The TEDDY Network meeting was held in Bari (Italy) on 9th of January 2015.
TEDDY is an independent multidisciplinary, multinational Network composed of partners from 15 countries aimed at facilitating the performance of good quality paediatric studies and research.
The meeting has been an occasion to discuss the paediatric initiatives to be developed in the current European funding scenario and to verify if it is feasible and how to propose a European Research Infrastructure (RI) devoted to paediatric research in the next European Roadmap, that will be launched in 2016. Indeed, in the context of ESFRI (the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures) it is now ongoing the setting up of the new roadmap to identify European Research Infrastructures (RIs) that if selected, could participate to ad hoc European funding initiatives by the European Commission.
Considering that the paediatric theme is lacking in the current ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium, the legal form of RI) scenario, it was widely discussed to present a proposal aimed at creating a Research Infrastructure for paediatric drug development, by exploiting the activity and the expertise gained by existing paediatric Networks and excellence centres, such as TEDDY, GRiP (Global Research in Paediatrics), Enpr-EMA, FP7 projects Consortia, etc.
It was highlighted that the proposal for an RI has to be presented not by researchers, but by a Member State, that commits itself to start the process (also with economical support), and other Member States, demonstrating interest in this activity.
The Network will continue working on this proposal and will involve national authorities to support this initiative.