News & events

For the second consecutive year, the IT-DED³ network was present at EuDEC, the annual congress of the European Dry Eye Society (EuDEC). On June 10th and 11th, a delegation of IT-DED³ members came together with more than 400 experts in ocular surface disease and dry eye in Paris to join the second edition of this 2-day congress. It consisted of numerous lectures and discussions with key opinion leaders worldwide. In a session entirely devoted to our consortium and entitled “IT-DED³ An European network for innovation” the audience could learn about the main achievements of our project over the past four years. 

Philipp Steven held the role of chairman of this session and introduced IT-DED³ by pointing out the Training Programme as the core of the work plan. Steven stressed the excellent opportunity this European Union-funded network offers to early-stage researchers (ESRs) and the following benefits for the European research community. The Work-Package Leaders Amalia Enríquez-de-Salamanca (WP1), Arto Urtti (WP2), Annabelle Reaux-Le-Goazigo and Françoise Brignole-Baudouin (WP3) presented the main goals and outcome of each team, listing the numerous publications and dissemination through participation in worldwide conferences. The Director of Training, María J. González-García provided an overview of the educational programme and stressed the involvement of the fellows in intersectoral secondments, their participation in lectures and workshops in transferable skills and engagement in the outreach of the network. All these aspects contribute to the uniqueness and innovative nature of this training plan. Camilla Scarpellini, a representative of the ESRs, gave a first-hand testimonial speech based on her experience as a Ph.D. fellow at the University of Antwerp. She emphasized the advantages of being part of an international, multidisciplinary and intersectoral network and its impact on their future career. Last but not least, Michael E. Stern, as head of the External Advisory Board, turned the spotlight on the collaboration between academia and industry. Stern highlighted the benefits of offering the doctoral fellows a comprehensive professional environment and how intersectoral cooperation leverages and extends the exploitation opportunities for research findings.

One year more, we celebrate the International Women's Day on 8 March. On this occasion, our team of early-stage researcher has prepared a video to show their commitment to helping forge an Inclusive World by supporting the #BreakTheBias campaing. We invite you to watch it! ♀️

December 18, 2020

In December 2020, the FDA drafted a new guidance document showing the high importance and urgent need for greater efficiency in drug development of DED, which currently has few effective treatment options. The goal is to enhance clinical trial data quality and to support the development of treatments for dry eye conditions. Specifically, it provides the FDA’s current recommendations regarding eligibility criteria, trial design considerations, and efficacy endpoints for use in clinical development programs of investigational drugs to treat dry eye conditions.

​FDA Guidance Document (PDF file)​

On June 18^th and 19^th, the European Dry Eye Society (EuDES) held the first edition of the EuDEC Congress and gave our IT-DED³ network the opportunity to introduce our Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action to a global research community specialized in Dry Eye Disease.

The European Dry Eye Society (EuDES) brings together most European Dry Eye Disease specialists and is the basis for structuring a task force on a European level, to continue expanding knowledge in the wide area of Dry Eye. The first edition of  the European Dry Eye Society Congress (EuDEC 2021) consisted of a very informative virtual programme, featuring speakers from all over the world, and was supported by industrial partners that are leaders in this research field.

The participation of IT-DED³ consisted of a full session on June 19^th entitled “ITDED3 A European consortium for innovation” and was chaired by Prof. Dr. med. Philipp Steven – head of Division for Dry Eye Disease and ocular GvHD at the University Hospital Cologne. The programme included six oral presentations. It started with an introduction by the coordinator, Prof. Koen Augustyns – Dean of the faculty of Pharmaceutical, Biomedical and Veterinary Sciences at the University of Antwerp, and concluded with a presentation about the perspectives of the External Advisory Board, given by Dr. Michael E. Stern – Chief Scientific Officer of ImmunEyez. Four early-stage researchers – Alba Ramos Llorca, Luna Krstić, Adrián Guerrero Moreno and Md Asif Khan Setu – described their different research lines within this project and provided a comprehensive overview of the main goals of IT-DED³.

This participation of our network in EuDEC was not limited to the IT-DED³ session on June 19^th. Two members of the External Advisory Board and four supervisors also took part in the congress either with keynote lectures, oral presentations or by chairing scientific discussions. Furthermore, no less than seven early-stage researchers presented their latest findings in the e-poster session.

This is the second occasion in three years that IT-DED³ has participated as a network in a scientific congress, with EVER2019 being the first time.

• Date: January 28^th, 2021
• Location: Online
• ​Agenda

On January 28th, the IT-DED³ consortium met virtually for the Annual Meeting 2021. One year more, a web-based event had to be organised due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though all the team is looking forward to meeting in person, the event was a success and the virtual setup also encouraged participation from the partner organisations Heidelberg Engineering (Germany) and Symeres (the Netherlands). All twelve ESRs had the opportunity to present the status of their research, as well as to receive questions and advice from the Supervisory Board and External Advisory Board. The agenda also included a closed Supervisory Board meeting to discuss management related topics, included the upcoming Summer School 2021 and the final Outreach Event.

After this successful Virtual Annual Meeting 2021, IT-DED³ has officially stepping into the final phase of the project, which is planned to conclude in December 2021.

• Date: March 19, 2020
• Location: Online
• Programme

Due to the COVID-19 virus outbreak, the Annual Meeting and Winter School of IT-DED³ could not take place in Kuopio, Finland, this year, as it was originally planned. Fortunately and thanks to the new communication technologies, the IT-DED³ consortium was able to meet virtually on March 19, 2020.

Both supervisors and ESR fellows took part in the scientific discussions about the technical work-packages. Chaired by the work-package leaders, these discussions served as a follow up of the ongoing research AND allowed to assess the progress made to date. Additionally, all supervisors, the ESR fellows’ representative and one member of the External Advisory Board also participated in the Supervisory Board meeting, which addressed several consortium related topics, including the Training Programme, the reporting and budgetary matters.

Although we would have preferred to be in Kuopio, we are happy to have had the opportunity to meet online with all IT-DED³ members this year. We are now already looking forward to seeing each other in Paris in January 2021!

• Date: October 17-19, 2019
• Location: Acropolis Convention Center, 1 Esplanade John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 06000 Nice, France (www.nice-acropolis.com)

In the frame of the joint meeting OcuTher & IT-DED³ during EVER2019 (Nice, Oct. 2019), Agnese –ESR3 and Anusha –ESR7 had the opportunity to interview Prof. Dr. Tor Paaske Utheim, expert on Innovation in the field of Dry Eye Disease in Norway. Prof Utheim is Director of Innovation at the Department of Ophthalmology in the Oslo University Hospital and Director of Research at the Norwegian Dry Eye Clinic, among an endless list of affiliations. His friendly cooperation by providing answers to our questions are a great contribution to our mission, which has the boost of research and innovation as one of its pillars.

Watch the video here.

• Date: October 17-19, 2019
• Location: Acropolis Convention Center, 1 Esplanade John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 06000 Nice, France (www.nice-acropolis.com)
• Programme

The joint meeting OcuTher and IT-DED³ was a success! Organised as a satellite seminar to the EVER Congress 2019 in Nice on October 16, this joint activity was a first step towards a promising collaboration between the two MSCA-ITN networks. The goal was certainly met.

OcuTher is the Educational Network in Ocular Drug Delivery and Therapeutics. It is coordinated by the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) and led by Prof. Arto Urtti. 

The meeting opened with outstanding presentations by Prof. Morten Carstens Moe, Head of Research at the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Oslo, and Prof. Tor Paaske Utheim, Director of Innovation at the Oslo University Hospital. Presentations about ongoing research by six ESRs followed –three from each project. The afternoon closed with a networking session providing the opportunity to the ESRs from both projects to expand their research network and get to know their peers, with whom they share similar experiences.

The meeting was followed by the three day Congress 2019 (http://www.ever2019.org/), where OcuTher and  IT-DED³ shared a booth at the exhibition area (spot nr. 6).

• Date: October 17-19, 2019
• Location: Acropolis Convention Center, 1 Esplanade John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 06000 Nice, France (www.nice-acropolis.com)
• Programme

All ESR fellows of IT-DED³ are attending the upcoming EVER Congress 2019 (www.ever2019.org), which will be held in Nice, on October 17-19.

In the frame of the congress, a joint satellite meeting will take place on October 16 together with OcuTher (www.ocuther.eu), an ITN project coordinated by the University of Eastern Finland (UEF), beneficiary 5 of IT-DED³. Six ESR fellows from both projects will introduce their research and all the attendees will also have the opportunity to listen to keynote speaker lectures on the field of Retinal Diseases and Dry Eye Disease.

• Date: January 17-18, 2019
• Location: Institute for Applied Ophthalmobiology (IOBA), University Campus Miguel Delibes, University of Valladolid, Spain

On January 17 and 18 (2019), the IT-DED³ consortium celebrated its Annual Meeting at The Institute for Applied Ophthalmobiology (IOBA), Valladolid –Spain. During the meeting, the Mid-Term Check by the REA took place, in which all the consortium members had the opportunity to listen to the important information provided by Ms. Barbara Mester, Head of Operational Sector, MSCA actions at the European Commission. As well, all all IT-DED³ ESR fellows had the opportunity to introduce themselves and their research project to the EC REA officer and to the members of the External Advisory Board of IT-DED³: Dr. Michael E. Stern, Prof. Dr. Virginia Calder and Prof. Dr. Carina Koppen; all them world scientific leaders in the field of Dry Eye Diseases (DED), who provided the PhD students with their excellent advice to move on in their research career.

The Annual Meeting took place during the celebration of the first Winter School of  IT-DED³ (Valladolid, January 14-18, 2019) which was focused on ‘Good Research Practices’. Two lectures within the Winter School were offered to a broader public.

Programme of the Annual Meeting 2019

Programme of the First Winter School

The Annual Meeting of IT-DED³ will be held in Valladolid, Spain in January 17-18. The meeting, which will take place at IOBA's facilities, will gather all beneficiaries, our 12 ESR fellows, members of the External Advisory Board and the REA Project Officer of IT-DED³.

The programme will be composed of the Mid-Term Check (MTC) by the EU Research Executive Agency (REA) on Thursday, January 17 and the (2) Consortium Meeting on Friday, January 18. The MTC is intended to assess the fulfilment of the recruitment procedure, the eligibility of the fellows and any deviations of the original training programme. During the Consortium Meeting on Friday, both scientific and management aspects will be discussed by the consortium members.

We look forward to a fruitful, productive, successful and enjoyable meeting!

The next International TFOS Conference 2020 already has a date and a venue: September 9-12, 2020, Cernobbio, Italy. The team of IT-DED³ will not miss it!

More detaills are coming soon at this link.

Date: May 24, 2018

Location: Grauwzusters Cloister, City Campus University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

The recruitment event of IT-DED³  was held in the Grauwzusters Cloister of the University of Antwerp on May 24. A total of 34 candidates from 24 countries were interviewed (26 in person and 8 via Skype). In the coming days, the supervisory board will select 12 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) to join the project and conduct their doctoral research in the field of Drug Development for patients suffering from Dry Eye Diseases (DED).

Presentations

Welcome presentation

UA-UAMC (ESR1, ESR2): Prof Dr Koen Augustyns

UA-LMPH (ESR3): Prof Dr Paul Cos

SU-CHNO XV XX (ESR8): Dr Françoise Brignole-Baudouin

SU-Institut de la Vision (ESR9): Dr Annabelle Réaux-Le Goazigo

UVa (ESR4, ESR6): Prof Dr Amalia Enríquez-de-Salamanca (UVa)

LIOS (ESR5): Dr Kirill Shubin

UEF (ESR7): Prof Dr Arto Urtti

UHC (ESR10, ESR11): Prof Dr Philipp Steven

iBET (ESR12): Dr Ana Matias

Testimonial - Carlos Moreno Cinos, University of Antwerp

Testimonial - PhD Muhammet Tanc, University of Antwerp

Testimonial - Juliana Aizawa Porto de Abreu, University of Antwerp

Date: January 11-12, 2018

Location: Hof van Liere, City Campus University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgiu

The Kick-off meeting of IT-DED³ was held at the historic Hof van Liere building of the City Campus of the University of Antwerp, on January 11th and 12th, 2018. The meeting was attended by representatives of all beneficiary institutions that make up the consortium and served to set the basis for a fruitful cooperation and good partnership.

Agenda of the kick-off meeting

Press release (10 January 2018)

December 12, 2017

The IT-DED³ coordination team was present at the ITN 2017 Coordinators’ Info Day, which was organised by the Research Executive Agency (REA) and held in Brussels on December 11, 2017.

The session featured presentations on how to implement MSCA ITN projects, offering the coordinators the opportunity to pose questions to the REA officers. Requirements were given as regards recruitment, financial management and reporting provisions as well as horizontal aspects covering ethics, IPR and open access.

Moreover, during the meeting, the IT-DED³ coordination team had the opportunity to meet our Project Officer, who provided us with valuable information to ensure sound management of the IT-DED³ project.

• Date: January 10, 2018
• Location: University of Antwerp
• Author: Communication Department, University of Antwerp

You can download the PDF version of the press release here.