Today, SIMCor representatives from Charité, VPH Institute and Lynkeus held a first telco between Coordinators of the SC1-DTH-06-2020 – Accelerating the uptake of computer simulations for testing medicines and medical devices Topic Call, on initiative of our consortium. On this occasion, project representatives discussed some possible collaboration pathways, including engagement with regulators and standards committees, exchange and feedback on R&D, verification and validation methodologies, communication and dissemination.
The VPH institute, partner in 3 projects of this group, and the Avicenna Alliance have been building for quite some years on a very active relation and cooperation with competent authorities, including FDA, EMA, TeamNB and ISO committees. The first tangible results are now coming out, with joint white papers and guidelines for the regulation of in-silico technologies in drugs and devices, and the roll-out of a GSP grass roots initiative. These interactions will ensure the projects in this Topic Call can hit the ground running and will have direct access to relevant interlocuteurs within the competent authorities.
Among others (SIMCor, SimInSitu, SimCardioTest), the In Silico World (ISW) project is specifically aimed at developing synergies with other initiatives working in the in-silico medicine space in order to help all developers to lower the barriers around the adoption of in-silico medicine. For this reason, ISW is focused on leading a wider collaboration between all projects, representative organisations and other actors under the umbrella of its In Silico World Community of Practice (ISW_CoP), in alignment and with the support and participation of the VPH Institute and the Avicenna Alliance.
The ISW_CoP is an online community, based on Slack and predating the ISW project, where organisations and individuals working on in-silico medicine (currently +350) can participate in collective online discussions. Of note, the ISW_CoP community also includes a private channel reserved to the partners of relevant EC-funded research projects, as a forum to collaborate and set up joint initiatives. The ISW_CoP invites researchers and other experts from the in-silico trial community to join the community, participate in the discussions and get feedback on methodologies and guidelines under development.