Two new EU Member States now represented within TRANSVAC services platform

In addition to the initial panel of nine services, the TRANSVAC transnational access platform has integrated in July 2012 five additional groups which provide their services to users on a free and paid basis. Two new European Union (EU) Member States are now represented within the platform of services: France and Portugal.

TRANSVAC, the leading European Research Infrastructure on Vaccine Development was designed in order to enhance coordination between vaccine Research & development (R&D) groups, assay developers, and vaccine producers in Europe, and to propose a European road map for vaccine R&D infrastructure.

In order to give the opportunity to other European R&D groups to join the TRANSVAC services platform, a competitive call for new Interested Parties was launched with the dead-line for application 15 March 2012.  In addition to the initial panel of nine services, the TRANSVAC transnational access platform has integrated in July 2012 five additional groups which provide their services to users on a free and paid basis.  Two new European Union (EU) Member States are now represented within the platform of services; France and Portugal.

The new services available on a free basis are:

• The MultiBac Platform Service from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL, France). Free access has been reserved and made available for vaccine-related projects by the BioSTRUCT-X project/research infrastructure.

The new services available on a paid basis are:

• The GMP Pilot Production Plant Service from the Vaccinology Department of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM, The Netherlands).

• The Vaccine Development and Production Service from the Animal Cell Technology Unit of the Institute of Experimental and Technological Biology (IBET, Portugal).

• The Protein and Peptide Chemistry Facility Service from the Department of Biochemistry of the University of Lausanne (UNIL, Switzerland).

• The Reverse Transcription Multiplex Ligation-Dependent Probe Amplification (RT-MLPA) Assay Service from the Department of Infectious Diseases of the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC, The Netherlands).

Dr Odile Leroy, Executive Director of European Vaccine Initiative (EVI) and Coordinator of the TRANSVAC project, says: "The long-term vision of TRANSVAC is to establish a European Research Infrastructure, providing a spectrum of coordinated vaccine development facilities, managed by each of the participating institutions.  The integration of five new services and two EU Member States is a critical step for the future of TRANSVAC".

Prof. Manuel Carrondo, Director of IBET, testifies: "As a research intensive Small and Medium-sized Enterprise, IBET has been active in the development of vaccines for over 15 years.  Joining the TRANSVAC network will allow IBET to better coordinate its activities with the other members and to be exposed to more potential collaborations and customers while, at the same time, profiting from insights into future vaccine R&D needs".

The services provided by the affiliated partners will be integrated in the advertising plan and the transnational access call in order for the potential new partners to extend their network and make their services available to the scientific community.  Interested users can get more information on the paid services on the TRANSVAC website and can directly liaise with the service providers until new funding capacity is available within TRANSVAC.  An "advisory scientific review process" is also offered to the applicants who want to get advice on their project, objectives, and the methodology used.  This review process is organised in parallel to the review of the applications to the free-of-charge services.  The next advisory scientific review process will take place after closing of the submission period, on 31 January 2013.