Medical University of Lodz is one of the partners in the project ‘Alliance for Life Sciences: From Strategies to Actions in Central and Eastern Europe (A4L_ACTIONS)’ (GA: 964997), which obtained the grunt of nearly 2 million under the Horizon 2020 programme. This a continuation of a successful project i.e., Alliance4Life, an initiative of twelve leading life science institutions from eleven EU-13 countries that aims at closing the divide in European health research and innovation. The project continuation commenced on May 1, 2021 and will last till April 30, 2024.

The aim of the new initiative is to improve institutional culture and governance and, consequently, elevate the innovation level in the health research institutions. It is also meant to serve as an inspiration for research policy reforms in Central and Eastern European countries.

The R&I gap in the health sector between the ‘old Union’ (UE-15) and ‘new Union’ (UE-13) countries has a profound effect on the distribution of research funding from the EU Framework Programmes, and therefore hinders the overall impact of R&I results on the quality of health and life of European citizens. This issue has major socio-economic consequences, therefore it is crucial to reduce inequalities and implement innovation in the lower-performing regions of the EU.

A4L_ACTIONS participating institutions will address the gap between European leaders and Central and Eastern European countries not only at the level of analyses and strategies but also specific activities and policies deployment.

‘Our goal is to further increase attractiveness of our members for international collaborations with advanced European countries and to create spill-over effects in the whole region,’ explains Zlatuse Novotna, the project coordinator.

We wish to invite you to the project opening meeting which is being held on May 25, 2021. The plenary session is an open meeting and will be available on ZOOM platform.  In order to join the meeting you must register by May 18, 2021.

Registration form is available here: https://www.ceitec.eu/kick-off-conference-of-alliance4life-actions/a4049

The project partners:

Masaryk University (CEITEC MU –Central European Institute of Technology), The Czech Republic (Coordinator)

Medical University of Lodz (MUL), Poland

Anne’s University Hospital Brno (FNUSA-ICRC –International Clinical Research Center), The Czech Republic

Biomedical Research Center of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (BMC SAS), Slovakia

University of Zagreb School of Medicine (UZSM), Croatia

University of Tartu (TU), Estonia

Vilnius University –Faculty of Medicine (VU), Lithuania

Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis (LIOS), Latvia

University of Ljubljana (UL), Slovenia

Semmelweis University (SU), Hungary

Medical University Sofia (MUS), Bulgaria

Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy Bucharest (UMFCD), Romania