Australian and European Health Research Infrastructure Symposium in Prato, Italy

From September 5-8, 2023, selected participants from the Australian National Research Infrastructure (NCRIS), ESFRI research infrastructures as well as EMBL met at the Monash University Prato Centre in Italy to discuss common priorities & challenges. The Euro-BioImaging directorate was invited to attend and Antje Keppler, in her role as ERIC Forum Chair, co-hosted the symposium alongside her Australian counterpart Ian Smith, of PHRN and EMBL Australia. The meeting was kindly sponsored by Monash University, EMBL Australia and Bioplatforms Australia. 

This event was organized as a pilot, and was a unique opportunity for European and Australian research infrastructures in the health domain to network, identify trends and share best practices on topics ranging from research translation, cross-capability interactions, data, government and industry collaboration. 

Six different RIs in the health domain attended from Australia, including Bioplatfroms Australia, the National Imaging Facility, Therapeutic Innovation Australia, Phenomics Australia, PHRN and EMBL Australia. Eight European RIs from the health domain on the ESFRI roadmap were invited, including BBMRI-ERIC, Euro-BioImaging ERIC, EATRIS, ELIXIR, ECRIN, Infrafrontier, EU-OPENSCREEN and Instruct-ERIC. Australia's NCRIS, EMBL, EMBL-EBI and ESFRI were also represented.  

Euro-BioImaging Med-Hub Director Linda Chaabane participated in a panel discussion to explore needs & challenges with regards to implementing, using and accessing health research data, while Euro-BioImaging Director General John Eriksson participated in a panel discussion on opportunities with regards to industry/health research infrastructure interactions. 

Feedback about the event

Euro-BioImaging Bio-Hub Director Antje Keppler reflects, "The exchanges were very insightful and the interest for collaboration between our two continents has been growing significantly during those few days. We want to thank everyone who participated in this event. It was wonderful to see our partners and collaborators, including two of our Euro-BioImaging’s Scientific Advisory Board members who hail from Australia, Ian Smith (SAB Chair) and Wojtek Goscinski.”  

Feedback on X, formerly known as Twitter: