NEURONET, the new Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) Coordination and Support Action (CSA) aiming to support and better integrate projects in the IMI Neurodegenerative Diseases (ND) portfolio, held its first Scientific Coordination Board (SCB) meeting on Tuesday 2nd July in Madrid, Spain. The meeting brought together the leaders of nine Innovative Medicine Initiative's (IMI) Neurodegeneration projects: ADAPTED, AMYPAD, EMIF, EPAD, EQIPD, IMPRIND, MOPEAD, PHAGO and PRISM. The project coordinator, Carlos Díaz from SYNAPSE Research Management Partners, explained the concept and approach of the NEURONET CSA, and then each SCB member had the opportunity to give a short presentation to introduce their …
The Synapse team is delighted to announce the launch of a new Innovative Medicines Initiative project, the Translational Safety Biomarker Pipeline (TransBioLine) Project, aims to generate exploratory and confirmatory data supporting regulatory qualification and acceptance of novel safety biomarkers for five target organ systems (kidney, liver, pancreas, vascular, and central nervous system) for application in drug development. The TransBioLine Project is a consortium of 27 partners across pharmaceutical companies, small and medium-sized enterprises, and academic institutions from 10 European countries, and is coordinated by the University of Zurich with Pfizer Inc. as the industry lead. It is funded by the …
A call has been issued for research institutes and networks to join new efforts to increase the understanding of influenza vaccine effectiveness in Europe. The call is open to any European organisation and closes on April 15th 2019. This is the second season when organisations interested in studying brand-specific influenza vaccine effectiveness have been invited to join the growing DRIVE (Development of Robust and Innovative Vaccine Effectiveness) consortium as Associate Partners through an annual call for tenders, this time commencing for the 2019/20 influenza season. The DRIVE Associate Partners will be compensated for sharing data from existing studies as well …
DRIVE project Call for tenders 2019/2020 is open. DRIVE project invites study sites capable of researching influenza vaccine effectiveness (IVE) to join the network to support the sharing of existing IVE data and to establish new IVE studies including novel and innovative approaches. The benefits to the Research Collaborators include: • Generating robust brand specific IVE through a European network • Implementing potentially innovative approaches for IVE estimation • Participation in the scientific discussion and publications process • Receiving funding for data sharing and capacity building • Participation in the DRIVE Annual Forum and General Assembly. The call is open …
The SYNAPSE team is delighted to announce the launch of a new Horizon 2020 project, the HTx Project, which will operate in Europe for the coming five years, 2019 – 2023. The overall objective of HTx is to create a framework for next generation Health Technology Assessment that supports patient-centred, societally oriented, real-time decision-making for integrated healthcare throughout Europe. The mission of HTx is to facilitate the development of methodologies to deliver more customized information on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of complex and personalised combinations of health technologies. HTx will also provide methods to support personalised treatment advice that will …
The SYNAPSE team is delighted to announce the launch of a new Innovative Medicines Initiative project, the European Health Data & Evidence Network (EHDEN), which will operate in Europe for the coming five years, 2018 – 2023. The mission of EHDEN is to provide a new paradigm for the discovery and analysis of health data in Europe, by building a large-scale, federated network of data sources standardised to a common data model. EHDEN will build on prior projects, such as EMIF and EHR4CR, in scaling their original intents and technologies. Central to EHDEN will be the standardisation of health data …
The iPiE consortium members met in Brussels, hosted by Janssen in its Diegem offices. The first day, the meeting was structured in workshops and general sessions on updates discussions. The second day counted with the attendance of the Scientific Advisory Board members of the project, to whom the last achievements and progress was presented. The last day was aimed to discuss on the prioritisation guidelines which are being developed in the final months of the project. iPiE aims to develop predictive frameworks that use information from existing datasets on environmental fate and effects of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), toxicological studies, …
ROADMAP project was finalized on the 31st of October 2018. During this month, several closure meetings were held to share the most impactful outcomes with different stakeholders, maximizing their dissemination and collecting their inputs and suggestions for subsequent phases of the project. During the CTAD conference (24-27 Oct, Barcelona), ROADMAP held a remarkable meeting, providing the opportunity to gather clinicians, HTA and regulator representatives. This forum enabled to collect the experts’ inputs on the gaps existing on the Alzheimer’s disease data within the European data sources, together with some suggestions on how to fill them in. At the 28th AE …
This year Innovative Medicines Initiative celebrates its 10th anniversary and several activities took place to mark the occasion, certainly the most prominent one was the Scientific Symposium held on 22nd- 23rd of October in Brussels. During the two full days, young scientists were in the spotlight, showcasing the IMI projects stellar science and great scientific output that the IMI projects have delivered in the last ten years. The event featured 72 posters and 28 oral presentations, clustered around four topics. SYNAPSE team is very proud of the projects we manage. EPAD, AMYPAD, DRIVE and HARMONY, were presented by oral presentations …
The second TransQST General Assembly meeting was held in Sanofi premises in Chilly Mazarin (Paris, France). The consortium members had the opportunity to meet for the first time after the early review that took place in June 2018 and discuss the so-far progress. The TransQST project is gathering together existing data and will generate new data under the project goals to support the development of tools that should make it easier to assess the safety profile of drug candidates before undergoing clinical testing phase. During the first day parallel sessions of Organ WPs with representatives from WP3 (data) and WP4 …
This year SYNAPSE, on behalf of the IMI project ROADMAP, sponsors the eleventh edition of the Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease (CTAD) that will take place on October 24th-27th in Barcelona. The aim of the conference is to bring together worldwide leaders in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease to discuss the latest developments of effective treatments of Alzheimer’s disease and how current hurdles can be overcome. During the four days, clinical trial teams from worldwide centers will report on their efforts to identify new biomarkers of disease as well as more sensitive clinical assessment tools to identify those at risk …
The 6th General Assembly meeting of ROADMAP was held on the 8th and the 9th of October in Madrid. During the meeting the project outcomes with more impact were presented to the Consortium together with the updates on the final activities. Glòria Garcia and Carlos Díaz (SYNAPSE) presented ROADMAP’s Data Cube, which offers a ‘landscape’ on dementia data availability (including information from EHR, cohorts and clinical trials). This 3D ‘heat map’ assessment allows the visualisation of different data sources and how they are able to capture the various Alzheimer’s disease-outcomes, together with their relevance for the different disease stages. Engaging …
The Annual General Assembly meeting of AMYPAD was held on the 8th and the 9th of October in Berlin. The centres that have already started recruitment in the AMYPAD Diagnostic Study (DPMS) have shared their experienced. These first practical overview of the recruitment was especially valuable to the centres that are preparing to open and they will certainly build their practice upon lessons learned from opened centres. The First Patient in for the AMYPAD Prognostic Study (PNHS) is planned for October 2018, and the preparatory work was shared with the consortium members. Sandra Pla from SYNAPSE was presenting the overview …
HARMONY celebrated its 3rd General Assembly to discuss about the progress of the project. One of the main messages conveyed was the importance of the involvement of European data custodians from the hematological community as Associated Members of HARMONY (currently 27 organisations) and the announcement of the first data set harmonized within the data platform. In this regard, it was emphasized the key role of an “honest broker” to ensure the data double anonymization. This role is being successfully carried out by Synapse for the pilot research projects within HARMONY. Data harmonization will contribute to the extraction of relevant insights …
DRIVE celebrated its first Annual Forum in Rome to discuss with different stakeholders the DRIVE governance model, the lessons learnt from the pilot season 2017/18 and the best way to communicate Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness results considering different stakeholders. The Forum counted with the participation of 34 stakeholders, including the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the European Medicines Agency, who actively participated in the discussions. A special workshop on DRIVE´s research agenda and study platform governance was also organized, aiming at collecting valuable insights from external stakeholders. The Annual Forum and the workshop were full of lively discussions …
The eTRANSAFE consortium met in Brussels at the end of the first year of the project to share experiences and discuss about first achievements. The meeting took place right after EuroTox 2018 conference, which several consortium members attended and where networking opportunities arose. The 4th Consortium Meeting of the project was structured around workshops, also including a session to allow work packages updates. Discussions around specific topics ensured a deep involvement of all project participants. Carlos Díaz, SYNAPSE CEO, co-chaired a `Clinical Data´ session together with Johan van der Lei from Erasmus Medical Center. The aim of this workshop was …
This Tuesday University Ramon Llull has organised one of their "Professors` day" sessions at the Institute of Chemistry IQS. The session titled “Innovation in Research and Academia” gathered several experts in biomedical research to share their knowledge with the professors of IQS. Eva Molero, SYNAPSE CEO, has been invited to talk about the impact in collaborative research projects. Eva talked about international consortium structure and its complexity. She explained why the participation of different stakeholders is often needed to optimally address research challenges and why public-private partnerships are becoming more common. The talk was followed by a short debate among …
The Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) is the largest and most influential international meeting dedicated to advancing dementia science. Each year, AAIC convenes the world's leading basic science and clinical researchers, next generation investigators, clinicians, and the care research community to share research discoveries that will lead to better treatment and diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Over 5000 thousand attendees from 68 countries gathered this year at the AAIC in Chicago during the 14th – 18th of July, to share their knowledge in the field of dementia research. For the first time EPAD study was exhibited. The EPAD booth was a great meeting area for …
This year Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) is celebrating its10th anniversary, and this comes precisely in a year when Synapse is also celebrating its first decade of existence. From 2008 Synapse and IMI have grown side by side. The IMI has launched over 100 projects over the last ten years, and 13 of them are managed by our project managers. During the 22nd and 23rd of October, in Brussels, IMI is organising Scientific Symposium, meant to bring together IMI projects` stakeholders, partners and researchers to share projects` achievements and learn from one another. The Scientific Symposium will feature more than 80 posters, …
Synapse has sponsored the third edition of the Real World Epidemiology Oxford Summer School. This course is aimed to explore the existing sources of real world data, discuss common types of study and designs for its use, and look in-depth into the issues and solutions linked to big health data usage. The topic is very much aligned with many of the projects and initiatives that Synapse is currently managing (ROADMAP, EU-ADR Alliance, etc.). The course is now a well-established event and has been fully booked this year. The audience ranges from pharmacists, clinicians, academics (including statisticians, epidemiologists, and related MSc/PhD …
Ten years ago Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking (IMI-JU) was created as a unique public-private partnership between the European Commission and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) aiming to accelerate development of innovative medicines. On April 2008 IMI-JU launched its first call for proposals. Carlos Díaz and Eva Molero were at that time working at the Barcelona Municipal Institute for Medical Research managing European projects. That same year SYNAPSE was created, initially to manage a public private partner in AIDS vaccine – HIVACAT. The first IMI project in which SYNAPSE was a partner was the eTOX project, steming from …
Vaccines undergo rigorous testing prior to licensing for use, however it is important that the safety of vaccines is monitored on an ongoing basis. The ADVANCE project, managed by Synapse and sponsored by the Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking (IMI JU) and the EFPIA companies, is aimed to review, develop and test methods, data sources and procedures for an efficient and sustainable pan-European framework that can rapidly deliver robust, quantitative data for the assessment of the benefits and risks of marketed vaccines. This framework will make it easier for regulators and public health authorities to make fast, more informed decisions …
SYNAPSE is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. The company has been steadily growing in size, expertise and in the complexity of the projects it is involved in. The SYNAPSE Executive Committee is fully engaged in a reflection to take stock of what has been achieved so far and to identify and prioritse new areas for development. Last 15th of June a number of long term partners and collaborators were invited to contribute to this reflection during a day-long session in Barcelona. The group joined the SYNAPSE Executive Committee and revisited the company’s trajectory, analysed strenghts and weakness and discussed …
The Second General Assembly Meeting of the REspiratory Syncytial virus Consortium in EUrope (RESCEU) took place on 21-22 June at St Anne’s College in Oxford, bringing together about 100 participants from the 18 project’s partners and representatives from all the work packages. Affiliated Partners representatives, RESCEU Advisory Boards members and other relevant stakeholders, such as the World Health Organization, were also invited to attend and provide their perspective on the project. RESCEU aims to develop robust evidence on RSV disease burden and economic impact and provide infrastructure to perform future pivotal trials for RSV vaccines and therapeutics. In its effort …
This year SYNAPSE is proud to celebrate its 10th anniversary with a highly positive balance: 25 projects in total, almost 20 people in our team and a large network of partners from a great variety of stakeholders at both national and international levels (pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, research centres, academia, hospitals, regulatory authorities, public health authorities, etc.). SYNAPSE creates value in innovative and collaborative partnerships in the biomedical sector. By managing a portfolio of large and ambitious projects in the health domain, SYNAPSE enables synergies across the projects partnership towards successful achievement of results. SYNAPSE has become a partner of …
The ADVANCE project represents unique collaboration between key stakeholders in the sector, including European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), European Medicines Agency (EMA), national public health and regulatory bodies, vaccine manufacturers, SMEs, and academic institutions. ADVANCE aims to review, develop and test methods, data sources and procedures which should feed into a blueprint of an efficient and sustainable pan-European framework that can rapidly deliver robust quantitative data for the assessment of the benefits and risks of vaccines that are on the market. The framework supports health professionals, regulatory agencies, public health institutions and the general public make better …
Members of the 27 eTRANSAFE Consortium partners gathered for two days in Barcelona to review the progress of the project done in the past months. eTRANSAFE aims to develop predictive services, contributing to the safety assessment of chemical compounds. Integrative analysis of preclinical and clinical data for generation of candidate translational biomarkers is another important goal of the project. Francois Pognan (Novartis) and Carlos Díaz (Synapse) gave an overall vision and management of the project, followed by Eva Molero`s (Synapse) talk on the need to consider sustainability implications of any decision made in the project from the very start. The …
The fourth EPAD General Assembly was held on May 23rd-35th in Amsterdam under the banner “How to Assure Sustainability?”. Almost 180 representatives from 37 partner institutions and several other associated institutions gathered to discuss past achievements, challenges faced so far and the expected future outcomes. The EPAD project aims to develop an infrastructure that efficiently enables the undertaking of adaptive, multi-arm Proof of Concept studies for early and accurate decisions on the ongoing development of drug candidates for Alzheimer Disease. To ensure the success of the project, efforts within all work packages are continuously made as to accelerate the Trial …
The DRIVE Project aims at developing a governance model between public and private entities to enable a sustainable network of influenza vaccine effectiveness (IVE). Influenza is a major public health issue, it is thought to infect over 50 million of EU citizens. Vaccines are the cornerstone of preventing influenza, but their effectiveness can vary from year to year and across recipient groups. DRIVE will set up a platform, bringing together all stakeholders, to explore brand-specific effectiveness estimates for all influenza vaccines used in the EU each season, that will ultimately have a positive impact on European citizens public health. Starting …
The Amyloid imaging to prevent Alzheimer’s Disease project (AMYPAD) aims at studying the onset, dynamics, and clinical relevance of brain β-amyloid in the spectrum from normal aging towards mild cognitive impairment and dementia due to Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). AMYPAD studies the value of using PET (positron emission tomography) imaging for β-amyloid deposits, with the goal to determine the clinical added value of PET imaging in diagnosis and patient monitoring, and to develop data to establish its usefulness in clinical trials. Within the diagnostic and patient management sub-study (DMPS) of the AMYPAD project, researchers aim to determine the usefulness of early …
The TransQST project, launched in January 2017, aims to develop novel computational approaches using the best available data from the public and private domains to improve the assessment of drug candidates before undergoing clinical testing phase. TransQST work focuses on vital organs - liver, kidney, cardiovascular and gastrointestinal systems. The first TransQST General Assembly meeting took place on the 25th and 26th of April 2018 in Vihti, Finland. The focus of the two-day meeting was on the last updates from work packages as well on establishing the roadmap for the Early Review of the project that will take place on …
ROADMAP aspires to create the conditions for an open collaboration that yields consensual and efficient uses of RWE for the benefit of Alzheimer’s Disease patients and their caregivers. ROADMAP aims to deliver a series of data integration methods and tools for patient outcomes, which will provide the foundation for the future European RWE platform on AD. This year the ROADMAP general assembly was held in Barcelona during April 25th-26th. The consortium partners met to review ROADMAP achievements, and to discuss next steps. Key deliverables expected from the project are: 1) Develop recommendations on RWE appropriate AD‐related cognitive, functional, and behavioural …
iPiE (Intelligence-led Assessment of Pharmaceuticals in the Environment) aims to develop predictive tools that use information from toxicological studies, in silico models and existing datasets on environmental fate and effects of APIs (Active pharmaceutical ingredients), to support more intelligent environmental testing of pharmaceuticals in development and to prioritise legacy pharmaceuticals for environmental risk assessment. The consortium comprises leading experts in data management and computational modelling, pharmacology, environmental chemistry, predictive (eco)toxicology and risk assessment. The 6th iPiE Forum meeting, held on April 24th-25th in Barcelona, was focused on progress to the development of guidance on how the established approaches and expert …
During the 16th – 18th of April, the closing EMIF meeting was held in Brussels. The main issues addressed during the meeting were project’s objectives and outcomes, impact, sustainability and lessons learned. The mission of the EMIF framework is to improve identification, access and assessment, and reuse of health data. The EMIF project, funded by IMI and started in January 2013, was aiming at developing a framework for evaluating, enhancing and providing access to human health data across Europe. The development of common technical and governance solutions, to improve access and use of health data, resulted in a secure online …
The PARADIGM (Patients Active in Research and Dialogues for an Improved Generation of Medicines) project, funded by IMI-JU 2, was officially launched in Brussel on April 10th. The PARADIGM consortium is led by the European Patients’ Forum and EFPIA and gathers 34 partners comprising patient organisations, regulatory bodies, universities, non-for-profit organisations, SMEs, trade associations and pharmaceutical companies. PARADIGM’s mission is to provide a unique framework that enables sustainable patient engagement and demonstrates the ‘return on the engagement’ for all players. PARADIGM will build on existing tools to integrate the needs, perspectives and expectations of all actors involved and will provide a sustainable …
The first European OHDSI Symposium called "Bridging Europe” was held in Rotterdam on the 23rd and 24th of March. The Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) program is a multi-stakeholder, interdisciplinary collaborative initiative to leverage the value of health data through large-scale analytics, and it has established a global network of researchers and observational open-source health databases. OHDSI Europe is led by the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam. Peter Rijnbeek (Erasmus MC), welcomed over 200 international participants that were engaged in different sessions and tutorials. During the Symposium, several posters were presented, some of them stemming from the EMIF …
The Computational Sciences Symposium (CSS) celebrated its 7th annual event in Silver Spring, Maryland (US). The event brings together Academia, Regulators, Industry, and technology providers to address computational science needs in support of regulatory review in order to bring safe and effective products. CSS has established itself as the premier collaboration within the clinical trial environment, including the engagement of regulatory agencies FDA, EMA and PMDA. “eTRANSAFE, a New Player in Translational Safety Assessment” poster, written by William Drewe (Lhasa Limited), Thomas Steger-Hartmann (Bayer AG), and Montserrat Cases (Synapse) was presented at the meeting by Wiliam Drewe on behalf of …
The Brain Awareness Campaign is officially celebrated during this week, and we would like to use it as an opportunity to bring attention to brain science and advocate for science funding. Synapse is greatly involved in some of the most ambitious European brain research initiatives, especially those conducting research on Alzheimer’s disease. Currently, Synapse is a part of four European initiatives for Alzheimer’s disease: EPAD, AMYPAD, ROADMAP and EMIF, all funded under the auspices of the IMI-JU. EPAD (The European Prevention of Alzheimer’s Dementia) aims to create a novel environment for testing numerous interventions targeted at the prevention of …
On the 5th and 6th of March, Barcelona hosted XI Annual Conference of Biomedical Research Technology Platforms. Different advances in Innovative Medicines, Nanomedicine, Health Technology and Biotechnology Markets were presented. The focus was on the use of these advances and their necessary coexistence with the legal framework of clinical research and data protection. Synapse CEO, Carlos Díaz participated in a debate on how to share data in biomedical research. The session was focused on the experience acquired in the IMI Big Data for Better Outcomes (BD4BO) initiative including representatives from the ROADMAP and HARMONY (both managed by Synapse), BigData@Heart and …
In the frame of its Social Programme, Synapse has sponsored the AFASAF, a non-profit association of families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). Last Thursday members of AFASAF have visited Synapse’s premises to explain more about the FASD and the association’s activities. FASD is a lifelong condition relating to permanent brain damage caused by fetal alcohol exposure. The syndrome often goes undetected or misdiagnosed, or even blamed on poor parenting. Most children with FASD have significant cognitive, behavioural, and learning difficulties, including problems with attention, cause and effect reasoning, impulsivity and adaptive functioning difficulties. FASD has a great impact, …
On February 28th Synapse hosted the 1st EU-ADR Alliance Methodological Workshop in its offices in Barcelona. The workshop aimed at discussing recent methodological issues and applications in pharmacoepidemiological studies within the EU-ADR Alliance framework. The entire day was devoted to exploring the methods dealing with confounding and discuss on missing data, quality control and validation amongst others. The team had insightful and interesting discussions and shared experiences and learnt lessons, while deriving recommendations for future work. Researchers from IDIAP Jordi Gol (Spain), Erasmus Medical Center (the Netherlands), PEDIANET (Italy), the Italian Society of General Practitioners (Italy), the University of Oxford …
In 2017 the European Prevention of Alzheimer’s Dementia (EPAD) project launched EPAD Academy that is aiming to efficiently leverage EPAD resources to foster and develop academic research capacity and output in AD across Europe for maximum global impact. One of the main actions of the EPAD Academy is to help create the next generation of AD researchers by creating and facilitating opportunities for junior researchers’ career advancement. The EPAD Academy has established a register for the EPAD Academy Fellows, all of whom are eligible for Academy activities. “The Academy originated from a realisation that EPAD was an ideal framework for …
From 25th to 29th of June 2018, the Oxford Summer School on Real World Epidemiology will be held at the Lady Margaret Hall college in Oxford. The Director of the course is Prof Dr Prieto-Alhambra, Associate Professor and Co-Chair of the Big Health Data User Group, NDORMS, University of Oxford. This four-day training targets pharmacists, clinicians, and academics interested in the use of routinely collected data for research. The course will handle the topics such are: Data discovery and Characterization, Epidemiological study designs, Prediction modelling, Big data methods. Eva Molero, Synapse CEO, will speak on Project Management in Real World …
On the 6th and 7th of February, the eTRANSAFE Consortium partners met in Basel to discuss the progress of the first six months of the project. Key topics such as data collection, interoperability, and integration were discussed. One of the project aims is to develop predictive services, contributing to the safety assessment of chemical compounds. Integrative analysis of preclinical and clinical data for generation of candidate translational biomarkers is another important goal of the project. Overall the Consortium was impressed by the progress made in almost all activities and the good team collaboration established in the different WPs. The need to get …
On January 25th, the eTOX Executive Committee members François Pognan (Novartis Pharma), Ferran Sanz (FIMIM), Thomas Steger-Hartmann (BHC) and Carlos Díaz (SYNAPSE) held the close out meeting of the eTOX project at the IMI´s offices in Brussels. IMI´s Executive Director Dr Pierre Meulien also attended the meeting. The main points addressed during the meeting were project’s objectives and outcomes, impact, sustainability and lessons learned. The eTOX project stems from the very first IMI Call (it started in 2010) and was the very first IMI project that Synapse has managed. The project successfully ended in December 2016. With a budget of …
ADVANCE organised a Bootcamp in Leuven (Belgium) on January 24th-26th to discuss the sustainability of the project. During three days the ADVANCE Steering Committee, including Synapse members Eva Molero and Natasha Yefimenko, exchanged views and outlined a hub/platform model for the sustainability phase. During the last day of the Bootcamp, Dr. Michel Goldman attended the bootcamp and provided insights on the strategy for the future of ADVANCE. This Bootcamp was a unique opportunity to exchange ideas and concerns about how public and private partners could interact and participate in a future sustainable framework for vaccine benefit-risk monitoring. The ADVANCE project …
Last Thursday Synapse´s CEO Eva Molero and Senior Project Manager Elena del Rey were invited to give a course to researchers and managers of the Andalusian Health Service on the success factors in obtaining funding for research projects in Horizon 2020 calls. During this one-day practical workshop, Eva and Elena addressed key points in the preparation of a strong proposal. The attendees learnt about the life cycle of a H2020 project, the structure of the proposal, and discussed critical aspects related to the consortium and the workplan design. Eva and Elena also reviewed the legal aspects, risk management strategies, exploitation …
The company’s annual retreat took place this year in Artchimboldi in Barcelona. The team was fully immersed in internal training sessions and strategic discussions. Eva Molero brought us back to 2008, when the company was created, and revisited the first IMI-JU projects that Synapse managed. Looking back over the past years, we discussed the future of the company and reflected on the strong position achieved in the management of ground-breaking biomedical projects, especially around the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI). The training sessions were focused on analysis of best practices when it comes to the management of complex distributed project, and …
On 5th and 6th of December 2017, Alzheimer Europe (AE) hosted its third annual Alzheimer’s Association Academy in Brussels, Belgium. The meeting was attended by nearly fifty organisations, including representatives from AE member organisations, expert speakers and company representatives. For two days 15 experts in the field of AD research presented on various topics, divided into five sessions. We are proud that representatives from EPAD, ROADMAP and AMYPAD, all managed by Synapse, were invited as expert speakers to present their work and the current progress of the projects. More about ROADMAP: https://roadmap-alzheimer.org/ More about EPAD: http://ep-ad.org/ More …
The APM Project Manager Awards 2017 were held on the 20th November at Old Billingsgate, London. The awards recognize the very best the profession has to offer. The EPAD project (European Prevention of Alzheimer’s Dementia Consortium) was one of the six finalists in the “Social Project of the Year” category, and the only finalist among all category finalists, representing a research project in the medical field. Sandra Pla from Synapse, with EPAD representatives from IQVIA and the University of Edinburg attended APM Awards evening. It is an enormous accomplishment for EPAD and Synapse to be one of the finalists since …
RT @riiajarvenpaa: Influenza activity intensity per week and country participating to @drive_eu-study:
last season 2018-2019 was relativel… 5 days ago
RT @drive_eu: #DRIVEflu Independent Scientific Committee showing the scientific review process and criteria for new sites selection and bud… 6 days ago
RT @drive_eu: THL and DRIVE hosts welcoming delegates for @drive_eu Annual Forum 2019 in Helsinki.
#DRIVEflu #influenza #vaccine #effectiv… 6 days ago
RT @riiajarvenpaa: #DRIVEflu consortium has more than 20 study sites in more than 10 European countries.
Altogether we are more than 30 or… 6 days ago
RT @drive_eu: Study sites participating to @drive_eu showing what went well and what are the challenges in conducting researches on #influe… 6 days ago
RT @drive_eu: Anke Stuurman showing that 2018/19 #fluseason was quite mild and dominated by #influenza A virus (AH1 at first and AH3 later)… 6 days ago
RT @drive_eu: Second Annual Forum of DRIVE project funded by @IMI_JU on #influenza #vaccine #effectiveness: Mannerheimintie 166, Helsinki,… 11 days ago
• University Degrees in Social Work and Sociology, Universidad de Valencia.
• Master´s Degree in Contemporary Migrations and Secondary School Teacher & Spanish Teacher Certificates.
• More than 10 years of experience in different community initiatives related to social and educational projects.
• Experience managing educational projects and events, from funding opportunities identification and proposal
development to logistical and administrative aspects as multilateral affairs analyst and executive & team assistant.
Nuria Subirats - Executive Assistant
• Degree in Tourism, Universitat de Barcelona – Centre d’Estudis Tècnics Turístics (CETT)
• Extensive experience in executive assistance and meeting organisation
Berta Español - Project Manager
• Law Degree, Universitat de Barcelona.
• Experience in commercial law.
• Legal Atlas researcher.
Martina Spadetto - Project Assistant
• University degree in Public Relations, Universidad Argentina de la Empresa.
• More than 8 years’ experience as executive assistant and office manager.
Alejandra Iglesias - Project Assistant
• University degree in Philosophy
• Master in caligraphyc expertee
• MBA
• Experience in Project Management
Gabriella Russo - Project Manager
• MA in Conflict and Security, major in strategic communications, University of Kent´s BSIS
• Master in Project Management, Euro-Project Management, Europa Cube Business School, Brussels. Member of the European Register of euro-Project Designers and Managers
• Experienced in writing and managing research, H2020 and UN projects
• Experienced in strategic communications: dialogue and engagement, branding and dissemination
Estefania Callado - Project Manager
• University degree in Business Administration by University of Barcelona
• Master’s degree in Leadership and Management of science by UPF
• More than 10 years’ experience in Project Management. She has wide experience in managing and coordinating complex research projects in the area of health at European and international level.
Nina Coll - Project Assistant
• Psychology degree, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
• MSc in Clinical Neuroscience, University College London Institute of Neurology
• Experience conducting and coordinating international research projects in the field of neuroscience and ageing
Manuel Morillas - Project Manager
• Ph.D. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
• MA European Union, Faculty of Law, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia (UNED), Madrid, Spain
• BSc. Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain
• National Expert in Professional Training, European Commission, DG Research and Innovation, Brussels, Belgium
• H2020 contact point Health, Northern Ireland & Thematic Lead Health, Queen´s University of Belfast, UK
• Lecturer in Master Applied Clinical Research in Health Sciences, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain
• Research experience in Biochemistry and Biophysics, UK, USA and Switzerland.
Natasha Yefimenko - Project Manager
• PhD in Biomedicine, specialised in neuroscience (MSc) and psychobiology (MSc), Universitat de Barcelona
• MBA degree, specialised in neuromarketing
• Researcher and visiting researcher involved pre-clinical drug-development projects in the biomedical field (neurodegenerative diseases)
• Lecturer of post-graduate courses in the area of psychobiology in several European institutions
David López - Accounting Manager
• Degree in Social Sciences, Universidad de Vigo
• Postgraduate in Accounting, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
• Master in Financial Management, ESERP Business School
• Master in Finance, Universidad de Vigo
• Executive programme in management control, Wolters Kluwer
• Chartered Controller Analyst, Global Chartered Controller Institute
Melania Tudor - Executive Assistant
• Master in Communication, PR and Protocol, ESERP Business School
• Extensive knowledge in events, communication, students & alumni engagement
• Experience in higher education and in the R&D research field
Anna Boixados - Executive Assistant
• Degree in Linguistics, Universitat de Barcelona
• Postgraduate in Documentation and Information Systems, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
• Experience in Consultancy, CRM, Communication
Gloria Garcia - Project Assistant
• MSc in Neuroscience, Universitat de Barcelona, Universitat Pompeu Fabra
• Extensive knowledge in R&D research, specifically in Neuroscience and Molecular Biology
• Experience in management of feasibility studies
Susana Vaquero - Project Assistant
• PhD in Physical Chemistry, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
• Postgraduate in European Project Planning and Management, Pixel (International Education and Training organization), Florence
• Experience in R&D centres as researcher
Iva Knezevic - Project Assistant
• Ph.D. In Biomedical Research, Universitat Pompeu Fabra
• Postgraduate in Pharmacoeconomic, UPF Barcelona School of Management
• Extensive knowledge in Molecular Biology and Genetics
• Experience in R&D research
Anna Beltrami - Project Assistant
• Master’s degree in History, University of Turin (IT)
• Master in European Project Planning & Management, Pixel (IT)
• Management of IMI2, H2020 and Erasmus + projects
Luca Bertoglio - Project Assistant
• Master in European Studies and Project Management, Université Catholique de Louvain and Belgian Italian Chamber of Commerce
• Master in European Studies and International Relations; University of Genova
Scott Boyer - Senior Advisor
• Ph.D. in Molecular Toxicology, University of Colorado Boulder
• Co-founder of the Computational Toxicology group within the Swedish Toxicology Sciences Research Center, Swetox
• Founder and CEO of Klaria, a drug delivery company
• Expertise in predictive models of biological endpoints, data mining, chemical genetics and human adverse event modelling
Saira Ramasastry - Senior Advisor
• B.A. in Economics with Honors and Distinction from Stanford University
• Advanced degrees in Management Science & Engineering and Management Studies from Stanford University and the University of Cambridge
• Lecturer for the Bioscience Enterprise Program and serves on the Advisory Council for the University of Cambridge Judge Business School
• Founder of Life Sciences Advisory, LLC a firm focused on innovative public-private collaborations for the biopharmaceutical industry
• Seasoned biopharmaceutical advisor
Montserrat Cases - Project Manager
• Ph.D. In Computational and Theoretical Chemistry, Universitat de Girona
• Postdoc and Associate Researcher at Barcelona Biomedical Research Park, Barcelona
• Previously Scientific Manager at Bayer AG.
• Extensive knowledge in Data Management (standards (CDISC, SEND), controlled terminologies (SEND, INHAND, ICD, SNOMED, MeSH), Pharmacology, Translational Science, Regulatory Guidelines, and Change Management
Sandra Pla - Senior Project Manager
• University degree in Political and Administration Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra
• Master in Public and Social Policies, Johns Hopkins University
• Wide experience in managing and coordinating complex and distributed research projects, especially in the framework of IMI projects
• Teaches courses in European R+D project management for a variety of institutions
Elena del Rey - Senior Project Manager
• Law Degree, Universidad de Valencia
• Master in European Studies, Univeristé Catholique de Louvain
• Postgraduate in Regional Strategy and Competitiveness, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya
• Extensive knowledge in legal matters, governance and procedures related to EU projects
• Teaches courses in European R+D project management for a variety of institutions
Montse Camprubí - Senior Project Manager
• Translation degree, Universitat Pompeu Fabra
• Involved in the coordination of IMI projects, and previously FP6, FP7 projects
• Highly skilled in the managing of research projects, from financial and administrative aspects of EU funded projects to dissemination and development of communication tools
Gilberto Gonçalves - IT Manager
• Associate Degree of System Analyst and Infrastructure
• Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate
• Apple Certified Technical Coordinator
• Cisco Certified Network Associate
• Seasoned IT Support Analyst
• Experienced working with critical mission servers in complex network environments
• University Degrees in Social Work and Sociology, Universidad de Valencia.
• Degree in Tourism, Universitat de Barcelona – Centre d’Estudis Tècnics Turístics (CETT)
• Law Degree, Universitat de Barcelona.
• University degree in Public Relations, Universidad Argentina de la Empresa.
• University degree in Philosophy
• MA in Conflict and Security, major in strategic communications, University of Kent´s BSIS
• University degree in Business Administration by University of Barcelona
• Psychology degree, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
• Degree in Social Sciences, Universidad de Vigo
• Master in Communication, PR and Protocol, ESERP Business School
• Degree in Linguistics, Universitat de Barcelona
• MSc in Neuroscience, Universitat de Barcelona, Universitat Pompeu Fabra
• PhD in Physical Chemistry, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
• Ph.D. In Biomedical Research, Universitat Pompeu Fabra
• Master’s degree in History, University of Turin (IT)
• Master in European Studies and Project Management, Université Catholique de Louvain and Belgian Italian Chamber of Commerce
• Ph.D. in Molecular Toxicology, University of Colorado Boulder
• B.A. in Economics with Honors and Distinction from Stanford University
• Ph.D. In Computational and Theoretical Chemistry, Universitat de Girona
• Associate Degree of System Analyst and Infrastructure