Last week the UNIVR CoMeCT team attended the virtual kick-off event for the brand-new CoMeCT project.
CoMeCT is an EU-Funded Coordination and Support Action (CSA), designed to link-up multiple existing European coordination initiatives to encourage synergy and reduce overlap. The structure of this project foresees two of these existing initiatives, the Trial Coordination Board (TCB) and the Cohort Coordination Board (CCB), linked alongside the new Outbreak Response Board (ORB) to form a Coordination Board, running alongside the Joint Access and Advisory Mechanism (JAAM). Find out more on the CoMeCT webpage.
During the kick-off meeting, held virtually on the 22nd of January, project partners were brought together to present the different Work Packages (WP), explore synergies with representatives from other projects, the European Commission (EC) and the EMA, and discuss the project’s next steps.
The afternoon started with introductions from each partner’s team, for some it was the first-time meeting and putting a face to a name is always important when working together. CoMeCT Coordinator leads, Victoria C. Simensen and Nina Langeland from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, gave a detailed discussion on why CoMeCT was created, highlighting in particular the research challenges that became apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the importance of working together to overcome said challenges. They also stressed the benefit of working in collaboration with the other EU-funded Coordination and Support Actions.
The CoMeCT Project Officer from the European Commission (EC) then gave an important presentation regarding the EC’s processes for project management and reporting. This was followed by a presentation from each Work Package (WP) leader, covering the tasks, deliverables and milestones within their WP. These presentations enabled other participants to understand possible synergies between the work, and to see exactly what each partner contributes to the project. A key presentation also discussed the outline of the ORB and JAAM, which will be defined during the course of the CoMeCT project.
As you can see in the figure below, the ID-CARE UNIVR team leads WP3 Exploration which includes the mapping of cohort studies, Adaptive Platform Trials (APTs) and vaccine trials across Europe.
Following the WP presentations, representatives from EU-funded project BeReady presented possible synergies between the two projects. BeReady aims to establish a consolidated research and innovation framework that provides the foundation of the expected future European partnership for pandemic preparedness. The afternoon concluded with some positive comments from the CoMeCT Coordinator leads, Victoria C. Simensen and Nina Langeland, who highlighted the importance of the work to be completed, and the potential power to be created by these teams working together.
Earlier this week, on the 30th January, the first Coordination Board (CB) meeting was held between the CCB and TCB. In this meeting, CCB and TCB members were updated on the work within the CoMeCT project, and how the boards will align going forward. Feedback was also provided to the boards following a survey on data standards adoption across the boards, which provided great insight into the various data standards used, and the awareness of support initiatives like EHDEN.
Keep up to date with the CoMeCT project by following our X account here: https://twitter.com/IDCAREteam
Read more about CoMeCT here: https://www.id-care.net/projects/comect
The CoMeCT project is funded by the European Union under project GA n° 101136531.