Over the past two years the VPH Policy Affairs Working Group (PAWG) has been active in Brussels promoting the interests of VPHi members and the needs of the in silico community.The culmination of these activities was reached with the recently published H2020 WP that includes great funding opportunities for its members.
Engaging closely with Members of the European Parliament and
the Commission, the VPH Institute has endeavored at all times to provide a
vision of what investing in in silico
research could provide for the entire healthcare community.
The culmination of these mid-term activities was reached on 11 September, when the European Commission published the Draft Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2016 -2017 in the area of "Health, demographic change and well-being”
Thanks largely to the efforts of supportive policy makers in the European Parliament, who responded to the call for action by the VPH Institute, the Draft Horizon 2020 Work Programme provides tremendous opportunities for its Members.
There are two full calls specifically on in silico medicine:
In silico and modelling and simulation are also included in a number of other calls, the most promising of which are:
The text of these calls and the vision for in silico that they embody heavily reflect the recommendations that the VPH Institute Policy Affairs Working Group presented to policy makers. For context, it should be noted that the Horizon 2020 Work Programme prior to the direct activities of the PAWG contained only one reference to in silico and that was only in relation to vaccines.
We encourage all our Members to go through the entire Draft Work Programme, the full text of which can be found here to look for potential funding opportunities. It is expected that this text will be finalised in November of this year, but no major changes are foreseen.
Future and Emerging Technologies, another section of Horizon 2020, also includes a focus on in silico medicine. The FET Section of Horizon 2020 is designed to fund the most advanced and silo-breaking scientific pursuits with a strong focus on cross-disciplinary approaches.
The European Commission also foresees in silico playing a role in Area 2: Biotech for Better Life, where the use of mathematical modelling and simulation is foreseen as part of such a “silo-breaking” strategy in healthcare.
The FET Work Programme can be found here.
The VPH Institute PAWG would like to thank our supportive colleagues in the European Commission for responding positively to the call of the European Parliament’s Resolution on the eHealth Action Plan 2012-2020, which specifically
“Urges the Commission and the Member States to continue working through pilot projects, such as…the Virtual Physiological Human initiative…and to continue to support innovative solutions for person-centred care, including advanced modelling and simulations, needed to achieve the aims of predictive and personalised medicine”
