Organisation bringing research into clinical applications gets EU legal status
The European Advanced Translational Research Infrastructure in Medicine (EATRIS) becomes a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC)
A pharma innovation consortium has become the first medical science-based institution to be granted a special European Union (EU) legal status, exempting it from paying VAT and excise duties across the EU.
The European Advanced Translational Research Infrastructure in Medicine (EATRIS), an umbrella group of academic institutes based in Amsterdam, became a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) on 12 November.
This status also enables the consortium to adopt its own procurement procedures, said a spokesman for the European Commission’s directorate general (DG) for research and innovation.
'It is a new flexible legal instrument for establishing pan-European research infrastructures without having to go through a lengthy process of ratification by the members as would be the case, for example, for “traditional” international organisations such as the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) or the European Space Agency (ESA),' he said.
It also means that EATRIS does not have to be limited in its operation by following specific national laws for a foundation, association or limited liability company.
The spokesman said ERIC status is proving popular among other European research infrastructures, with more projects planning to become an ERIC in the near future.
The EATRIS-ERIC will focus on translating promising biomedical research results into therapeutic approaches that could be used in the treatment of diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, or Alzheimer’s.
'Concretely, for example, an academic inventor would approach EATRIS with a newly identified biomarker for a certain disease condition, and then EATRIS would help in a professional way to assemble the necessary expertise and funds to develop a new diagnostic tool for this target disease,' he added.