - different from normal bilateral relationships between individual Europeanists and scholars and institutions in North America. It will provide a means whereby European early Americanists can share their work with other Europeanists without the expense and difficulty of presenting such work in America. Such a network will be of potentially great value to postgraduate students and to European scholars with limited resources who find it difficult to accommodate themselves to American intellectual patterns. It build on the successful establishment of an early American network within Britain (the British Group in Early American History), which has held annual conferences on North American history for over a decade. It also builds on the networks established in early American history (marked by the formation of a Scientific Committee on early American history) at the first European network on early American history held in Paris, December 2006. The principal aim of the European Network in Early American History is to establish fora where European scholars will meet to exchange ideas and do research. This is especially important at a time when European and American agendas in contemporary politics and in institutional assumptions are more divergent than for many years. The network will host biannual conferences at European venues (Venice 2008, Paris 2010, Spain/Portgual 2012, Germany 2014) where European scholars will present work to other European early Americanists and to scholars from North America. It will, through its Scientific Committee, serve as a clearing house for collaborative bids to European funding bodies and will serve as an institutional link with important stakeholders in Europe and in America (such as BGEAH and the Omohundro Institute for Early American History and Culture). It will, under the auspices of the Virtual Research Group in Early Modern History at the University of Warwick, host bi monthly virtual meetings on early American history with European colleagues. It will provide opportunities for postgraduate students, both at biannual conferences and through research meetings in individual European countries, with opportunities to present their work to a diverse European group of scholars. Most importantly, the network will connect European scholars with developing early American scholarship that stresses the cosmopolitan origins of early American history. In this evolving scholarship, European early Americanists can play a vital part. They are well-placed to show, through researches in European archives and through increasing participation in a European as opposed to an American network of scholars, how a European perspective on early American history can complicate and enrich an early American scholarship that is increasingly focused on Atlantic rather than purely American links. By 2010 we aim to have a flourishing and self-sustaining network of European scholars interested in early American history that interacts with each other on a regular basis at networked events in varying locales throughout Europe. One feature of this network will be the wide variety of European countries that will be represented in the network. Key partners in the network are the University of Warwick, the University of Paris, the Omohundro Institute for Early American History and Culture and the University of Cambridge, but it will extend beyond the well-established early American historical networks in Britain and France to include substantial representation from southern and eastern Europe. The activities of the network will be disseminated through a dedicated website for early American history in Europe.

BIORIMA stands for Biomaterial Risk Management. BIORIMA aims to develop an integrated risk management (IRM) framework for nano-biomaterials (NBM) used in Advanced Therapeutic Medicinal Products (ATMP) and Medical Devices (MD). The BIORIMA RM framework is a structure upon which the validated tools and methods for materials, exposure, hazard and risk identification/assessment and management are allocated plus a rationale for selecting and using them to manage and reduce the risk for specific NBM used in ATMP and MD. Specifically, the IRM framework will consist of: (i) Risk Management strategies and systems, based on validated methodologies, tools, and guidance, for monitoring and reducing the risks together with methods for evaluating them; (ii) Validated methodologies and tools to identify the potential Exposure and Hazard posed by NBM to humans and the environment; (iii) A strategy for Intelligent Testing (ITS) and Tiered Risk Assessment for NBM used in ATMP and MD. BIORIMA workplan consists of 7 workpackages covering the major themes: Materials, Exposure, Hazard and Risk. BIORIMA will generate methods and tools for these themes for use in risk evaluation and reduction. The BIORIMA toolbox will consist of validated methods/tools for materials synthesis; reference materials bank; methods for human/environment exposure assessment and monitoring; (eco)-toxicology testing protocols; methods for prevention of accidental risks – massive release or explosion – A tiered risk assessment method for humans/environment; An intelligent testing strategy for NBM and risk reduction measures, including the safer-by-design approach. BIORIMA will deliver a web-based Decision Support System to help users, especially SME, evaluate the risk/benefit profile of their NBM products and help to shorten the time to market for NBM products.