On 9 July 2012, the European Commission’s DG Research and Innovation published their 2013 Work Programme in the field of Health: in the document there is a specific reference to “biomedical engineering”!
Biomedical Engineering is specifically mentioned in section 1.2 as a field which can help in the development of “visualization, imaging, detection and analytical tools and technologies for biomedical research, for prediction, diagnosis, monitoring and prognosis of disease, and for support and guidance of therapeutic interventions”. The development of such tools will require a multidisciplinary approach necessitating the use of, inter alia, Information technology.
Section 1.3 which focuses on the suitability, safety and efficacy of therapies also has a number of relevant items. Under this section, modelling toxic responses in case studies for predictive human safety assessment is one of the focuses. The objective will be to use “recent advances in computational chemistry and systems biology in order to provide the basis for innovative approaches to predictive human safety assessments.”
The fact that biomedical engineering and imaging technologies are present in the final calls are a very good sign and shows that the Commission is coming around to the idea of BME and the technologies that can be derived from it.
