The European Rare Diseases Research Alliance (ERDERA) aims to improve the health and well-being of the 30 million people living with a rare disease in Europe, by making Europe a world leader in Rare Disease (RD) research and innovation, to support concrete health benefits to rare disease patients, through better prevention, diagnosis and treatment. This Partnership will deliver a RD ecosystem that builds on the successes of previous programmes by supporting robust patient need-led research, developing new diagnostic methods and pathways, spearheading the digital transformational change connecting the dots between care, patient data and research, while ensuring strong alignment of strategies in RD research across countries and regions. Structuring goal-oriented public-private collaborations targeted at interventions all along the R&D value chain will ensure that the journey from knowledge to patient impact is expedited, thereby optimising EU innovation potential in RD. To support its ambition and missions ERDERA has been designed as a comprehensive and integrated ecosystem of which structure can be compared to an institute encompassing three main parts: (i) funding, (ii) internal (in house) Clinical Research Network that implements research activities targeting clinical trial readiness of RDs and accelerating diagnosis and translation of research discovery into improved patient care, and (iii) related supporting services (Data, Expertise, Education and Training) as well as an acceleration hub that serve external and internal RD community, all supported by all-embracing coordination and strategy and foundational (inter)national alignment.

Cancer- healthcare, research and innovation face core common challenges, such as fragmentation of initiatives and distancing from important stakeholders, requiring coordinated solutions. These challenges are recognized in Horizon Europe’s Cancer Mission Implementation Plan and in Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan. The proposal Establishing of Cancer Mission Hubs: Networks and Synergies (ECHoS) represents a unique opportunity to coordinate R&I and Healthcare actions on cancer with policy-making processes creating transnational communication & collaboration networks aligned with Cancer Mission objectives. Experiences shows that the setup and implementation of innovative health solutions are more likely to be successful when a broad range of stakeholders and decision-makers from the public and private sectors are part of the process. By fostering the creation of National Cancer Mission Hubs (NCMHs) in member states and associated countries ECHoS will create the conditions for organized stakeholders and individual citizens to collaborate and engage in policy dialogues. The implementation of the Cancer Mission objectives will promote more resilient and people-centric healthcare and research systems. ECHoS will produce (i) general models and guidelines for the creation of sustainable NCMHs, (ii) a knowledge exchange programme to support development of NCMHs competences, (iii) impact models and training sets to help efficiently engaging with distinct stakeholders, (iv) a toolkit for synergies to help NCMH engaging in collaborative work with individual European Initiatives, (v) a business continuity model envisaging long-term sustainability of a EU network of NCMHs and (vi) a calendar of events to create awareness on NCMHs and to help closing the gap in citizens’ participation in cancer policy. In summary, ECHoS will create conditions for NCMHs to be Mission Cancer advocates in MS/AC and set the pace for the development of a transnational network of NCMHs in a second phase.

<< Background >>The reason for this project is twofold: Stress causes illness in persons and organisations and thus becomes a big economic cost factor. Stress is an important occupational safety and health (OSH) concern in about 80% of European businesses and is one of the main reasons for lost working days. However, less than a third of European organisations have procedures in place to deal with work-related stress. The survey shows that there is often a lack of expertise and specialist support.<< Objectives >>The objectives and the results are: 1. Develop an education module based on experiences in industry that will equip professionals working in industry with the necessary knowledge and skills. Divided in basic and especialised training (for different stakeholders)2. Develop a suite of practical tools that can be used by suitably trained professionals to quantify stress levels in an organisation and at an individual level, 3. Design and pilot test an appropriate training (per country)<< Implementation >>The implementation of the project has been carried out without any problem. All the programmed tasks have been developed. Last part of project (piloting phase) was affected by COVID-19 situation in Europe. Piloting phase at university with classess was affected and run mainly in on-line format. Piloting phase with companies was affected and executed mainly in on-line format. We asked for the extension of the project (2 months) in order to facilitate the finalisation of the piloting phase.<< Results >>All the expected results have been developed.The IMPRESS solution is formed by the following tools/applications:The personal/individual Stress Factor Assessment. (ENG, SP, GER, LT). Free of useThe web-based training modules (4 modules Basic training). (ENG, SP, GER, LT). Free of use after registrationAdditional training support materials, (ENG). (8 modules). For assessment supportThe Corporate & Individual Stress Factor Assessment (ENG, SP, GER, LT). Commercial useFroject deliverables