From 18 to 20 September 2026, Fondazione per la Ricerca Farmacologica Gianni Benzi – ETS took part in TEDDY’s 2026 General Assembly and Scientific Meeting.

The event, organised by TEDDY Network to mark twenty years of its activities, brought together researchers, clinicians, healthcare professionals and patient representatives, including many children and young people, over three days of scientific exchange dedicated to paediatric clinical research and rare diseases.

The programme covered most current research fields through to in-depth sessions: real-world evidence and artificial intelligence to accelerate paediatric drug development, biomarkers and pharmacometric models. Considerable attention was also given to generating robust evidence in small populations and to the pathways that can take the most innovative approaches into clinical trials.

Within this programme, Fondazione Gianni Benzi contributed directly through three researchers. Annalisa Landi presented TEDDY Network’s role within ENCePP, the European network of centres for pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacovigilance, showing how TEDDY is contributing to the existing working groups by fostering paediatric aspects. Franco Bartoloni contributed to the session dedicated to OrphaDev4Kids, co-facilitating the discussion between experts and young patient representatives on the evaluation of paediatric and orphan medical devices. Viviana Giannuzzi moderated the scientific discussion on European methodologies for drug development in small populations and rare diseases, led the INVENTS project session on innovative research methodologies for small populations, and took part as an expert in the discussion focused  on designing the 2027 ERDERA training course for young rare disease patient advocates.

The event closed with “Raising Awareness: The TEDDY Kids’ Way”, a session designed to introduce young people to scientific research as part of Biotech Week 2026, followed by a guided tour of Bari on Sunday.

The direct dialogue with the young patient representatives, who featured prominently across most of the sessions, remains for the Foundation one of the most significant aspects of the meeting: a conversation that will continue to feed into the European projects the Foundation is involved in.