VAC4EU holds its first face to face General Assembly meeting in Barcelona - #BHHMembersInitiatives

H1N1 stressed the relevance of robust, timely and collaborative monitoring on the effects of vaccines to inform citizens, health care professionals, public health organisations and regulatory agencies. As a result of this need the ADVANCE project funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative designed, tested and created a blueprint for an ecosystem to implement collaborative monitoring of vaccine effects across Europe. The success of the project resulted in a post-project sustainable entity, which was initiated by funding of the member organizations: the Vaccine Monitoring Collaboration for Europe (VAC4EU). The legal entity was incorporated in January 2020 as non-for-profit international association, just before the COVID-19 pandemic was declared. The members formed by 25 research and public health institutions are leading safety and effectiveness monitoring of COVID-19 vaccines requested by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) directly or required by EMA to vaccine manufacturers and studies requested by the US CDC. Now, for the first time since the covid-19 pandemic started, its 25 member organizations will meet face to face next 7-8 th November in Barcelona to discuss the progress made by the network these last few months and establish the strategic objectives for next year. BHH member Teamit Institute, partner and member of VAC4EU executive board will host the event at Barcelona Health Hub in the stunning Sant Pau modernist site. Over 50 member representatives from Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, the Netherlands, and the UK will take part in this first face to face General Assembly Meeting since the start of the pandemic. Robert Fabregat, who was taking part in the ADVANCE initiation and now director of Biocat, the Catalan public-private foundation promoting life-science innovation in the region, opens the session.