Projects & Activities
Over the last 7 years, thanks to the quality of its projects and its credibility, EGF has been awarded several grants for over 10 million Euro both by the European Commission and by national and regional institutions. EGF coordinates projects of international cooperation, research, knowledge transfer and development of IT technologies. Thanks to these funds, EGF managed to provide more than 700 fellowships to graduate and post-graduate students and to launch a series of projects aimed at transferring knowledge to countries of the Southern Mediterranean rim.
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Programme: eContentplus
Start date: October 2007- End date: September 2010
Description: The EUROGENE objective is to migrate towards more efficient use and development of higher quality (multimedia) didactic material on genetics through the guided editing and assembly of educational packages based on the consortium proprietary learning design metadata framework and the sharing of different types of digital learning objects between content owners, in 9 languages. The project proposes to do so by establishing the EUROGENE web portal as a reference point for the sharing of a critical mass of educational content items and packages, offering an integrated toolset and service for content authors.
EGF role: Coordinator
Website: www.eurogene.eu
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Programme: 7th Framework Programme: Specific International Cooperation Action (Sica).
Start date: 01/02/2009 End date: 31/01/2012
Description: Mental retardation (MR) is a highly heterogeneous disorder and is of genetic origin in about 50% of the cases. Despite recent progress in research the causes and the pathophysiology of MR remains obscure. It is essential to investigate this in order to develop future diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. The overall goal of this proposal is to establish an interdisciplinary Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) consortium of experts with a joint programme of activities to generate knowledge about MR and the structure and dynamics of the brain as such. This project will be the first to study in depth the prevalence and incidence of MR in EECA.
EGF role: Partner
Website: http://www.cherishproject.eu
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Programme: 6th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development of the European Union.
Start date: January 2006- End date: December 2009
Description: This Integrated Project is coordinated by Siemens and financed by the European Commission within the thematic priority Information Society Technologies. Its main objective is the development of an integrated platform for health care in the paediatric sector. The long term goal is to enable free access of universal databanks in the biomedical field. Besides that, the Project focuses on individual prevention, screening, early diagnosis, care and follow-up of heart diseases in the paediatric age and on the creation of a Grid-enabled European Network of advanced clinical centres that will share and annotate biomedical metadata, validate the systems and disseminate the excellence at European level producing new technologies, clinical workflows and standards. Health-e-Child has been nominated project of the month by eHealthNews.eu.
EGF role: Coordinator of the project's training activities.
Website: http://www.health-e-child.org/
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FIRB 2008 Genetic testing and bio banks: bioethical issues
Programme: Investment fund for Primary Research (Firb): “Future in Research"
Start date: March 2008- End date: March 2011
Description: Research on legal, ethical and social issues related to genetic counselling and testing. Design and implementation of 3 residential training courses (1 per year) on ethical, legal and psychosocial aspects of genetic tests and genetic counselling. The training events will focus attention especially on the following issues: the analysis of moral, juridical and psychosocial problems arising from the Human Genome Project; the ethical borders of the clinical usefulness of recent scientific discoveries; clinical implications of the various kinds of genetic testing available today (prenatal, presymptomatic and predictive testing) of reproductive techniques, of transgenic therapies of clonation.
EGF role: Partner
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FISS 2008
Programme: Italian Ministry of University and Reseach (MIUR) – Fiss 2008
Start date: 2008- End date: 2011
Description: Three year fund in support of EGF key activities: to contribute to the advanced scientific and professional training of young geneticists, especially in the field of preventive medicine, through a post-doc school (European School of Genetic Medicine), to promote the public understanding of genetics to the general public, to organize congresses, courses and initiatives to promote communication between the sciences and humanistic disciplines, to coordinate projects funded by the European Commission, in the fields of international cooperation, genetic research, transfer of knowledge and development of IT technologies.
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KOMEN
Programme: Komen Italia
Start date: March 2008- End date: March 2011
Description: Training activities for health-care personnel on Breast Tumour counselling: familiarity and mammary carcinoma.
EGF role: Coordinator
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MedGeNet – Euro Mediterranean Network for Genetic Services
Programme: 6th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development of the European Union - Specific International Scientific Cooperation Activities (INCO).
Start date: October 2006- End date: December 2008
Description: The primary objective of the MedGeNet European Project is to expand the human expertise in clinical genetics and cancer genetics in Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPC) through the transfer of knowledge and technology between the two rims of the Mediterranean which share a common burden of genetic diseases but have different diagnosis methods and therapies. Through the creation of a Euro-Mediterranean Network of Genetic Telecounselling and Telepathology consultation and advanced education for health professionals and medical staff, the MedGeNet Project will enable developing countries to share a diagnostic database and carry out distant diagnosis of genetic diseases with the help of international experts.
EGF role: Coordinator
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MedGenMed - Genetic Medicine for the Mediterranean Countries
Programme: Programmes for the enhancement of the internationalisation of the University System - International Collaborations among Universities
Start date: July 2006 - End date: June 2008
Description: This project was financed by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MIUR) and involved several Universities from 7 different Mediterranean countries, already belonging to the EUMEDIS Network created within the previous project EuMed Cancer - GeMed-Network. MedGenMed was aimed to enhance the accessibility of the courses offered by the European Society of Human Genetics; in particular of the so-called ‘hybrid’ mode which consists in the transmission live of residential courses to Remote Training Centres classes at the partner Universitites.Thanks to this project, 110 international students were able to attend the residential courses at the ESGM main venue in Italy and 330 students attending the courses from their Universities in web casting and teleconference developed by the ESGM.
EGF role: Coordinator
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Programme: 6th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development of the European Union.
Start date: April 2006 - End date: March 2008
Description: The European project ITHANET, financed within the thematic priority Information Society Technologies, aims to strengthen the Euro Mediterranean community of researchers in molecular and clinical research into thalassaemia and related haemoglobinopathies and to enhance its scientific potential using the existing and emerging infrastructures and tools of European research networks.
EGF role: Coordinator of the project's training activities.
Website: http://project.ithanet.eu/
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Programme: Regional Telecommunications Plan of the Emilia-Romagna Region
Start date: January 2005 - End date: December 2006
Description: This project was financed within the Regional Telecommunications Plan of the Emilia-Romagna Region and is aimed at the information of the citizens on the three strategic themes of our present and future societies: biological and cultural evolution, the sources and use of energy and the mechanism defining the balance of the natural environment and the modifications cause by human activities.
EGF role: Coordinator
Website: www.progettogea.com
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Programme: EUMEDIS (Euro Mediterranean Information Society)
Start date: July 2002- End date July 2005
Description: The objectives of this European project are the creation of a Euro-Mediterranean Health Network and the transfer and sharing of scientific expertise and resources aimed at care and treatment of hereditary diseases (especially cancer). Thanks to this project, the European Genetics Foundation has contributed to the development and the diffusion of a low-cost diagnostic test called THAL CHIP that enables the identification of several genetic diseases in the developing countries that still lack adequate infrastructures.
EGF role: Coordinator
Website: www.eumedconnect.net
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Human Potential Programme - High-level Scientific Conferences Programme: 5th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development of the European Union
Start date: November 2001 - End date: March 2003
Description: The Human Potential Programme was aimed to support training and mobility of researchers from virtually all scientific fields throughout Europe and increase EU expertise in the socio-economic sciences to allow us to understand how to harness Europe's rapidly changing society. Within this Programme the European Genetics Foundation has received funding for several training events that took place at the University Residential Centre of Bertinoro (Italy) between 2001 and 2003. The courses funded included: Medical Genetics; Ret As a Dependence Receptor Involved In Apoptosis, Neuronogenesis and Tumorigenesis; From Developmental Genes to Dismorphology; Bioinformatics; Molecular Cytogenetics and Comparative Genomics.
EGF role: Coordinator
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EURO TRA.GE.CO - European Training in Genetic Counselling
Programme: Leonardo da Vinci
Start date: September 2000 - End date: March 2001
Description: The aim of the project was the creation of a model for electronic distant learning in the field of Genetic Counselling. Its objectives were to identify the best methodologies to provide both theory and practical training to non-medical personnel within a 12-month period. In order to be suitable for this education product, the non-medical personnel had to have a basic background of medical sciences and the desire to further develop their specialised skills in the field of genetic counselling.
EGF role: Coordinator
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