Access to TRANSVAC

The European Commission has long been instrumental in the integration and networking of groups developing new vaccines. However, gaps remain between scientists discovering new vaccines, the groups developing tests for characterising new vaccines, and the groups who can manufacture vaccines. This gap is often referred to as a ‘translational gap' as translating good ideas into effective vaccines can be very difficult to achieve. To address these challenges the EC-funded TRANSVAC project is establishing a collaborative vaccine development infrastructure based on shared visions and goals that will rapidly develop effective and safe vaccines. TRANSVAC provides the funding, expertise, and facilities to achieve this and will be accessible to any new parties with relevant expertise and to any groups researching or developing new vaccines that require support. Through a process, external groups may apply to benefit from the expertise, reagents, and facilities of the TRANSVAC partners. The costs associated with accessing TRANSVAC services are free to the selected external groups. Applications to use TRANSVAC's services are reviewed by an external Scientific Advisory Committee and ranked in order of priority. The User Selection Panel then makes the final approval of the projects to use TRANSVAC's services. The services offered by TRANSVAC include access to adjuvants, animal models, standardised reagents and assays, protein characterisation and production, and microarray analysis

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you are interested in finding out further information about benefitting from TRANSVAC's services. Use of the services provided by TRANSVAC may be requested by any European group and include:

1) Access to adjuvants; provision of adjuvants, formulation of antigens with adjuvants, characterisation of products, and optimisation of formulation. Partners involved: ID-Lelystad (NL), Biomedical Primate Research Centre (NL), The Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology (DE), and The UK Health Protection Agency (UK).

 
2) Access to vaccine preclinical testing platform (please contact the secretariat for further details).

3) Access to global analysis platform; access to AGILENT platform, access to AFFYMETRIX platform, and access to ILLUMINA platform. Partners involved: Helmholtz Zentrum für Infektionsforschung GmbH (DE), The Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology (DE).

4) Access to stable assay and reference standards platform; access to stable reference reagents for vaccine studies and access to clinical biomanufacturing. Partners involved:  The UK Health Protection Agency (UK), The University of Oxford, Jenner Institute (UK).

Who can Use The TRANSVAC Services?

You can use the TRANSVAC services for a period of up to three months if you fulfil a simple set of prerequisites:

1) You work in vaccine research and development.

2) The group leader and the majority of scientists on your team are working at an institution established in a European Member State or Associated State.

3) The group leader and the majority of scientists on the team are working in a country other than the country where the access partners are based.

4) You are allowed to disseminate the foreground generated during use of the service.

How to apply to use TRANSVAC's Services

You should contact us at the address in the "Contacts" section to discuss your requirements.  You will then be asked to submit a description of the work you wish to carry out on the site in question and to provide background information supporting the scientific merit of your project.  Your request will then be evaluated by an independent "Scientific Advisory Committee" composed of international experts in vaccine development.  They will assess your proposal according to the principles of transparency, fairness and impartiality.  The main selection criterion will be the scientific excellence of the application.