Work Package 1
The GACD Secretariat organised biannual Board meetings, including in Ottawa, London, Tokyo and Washington DC. In addition, it supported the work and decision-making of the Board in between meetings, including by organising two annual Board teleconferences and by preparing documentation. The Board discussed and agreed GACD research priorities, including the topic of the fourth call (mental health). Regular monthly Management Committee calls and an annual face to face meeting were planned and implemented. The call text for the mental health call was developed and published.
To coordinate the calls for applications on lung diseases and mental health, the Secretariat updated and disseminated information from all agencies, including published call text, timelines and applicant information. The Secretariat maintained a website which makes this information available publicly, and set up a separate submission portal for the receipt of mental health call applications. Standard operating procedures for the joint peer review have been developed, and the joint peer review of lung diseases applications has been completed.
The Secretariat also published the formal announcement of all diabetes research grants receiving funding and organised a launch event for the announcement of the lung diseases research grants.
Work Package 2
The annual scientific meeting, i.e. the meeting of all funded research teams, took place in Mexico City in November 2015 and in Sydney in October 2016. The 2015 meeting marked the formal start of the newly funded Diabetes Programme, whilst the 2016 included a number of the newly funded lung diseases researchers for the first time. Results from the annual meeting have been disseminated among the research network as well as publicly.
The Secretariat facilitated a number of working groups, particularly in the development of joint papers. Seven joint publications from GACD researchers have already been published, with a number of additional papers in development.
The annual report 2014/15 and 2015/16 were published and disseminated online and to relevant parties in hard copy.
Work package 3
The Secretariat engaged in the required continuous reporting of deliverables and milestones.
The annual financial audit was completed in 2015 and 2016 and submitted to the GACD Board.
