New immunization technologies, 12 clinical studies, 248 scientific publications, 6 patents: these numbers summarize the results of 6 years of work within the European research project ADITEC – Advanced Immunization Technologies, ending this year. The overall results of the project have been presented at the University of Siena during the ADITEC Annual Meeting on 18-20 September 2017. Representatives from all the institutions joining the project came together to discuss the final results obtained within the project and discuss the future of vaccines R&D and, in particular, how to maintain the strong scientific connections established during the past six years.
ADITEC, started in October 2011 as a 5-year project and has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement No280873. In 2016 the European Commission approved a one year no cost extension postponing the end of the project to 30 September 2017. The 42 partners from 14 countries have been coordinated by Rino Rappuoli, president of the Sclavo Vaccines Associations (SVA) and by Donata Medaglini, professor at the University of Siena.
From its very beginning, the major goal of the project has been to create and share knowledge toward new and more efficient immunization technologies for next generation vaccines, working with a multidisciplinary approach. The ADITEC project joint together some of the most competitive research groups in Europe and in the USA, both from the public and from the private biomedical sector. This has created a synergy that greatly contributed to the impact of the ADITEC project.
ADITEC, the biggest project on vaccines R&D financed by the EU – highlighted Rino Rappuoli, president of the Sclavo Vaccines Association and coordinator of the ADITEC project – has been a unique opportunity to bring together the best scientific minds working in this field in Europe and to share with everybody within the consortium the most advanced technologies, including those in American laboratories, such as “systems biology”. Europe has been playing a ledearship role in the field of vaccines R&D and this is proved by the fact that most recent innovations in this field are a result of intense research efforts by European laboratories and industries.
Donata Medaglini, Professor at the University of Siena and scientific coordinator of the ADITEC project, highlighted that “ADITEC succeeded in encouraging and facilitating scientific collaborations between the most important laboratories in Europe, both from the public and from the private sector, to speed up and optimize the development of last generation vaccines, more efficient and safe, for a variety of age groups. For example, ADITEC played a key role in the advancement of clinical studies for vaccines against Shigella and Chlamydia, based on the new technologies used in the project”
“Knowledge sharing, by exchanging experiences with the use of new technologies and by constantly updating each other about project progresses allowed to reach key results in a limited time and with moderate costs”
The Scientific and Socio-Economic Impact of the Aditec Project has been summarized and highlighted in the ADITEC IMPACT REPORT, which can be found here.