Objectives

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Objectives

Objectives.

Research Coordination:

  • Setup a roadmap facilitating the identification of drug targets that meet the needs of patients with musculoskeletal conditions composed of a coordinated list of functional assessments of genes (and pathways) influencing musculoskeletal disorders; and activities distributed across expertise groups generated by inventarising skills and competences of the network.
  • Bring researchers from at least 15 research groups working on big data, bioinformatic innovation and systems biology in animal and human (cell/organisms) models together, aiming to setup a methodological support framework focused on implementing analytical pipelines of existing methods to efficiently manage, integrate, analyse and interpret functional and big data.
  • Seek molecular re-categorization of complex diseases of the musculoskeletal system in humans by integrating the knowledge on disease/phenotype definition across the different expertise groups; generating a phenotype map in the first 2 years of cells/tissues, organisms, and human populations and re-evaluated
    with the output of functional investigations before year 4.
  • Bring stake-holders together to plan and seek translational outreach and dissemination of the activities of the action aiming to achieve personalized diagnosis and targeted treatment of patients affected with musculoskeletal conditions;

Capacity Building

  • Draw a capacity map within the network and beyond to pinpoint among the groups the existing strength-(expertise) and lacking- (knowledge and resource gaps) areas; aiming completion of the internal (within GEMSTONE) inventory by year 1 and pinpointing the external by year 2.
  • Use the capacity map to facilitate knowledge and expertise transfer between high-impact partners and emerging collaborators per discipline, task and skill; aiming to provide a list ofpriorities governing the planning of the capacity building activities.
  • Transform the aforementioned knowledge transfer into achieved enhanced capacity of the participating partners, resulting in true teaming up around the objectives (i.e., efficient prioritization of functional assessments and equitable distribution of functional work across collaborators); with provision of updated capacity maps by years 2 (internal) and 3 (external).
  • Enrich the capacity of the network further through widespread knowledge exchange and engagement, linking scientific expertise of academia and industry and patient engagement by securing patient representation across activities (among other stakeholders); aiming broad stakeholder representation in at least 5 yearly sessions during the duration of the ACTION.
  • Secure endurance of the network by means of prioritizing young investigators as key players in all previously mentioned capacity objectives, setting the basis of a long-standing intergenerational collaboration; procuring that in all activities at least 1/3 of all participants are young investigators.