ENATRANS succeeded in 3 years in concretising and sustaining a set of concepts to foster translation in the nanomedical sector, to durably impact the European community in this field and to accelerate the availability for the patients of innovative solutions to improve diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of many diseases.
The solid foothold of ENATRANS partners in the European Nanomedicine community and their strong commitment to the action have been critical assets to perform and to reach the right targets as well as to be able to widen the range of stakeholders, reaching far beyond the initial expectations. Furthermore ENATRANS has been the tool-lab for the European initiative ESTHER to test and prove concepts at the (modest) scale of Nanomedicine before deploying them at larger scale.
By setting up, managing and promoting a Translation Advisory Board as a central element of the Translation Hub, ENATRANS could both crystallise the initial interest of TAB experts and convert it into the strong commitment of a team of experts. The TAB has become a tool of reference to advise and guide nanomedicine innovators with the translation of their projects toward the market. The results of the TAB could also convince the MedTech sector of the soundness of this concept and motivate they to use the TAB in the very multi-disciplinary area of advanced medical devices. The TAB is therefore able to maintain its operation after the end of ENATRANS in the framework of the NOBEL CSA.
Further concepts and tools have also been confirmed or validated in the course of the project, in the first instance the compendium for successful translation, the Nanomed Award, the Nano World Cancer Day, the Nanomed Handbook or the Nanomed Map.
Further finding of ENATRANS is the importance of considering translational education and training as a continuous and horizontal task to be mostly interlaced with other elements in the Translation Hub rather than considering it as a separate and independent topic. In the course of the project, the initial concepts for a SME square (SME²), for the TAB or for the link to investors have had to be reviewed and encountered changes in their processes to better cope with the needs and requirements of the community. The revised process of the TAB for instance has proven to be a success and contacts have been initiated on international level to duplicate the TAB in ecosystems outside Europe.
The cohesion of the partners in the consortium strongly contributed to the coherence and interactions between the different actions and services offered to the European nanomedicine community. ENATRANS has been able to develop a one-stop-shop for translation and to efficiently use European funding to successfully deliver.
