VPH-I Day September 2009 PDF | Print | E-mail

Virtual Physiological Human VPH-Initiative Day

The Virtual Physiological Human Network of Excellence (VPH NoE) held its first VPH-Initiative working day on 9 September at the Musée de la Medecine, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. The event consisted of an overview of VPH NoE activities and an interactive networking and poster session in the morning, followed in the afternoon by a talk on funding and policy and interactive discussion sessions. Participants included key representatives from VPH projects, (including FP6 and FP7 VPH –Initiative projects), VPH NoE network of excellence Core members, General and Associate members and representatives from the VPH NoE Scientific, Clinical and Industrial Advisory Boards.

The morning session consisted of presentations from selected VPH NoE leaders. Peter Coveney (Project Coordinator) gave an introductory talk on the VPH NoE and this was followed by a talk on the role of the Exemplar Projects and the latest developments in the toolkit portal by Sharon Lloyd (WP3 Leader – The Toolkit ). Jesús Bisbal (WP4 Leader – Training ) gave a talk on the latest developments in WP4 and the need for a centralised resource for training activities. Philippe Rohou and Marco Viceconti (WP5 – Dissemination ) both gave presentations on the dissemination activities within the VPH NoE and the importance of VPH projects working together on dissemination.

The rest of the morning session was dedicated to an interactive presentation and poster session [link to webpage with list of abstracts and pdf files]. There were 32 presentations given by representatives of VPH projects and General and Associate members. Each representative was given a two minute spotlight to give a short PowerPoint presentation. The structure was informal, although timing was strict with Miriam Mendes (Project Coordinator) ringing a bell when representatives went over the two minutes! This was then followed by an interactive poster session where representatives were able to discuss their projects in more detail.

The VPH-Initiative working day was supported by the European Commission ICT for Health unit and DG Information Society and Media and the first presentation of the afternoon was given by Joël Bacquet ‘Project Officer’ of the VPH NoE on ‘VPH-I Funding and Policy in the European Commission’ and the role of the NoE Roadmap. The discussion centered on up and coming calls and how the VPH NoE Roadmap will be used to inform the next rounds of policy and funding at the Commission and how it is important that all members of the VPH community contribute to this Roadmap.

The late afternoon session consisted of four discussion groups which served to encourage networking and give a focussed discussion that will assist in informing the future direction of the VPH NoE :

The afternoon concluded with a report from group discussions and a question and answer session which was driven by Peter Coveney.

• PowerPoint Presentations from VPH-I day are available here
• Abstracts and Posters from interactive presentation and PowerPoint session are available here
• Agendas are available from the VPH-I day and VPH NoE AGM available from here
• The Roadmap will is available here