Introduction

The Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 (IMI2) isEurope's largest public-private initiative aimingto speed up the development of better and safermedicines for patients. IMI2 supportscollaborative research projects and buildsnetworks of industrial and academic experts inorder to boost pharmaceutical innovation inEurope. IMI2 is a joint undertaking between theEuropean Union and the pharmaceuticalindustry association EFPIA.

Objective of the call

The following topics are under consideration for inclusion in future calls for proposals:

-Topic 1: Assessment of the uniqueness of diabetic cardiomyopathy relative to other forms ofheart failure using unbiased pheno-mapping approaches. Scope: to assess the uniqueness ofdiabetic cardiomyopathy and to unveil the underlying mechanisms of cardiomyopathy indiabetic patients and the impact on cardio-vascular mortality in this population, which mayallow the clustering of patients into an independent cohort. Type of project: Research andInnovation Action. Duration: 60 months.

-Topic 2: Genome-Environment Interactions in Inflammatory Skin Disease. Scope: change inthe understanding of the molecular mechanism and ontology of the two main inflammatoryskin diseases (Atopic Dermatitis and Psoriasis); encompass both a retrospective assessmentof patients that can aid in defining key endotypes of disease and the disease commonalitiesand uniqueness, as well as access to ongoing prospective studies that will embrace novelapproaches and hypotheses relating to defining these. Type of project: Research andInnovation Action. Duration: 60 months.

-Topic 3: The value of diagnostics to combat antimicrobial resistance by optimisingantibiotic use. Scope: understand, demonstrate and quantify the value of diagnostics and theobstacles to their adoption and use in the framework of a Standardised Care Network in order to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by optimising antibiotic use in Europe.Type of project: Research and Innovation Action. Duration: 36 months.

-Topic 4: Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Neurodegeneration. Scope: to identify andunderstand the impact of mitochondrial dysfunction in in vitro and in vivo models ofneurodegenerative diseases, incorporating core characteristics of neurodegeneration such asprotein misfolding. Type of project: Research and Innovation Action. Duration: 36 months.

-Topic 5: Support and coordination action for the projects of the Neurodegeneration area ofthe Innovative Medicines Initiative. Scope: to provide the overall framework and resourcesto achieve effective and efficient coordination and collaboration among the ongoing andfuture projects in the IMI strategic area of neurodegeneration. Type of project: Coordinationand Support Action. Duration: 36 months.

-Topic 6: A sustainable European induced pluripotent stem cell platform. Scope: to establisha fully self-sustainable European human inducible Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSC) bankingfacility, that has to be operational within the first three months of the action by seamlesslybuilding on and incorporating existing cell lines, knowledge and infrastructure establishedwithin former European wide. Type of project: Research and Innovation Action. Duration:36 months.

-Topic 7: Linking digital assessment of mobility to clinical endpoints to drive regulatoryacceptance and clinical practice. Scope: to measure in three chronically ill or frailpopulations: a) As a primary outcome, real world walking speed (RWS); b) As secondaryoutcomes, additional digital mobility assessment. The specific aims are to develop and applyalgorithms that will subsequently become available to any users, so that the validatedendpoint consists of the measurement algorithm, the analytic method, and the range ofnormal or abnormal results that predicts relevant clinical outcomes. Type of project:Research and Innovation Action. Duration: 60 months.

- Topic 8: Human Tumour Microenvironment Immunoprofiling. Scope: to create a databasecontaining integrated cellular and molecular data from the tumour microenvironment ofpatients treated with both targeted and non-targeted therapy, in particular immunotherapy, aswell as key information from patient history and clinical progression. Type of project:Research and Innovation Action. Duration: 60 months.

- Topic 9: ConcePTION – Continuum of Evidence from Pregnancy Exposures, ReproductiveToxicology and Breastfeeding to Improve Outcomes Now. Scope: better inform the use ofmedicines during pregnancy and breastfeeding; to provide improved tools and methods togenerate more valuable, reliable and timely information to HCPs and pregnant and lactatingwomen to enhance optimal care. Type of project: Research and Innovation Action. Duration:60 months.

- Topic 10: Improving the preclinical prediction of adverse effects of pharmaceuticals on thenervous system. Scope: to improve the preclinical predictivity of adverse effects ofpharmaceuticals on the central and peripheral nervous systems through increasing ourknowledge on mechanisms of neurotoxicity and improvement of the experimental toolbox.Type of project: Research and Innovation Action. Duration: 36 months.

Topic 11: Translational Safety Biomarker Pipeline (TransBioLine): Enabling developmentand implementation of novel safety biomarkers in clinical trials and diagnosis of disease.Scope: development of biomarkers of injury for liver, kidney, pancreas, vasculature, centralnervous system and the development of non-invasive liquid biopsies. Type of project:Research and Innovation Action. Duration: 60 months.

- Topic 12: Federated and privacy-preserving machine learning in support of drug discovery.Scope: The delivery/generation of a validated federated privacy-preserving machinelearning platform on publicly accessible data that is demonstrably safe enough and scalableenough to be deployed to a significant representation of the private data in the actualpreclinical data warehouses of at least six major pharmaceutical companies in yearlyevaluation runs. Type of project: Research and Innovation Action. Duration: 36 months.

- Topic 13: Pilot programme on a Clinical Compound Bank for Repurposing in four topics:cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, respiratory diseases; neurodegenerative diseases andrare/orphan diseases. Scope: take one of the ten previously deprioritised clinicalcompounds listed in the Appendix and investigate their therapeutic potential in new clinicalindications in areas of high unmet need. Type of project: Research and Innovation Action.Duration: 48 months.

More information at

http://www.imi.europa.eu/apply-funding/future-topics