The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Brussels hosted the kick-off meeting of the ARISE project. The meeting, held on 15–16 January 2019, officially launched the activities of this project, coordinated by the Fondazione per la Ricerca Farmacologica Gianni Benzi Onlus (Italy) and the Guys and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (UK).

The project aimed to create a multidisciplinary staff-exchange programme involving expert and early-stage researchers from relevant institutions in Europe (Italy, France, UK, Cyprus, and Greece) and non-European countries (Nigeria, Lebanon, Kenya, and the USA), in order to share and disseminate best practices for neonatal screening, diagnosis, and treatment of sickle cell disease.