The LBG OIS Center is one of the 35 partner organisations in the new international Screen4Care research project consisting of 21 research institutions, 9 large companies and 4 SMEs, as well as one of the largest European patient organisations for rare diseases (EURORDIS). The Screen4Care project aims to significantly shorten the time required for rare disease diagnosis and efficient intervention by utilising genetic newborn screening and advanced analysis methods such as machine learning. Early diagnosis enables doctors, caretakers, patients and their relatives to make informed decisions at an earlier stage of the disease. This will slow down the progression of rare diseases through efficient interventions, improve patients‘ health and quality of life, and optimise the use of healthcare resources.

The Screen4Care project has a duration of five years and a total budget of €25 million, which is provided by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI 2 JU), a joint funding initiative of the European Union and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). Over the next 5 years, the LBG OIS Center, as a partner in the Screen4Care project, will develop and study co-creation processes for the design of an optimal Screen4Care ecosystem, and thus set new impulses in the field of Open Innovation in Science in Austria and the EU. „We at the OIS Center are very proud to be partners in this international research project and to use our many years of experience in the field of Open Innovation in Science to implement inter- and transdisciplinary research processes in the Screen4Care project“, says Patrick Lehner, co-director of the OIS Center. The OIS Center will take the lead in involving co-researchers from relevant stakeholder groups (patients, healthcare professionals, administrators in healthcare institutions, IT specialists, etc.) in the development of an open innovation platform. „In addition to the concrete development and implementation of Open Innovation in Science processes to involve stakeholders as co-researchers, we will also explore the underlying dynamics and thus expand the knowledge base on the role and value of open and collaborative research, in general and in the medical and health sciences in particular,“ says Prof. Dr Marion Poetz, the scientific director of the OIS Center. For more information, please visit www.screen4care.eu

Facts on the project

Name: Screen4Care – Shortening the path to rare disease diagnosis by using newborn genetic screening and digital technologies

Startdate: 1st October 2021

Duration: 5 years

Budget: 25 million €

Coordinator: University of Ferrara, Italy

Project lead: Pfizer Ltd, UK

PROJECT PARTNERS

Austria

Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft GmbH

Research Institute AG & Co KG

SBA Research gemeinnützige GmbH

Bulgaria

Bulgarian Association for Personalized Medicine

Bulgarian Association for the Promotion of Education and Science

Czech Republic

University Karlova

Denmark

Copenhagen Business School

FindZebra ApS

Novo Nordisk A/S

Syddansk University

France

Eurordis-Rare Diseases Europe

Lysogene S.A.

Sanofi-Genzyme

Germany

Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Eurice – European Research and Project Office Gmbh

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e.V.

Universitätsmedizin Göttingen – Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

University Hospital Bonn

University Hospital Erlangen

Ireland

University College Dublin, National University of Ireland

Israel

Genoox

Italy

Consorzio Futuro in Ricerca

Pediatric Hospital Bambino Gesù

University of Ferrara

University of Siena

Spain

Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG-CRG)

Sweden

Uppsala University

Switzerland

Hoffmann-La Roche AG

sitem-insel AG

Novartis Pharma AG

Takeda Pharmaceuticals International AG

University Bern

The Netherlands

ProQR Therapeutics NV

United Kingdom

Illumina Cambridge Ltd

Pfizer Ltd