ETPN Participation in the „Smart Materials for Biofunctionalized Implants and Engineered Tissue” workshop

This workshop, initiated by the REBIRTH Cluster of Excellence, chaired by the Hannover Medical School, took place at the Representation of Lower Saxony in Brussels with 35 participants, mainly researchers from research organisations and one representative of the EC, Mr. Ulrich Genschel (DG RTD G3 - Value-added materials).

The main topics were Biofunctionalisation of medical implants (with focus on dentistry) and Smart materials for tissue engineering (with focus on cardiology).

The representative of the European Commission gave a speech on Biomaterial research in the NMP Directorate, highlighting success stories from FP4, 5 and 6 with different products on the market (Hyalonect, Hyaloglide, SilkBone BSM, Spidrex, Nano-Cancer, NanoActivator, ...) and announcing two calls (2011 and 2012) in the NMP-Materials programme. Inputs for these calls are coming from the NMP Experts Advisory Group but also from Workshops (for instance in February 2010: "Identifying Needs in Materials Design for Biomedical Applications"). At least one of these calls should have a focus on advanced / late stage biomaterial RTD but funding should not include clinical work. He reported that for historical reasons, the biomaterials topic is covered by the NMP programme but that discussions with the Health directorate are on going.

Another output of this workshop was that biomaterial / bioimplants research shall follow the example of cancer therapy research and evolve towards more personalised implants.

The ultimate result of this workshop shall be a position paper as the organisers see the opportunity to participate in the design of future calls with novel topics identified in the workshop. Indeed, the 20 research organisations attending this workshop are strongly interested in participating actively in the European Frameworkprogramme and in preparing project proposals. In this respect, the ETPN promoted the inclusion of industrial partners in these proposals in order to address technological development and to bridge the gap to the market.

The participation of the ETPN in this workshop was highly appreciated as the regenerative medicine topic is currently underrepresented within the platform and as the ETPN is seen as gateway to the industry in this field as well as expert in the European funding systems arena.