Alliance4Life’s new project A4L_ACTIONS, submitted under the Horizon 2020 programme, has been selected for funding. Alliance4Life’s next three years will thus be co-financed with a grant of 2 mil. EUR, which will allow a number of already successfully piloted good practices to be put into action.
Despite considerable investments from the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), there are still large differences in Research and Innovation (R&I) performance between various countries in Europe. This issue has a major socio-economic impact and political consequences, especially in the lower-performing regions of the EU. The R&I gap in the health sector has a profound effect on the distribution of research funding from the EU Framework Programmes and therefore hinders the overall impact of R&I results on the quality of health and life of European citizens.
The participating institutes of the A4L_ACTIONS project aim to address the roots of health research and the innovation gap by improving institutional culture and governance in the lower-performing Central and Eastern European countries.
Alliance connects progressive Life Science institutions from Central and Eastern Europe. Its mission is to support and strengthen European research excellence and the impact of scientific research on society, human health, and quality of life.
The Alliance4Life started as a project coordinated by CEITEC Masaryk University three years ago. The 10 founding members formalized the alliance as a permanent structure in October 2019 in Vilnius through the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding, and continued with their collaboration even during the difficult year 2020. Two new member institutions from Bulgaria and Romania were invited to join the A4L_ACTIONS project, which will start in May 2021.
All participating institutes are committed to working towards a culture that fosters excellence through piloting peer-evaluation and assessment of institutional practice with a clear aim to professionalize research administration in the CEE region. The partners will work together to initiate new international projects with advanced partners and collaborations with industry. A lot of attention will be paid to the career development of researchers, nurturing talent and scientific networking. The partners are planning to raise the competences of technology transfer specialists and to create an industry relations platform linking academia and industry.
Alliance4Life Partners
Masaryk University (CEITEC MU – Central European Institute of Technology), Czech Republic
St. Anne’s University Hospital Brno (FNUSA-ICRC – International Clinical Research Center), Czech Republic
Biomedical Research Center of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (BMC SAS), Slovakia
Medical University of Łodz (MUL), Poland
University of Zagreb School of Medicine (UZSM), Croatia
University of Tartu (TU), Estonia
Vilnius University – Faculty of Medicine (VU), Lithuania
Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis (LIOS), Latvia
University of Ljubljana (UL), Slovenia
Semmelweis University (SU), Hungary
Medical University Sofia (MUS), Bulgaria
Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy Bucharest (UMFCD), Romania