THE UNIVERSITY OF GDAŃSK (UG) is the largest university in the Pomorskie Region in Poland (~22,000 students, 11 faculties, 2 international research centres, ~ 1,800 academics). The INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR CANCER VACCINE SCIENCE (ICCVS) at UG has been established in 2017 to become a centre of excellence that conducts interdisciplinary research focused on therapy of cancer. ICCVS has been co-funded by a 12 m EUR investment from EU Structural Funds and has gained further research projects from EU and national funds. Research approaches at ICCVS include a range of diverse scientific technologies that are applied to discovery research at the immune-cancer synapse, including molecular biology, mass spectrometry, virology, computational science, synthetic biologics, cancer biology, and immune-biology. Currently, the flagship project is the development of personalized vaccine against non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
THE UNIVERSITY OF ROME TORVERGATA (UNITOV) is one of three public universities in Rome, strongly committed to promoting the international dimension of studies and research, both in degree and in doctoral programs. There are also joint research programs (thematic and interdisciplinary), academic exchanges and agreements for the mutual recognition of training credits with the most prestigious universities in the world, with over 500 agreements (bilateral and cultural / scientific cooperation). “Tor Vergata” stands out in the U-Multirank ranking, placing itself among the first 50 universities, for the quality of its teachers’ teaching and students’ learning. In Research funding the main instruments for UNITOV are a) EU Framework Programs for Research and Innovation in particular H2020 with 97 Grants. The Technology transfer and industrial partnership is carried out by the constant contact of all Departments with companies and by university spin-off and start-up. UNITOV is a contact point of the Enterprise Europe Network, and a node of the Network for Central Italy – Lazio, Marche, Tuscany and Umbria – that counts 16 partners and more than 100 experts on issues concerning internationalization, innovation and research. UNITOV is member of YERUN network, founded between 18 European universities under fifty years with accredited presence in the main international rankings, with the aim of promoting joint initiatives in research and teaching, as well as encouraging research and teaching mobility.
THE FRENCH ALTERNATIVE ENERGIES AND ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION (CEA) is a public government-funded research organization established in 1945 and a key player in R&D&I in four main areas: fundamental research in the physical and life sciences, defence and security, low carbon energies and technological research for industry. The CEA maintains a cross-disciplinary culture of engineers and researchers, building on the synergies between fundamental and technological research, and a strong commitment towards innovation. The CEA has been involved in both FP7-FET Flagship, Graphene and Human Brain Project and in H2020-FET Flagship Quantum Technology Flagship Coordination and Support Action and is also a core partner of 5 EIT-KICs (Knowledge Innovation Communities) dedicated to the development of innovative ecosystems mixing stakeholders from high education, research and private sector (industries, SME, start-ups). As an active and contributing member to the EIT Health network, the CEA is regularly part of the most innovative health projects. CEA teams have been selected for 800 projects in the H2020 programme. The key research axis of the Fundamental Research Division (DRF) are: improving knowledge in pathogenesis, translating and validating scientific advances into innovation for the patient. Health research is supported by a large technological expertise (“omics” technologies, structural biology, imaging, pharmacology and preclinical expertise) developed through several facilities and platforms integrated to National and European infrastructures and open to the academic and industrial scientific community.
Real Research is a leader in 3D Cell Culture (3DCC) tools and services. Real Research specialises and customises in manufacturing of hydrogels for 3D cell cultures under the brand LifeGel®. Real Research has developed the LifeGel® technology, as a cutting-edge 3D culture system. The company has been established in 2017 and since then supported for both research and commercial aspects by: Augere HFF VC (0.5 mln EUR), DigiCirc and IdeaGlobal accelerators (0.15 mln EUR), MCP regional grants, Start-ups Meets Pharma programme by EIT Health with Amgen (total 1.6 mln EUR for research projects), and public support (0.25 mln EUR). The company obtained the first European Patent in 2019 for a protein hydrogel creation – LifeGel® and further brand new technologies are currently in the patenting process on European level. Real Research performs services by using LifeGel® where it creates research models for drug discovery studies, oncology, regenerative medicine, giving the possibility to culture both primary, PDX-derived as well as immortalized cell lines in physiological-like 3D environment. The international and multidisciplinary team consists of biotechnology, chemistry or technology research scientists with post-doc, PhD and MSc degrees. Our partners include research universities (e.g. Jagiellonian University in Krakow, the University of Gdansk) as well as biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies (e.g. BioXplor, ibidi, Revatis, Targa Biomedical).