In addition to the initial groups, TRANSVAC transnational access platform has integrated five additional groups, who provide their services to users on a free and paid basis. Read the TRANSVAC Press release about the new services.

The new services available on a free basis are the MultiBac Platform Service from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL, France). Free access has been reserved and made available for vaccine-related projects by the BioSTRUCT-X project/research infrastructure.

Interested users can obtain more information on the paid services on the TRANSVAC website, and can liaise directly with service providers until new funding is available within TRANSVAC.  An “advisory scientific review process” is also offered to the applicants who require advice on their project, objectives, and methodology used.  This review process is organised in parallel with the review of applications to the free-of-charge services.

Call for Action on Vaccine Development and Immunisation access for those most at need

On 16th April 2012, the European Union (EU) Vaccines Advocacy Coalition (EUVAC) published a Call for Action on Vaccine Development and Immunisation access for those most at need.

EUVAC, of which EVI is part, is a policy driven advocacy and campaigns network that strives to raise the profile of vaccines and ensure the EU institutions address the issue of vaccine development and immunisation access for developing countries.

The specific text can be found on pages 20-21 at http://www.theparliament.com/digimag/immunisation but the whole brochure is worth reading! The Parliament Magazine is widely recognised as the magazine for Members of European Parliament (MEPs), by MEPs.

Nicola Katrin Viebig takes up her duties as Project Manager on 2 May. EVI extends a warm welcome to Nicola, who will be working on projects funded by EDCTP, EC, and EVI.

To highlight the importance of assay harmonisation in malaria vaccine development, the OPTIMALVAC Consortium has published the position paper “Towards validated assays for key immunological outcomes”. Vaccine 29 (2011) 3093–3095. 

The fourth round of applications for access to the TRANSVAC infrastructure services is now closed. You can now apply for the next round with the Deadline 31 January 2012.

The call will remain open for the duration of the project (until Sept 2013) or until all of the services have been exhausted. Applications will be processed in batches. The deadline for the next batch is 31 January 2012.

Go to www.transvac.org for more info.