Revolutionizing Healthcare by Tracking and Understanding Human Cells during Disease

Project Information

LifeTime

Grant agreement ID: 820431

DOI

10.3030/820431

Project closed

EC signature date 11 February 2019

Start date 1 March 2019

End date 30 June 2020

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Future and Emerging Technologies (FET)

Total cost

€ 1 000 000,00

EU contribution

€ 1 000 000,00

Coordinated by

MAX DELBRUECK CENTRUM FUER MOLEKULARE MEDIZIN IN DER HELMHOLTZ-GEMEINSCHAFT (MDC)
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - LifeTime (Revolutionizing Healthcare by Tracking and Understanding Human Cells during Disease)

Reporting period: 2019-03-01 to 2020-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

LifeTime began as a consortium with a vision to transform European healthcare over the next decade as a Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) Flagship. The initiative consists of more than 100 institutions and medical centres, over 80 companies and is supported by patient organisations as well as prestigious European scientific societies and funding agencies. The initiative has brought together leading European scientists, experts and multiple stakeholders to identify the challenges, priorities and solutions to implement a new research, technology and healthcare vision. The recommendations from this work culminated in the LifeTime Strategic Research Agenda (SRA; https://lifetime-fetflagship.eu/wp-content/uploads/LifeTime-Strategic-Research-Agenda.pdf) which was submitted to the EC at the end of June 2020. This document provides a framework for an innovative, large-scale research initiative that covers the whole innovation chain. Its model for an agile, reactive network open to collaboration with established initiatives, has the potential to significantly impact European society and economy and strengthen the continent’s scientific leadership in several research areas.
LifeTime’s vision is to fundamentally change the way how diseases are detected and treated. By providing new knowledge and integrated digital and biomedical technological solutions, diseases will be detected much earlier than is currently possible and intercepted using the most effective therapeutic strategy. Importantly, the choice of treatment will be based on the underlying molecular and cellular causes of the disease in a particular patient.
The continued development, integration and application of three technologies lay at the core of LifeTime’s vision: i) single-cell and imaging technologies, ii) artificial intelligence (AI) in particular machine learning and iii) patient-derived disease models.
The original LifeTime project application had foreseen an “Integrated final Flagship proposal” as the main result of this CSA. However, the discontinuation of the FET-Flagship programme prior to the start of the funding period required a more flexible approach to be taken to maximise the impact of the effort. The outcome is a modular document, the LifeTime Strategic Research Agenda.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Between March 2019 and June 2020 in the framework of a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) in Horizon 2020, LifeTime organised multiple meetings and workshops, stakeholder interviews, an impact study and several community surveys. The initiative reached 16 milestones and submitted 39 deliverables which all contributed and fed into the LifeTime SRA. This document could form the basis for one FET-Flagship-like large-scale research initiative in its entity and also provides stand-alone chapters for smaller, more specific research programmes. Recommendations put forward in those individual chapters could for example feed into calls launched in a cooperative way across multiple countries or regions with involvement from both public and private research funders. If coordinated appropriately, projects funded in this way will support and benefit from each other. The SRA has been shared with European and national policy makers as well as private funding bodies and will be officially launched at the beginning of September.
LifeTime has also led to two publications, the above-mentioned Perspective article in Nature “The LifeTime initiative and the future of cell-based interceptive medicine in Europe” (in press) and a commentary in the EMBO journal “Thinking ‘ethical’ when designing a new biomedical research consortium” (in press). Further publications are planned including a report on the LifeTime impact study and another report on the stakeholders survey.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

LifeTime has created and structured a new community of considerable size. Most visibly, LifeTime has brought together scientific leaders in Europe. Coming from disparate areas, their interaction lays the foundation for the research strategies to develop a new area of single-cell based medicine. This new community is poised to initiate innovative research at the interface of disciplines. Importantly, this new community which goes beyond traditional research area silos has established and maintained close links to clinicians in Europe. With understanding the causes and progression of disease at cellular level as a core element of the initiative’s vision, this link is essential to develop strategies to rapidly implement research outcomes into clinical applications.
The LifeTime CSA has also impacted stakeholders in industry by developing a strong multi-sectoral community for which it created a new interaction space. The main outcome of the “LifeTime meets industry” event in Basel, the LifeTime Call for action “Make EU Health research count” (https://lifetime-fetflagship.eu/make-eu-health-research-count/) contributed to spreading the common vision of industry and academia partnerships. Joint applications to EU calls have been prepared indicating that interactions between academic and industry partners willing to implement the LifeTime vision will continue beyond the CSA. Companies offering solutions in relevant sectors will benefit from the LifeTime SRA which together with the impact study identified the technology areas important for economic growth. This will open new avenues for expediting innovation and identify new strategies for public-partner-industry interactions and collaborations. Project ideas to include in the new partnership for health innovation IHI are emerging. A report based on the LifeTime impact study will be published. The recommendations of the report can be exploited by policy makers at national and EU level to maximise the impact of future publicly funded R&I activities and stimulate private investments in Europe.
The opinion of multiple stakeholders, including representatives of patients’ organisations, clinicians and researchers towards LifeTime and its technologies was qualitatively assessed in targeted stakeholders’ interviews. Insights gained from these interviews will guide LifeTime designing its future projects and strategies, taking into account major concerns such as societal issues or organisational aspects involving research and healthcare. In addition, a network of specialists in bioethics, law, science dissemination, clinicians and scientists identified the initial risk areas that LifeTime might encounter facing the general public and have proposed solutions to mitigate them. With several outreach activities, as for example during the Berlin Science week or the Long Night of Science, LifeTime made an effort to inform the general public about its vision and goals. Internal and external communication strategies adapted to different audience groups as well as concepts for interdisciplinary and lifelong training within LifeTime will contribute to a knowledgeable and empowered society and a training culture of lifelong learning and adaptability to expanding challenges and technologies.

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