Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

Improving the flow in the pipeline of the next generation of marine biodiscovery scientists

Project description

Harnessing the power of the sea to unlock nature’s pharmacy

Marine life possesses the remarkable ability to produce biologically potent natural products, including antibiotics and anticancer compounds. Scientists are tapping into the potential of marine organisms for drug discovery. The EU-funded MarPipe project aims to develop antimicrobial and anticancer lead compounds. Additionally, it will explore the bioactivity of deep-sea samples collected during the Eurofleet-2 project in the sub-Antarctic region. By training 11 Early-Stage Researchers (ESRs), MarPipe will enable them to become leaders in marine drug discovery. The programme encompasses comprehensive training, encompassing research, technical and scientific skills, as well as participation in public scientific events and inter-sectoral networking exchanges. Ultimately, the project envisions the establishment of a marine biodiscovery start-up company.

Objective

MarPipe is a consortium of 11 partners (IBP-CNR, SZN, UiT, UNIABDN, GEOMAR, KULeuven, UCC, eCOAST, MEDINA, MicroDish, Italbiotec) based in 8 countries (I, N, UK, D, B, IRL, E, NL), including 3 from the non-academic sector. We will train 11 ESRs in marine drug-discovery, providing these researchers with unique skills toward becoming world leaders in this research field and to advance their careers in academia or industry. MarPipe PhDs will be trained in a programme including training-by-research, joint courses of technical, scientific and transferrable skills, active participation to public scientific events, and an intense inter-sectoral networking exchange plan.
Marine organisms have the capacity to produce a variety of biologically potent natural products, including antibiotic and anticancer compounds. MarPipe aims at further development of antimicrobial and anticancer lead compounds originating from a previous EU project (PharmaSea), and will also explore the bioactivity of deep-sea samples (5000m) collected during the recent Eurofleet-2 project in the sub-Antarctic. The PhD students will thus be involved in all phases of the drug discovery pipeline, from isolation of new microbial strains to pre-clinical development of lead compounds. Importantly, they will also be trained to overcome existing bottlenecks in the field, e.g. low yields and low chemodiversity, isolation of known compounds, toxicity of compounds.
The discovery rates of new bioactive antimicrobial and anticancer molecules will be enhanced through 11 PhD projects that cover all phases of the biodiscovery pipeline. As a final outcome of the project, we envisage the creation of a marine biodiscovery start-up company, which will include most of the MarPipe partners. The scientists of the future will be trained to become conscious about the socio-economic and policy context of their work, since several specific MarPipe PhD projects focus on legal, policy, innovation and entrepreneurship themes.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MSCA-ITN-ETN - European Training Networks

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-ITN-2016

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 258 061,32
Address
PIAZZALE ALDO MORO 7
00185 Roma
Italy

See on map

Region
Centro (IT) Lazio Roma
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 258 061,32

Participants (12)

Partners (1)

My booklet 0 0