The Laboratory of Medical Microbiology (LMM) is headed by Prof. Dr. Herman Goossens and was established in 1995. The LMM has a world reputation in studying antibiotic use and resistance, as well as on the development of rapid diagnostic solutions by identifying and tapping the potential of newly emerging technologies for diagnostic applications; it houses research teams with expertise in molecular diagnostics, antibiotic use and resistance, and in hospital and primary care research.

Contact: herman.goossens@uza.be

The Academic Medical Centre (AMC) houses the university hospital and the medical faculty of the University of Amsterdam, as well as several research institutes. A number of spin-off biotech companies are also located on the premises. This concentration of expertise provides a breeding ground for scientific collaboration. Infectious Diseases represents one of the main topics of clinical, applied and basic research at the AMC, integrated in a multidisciplinary fashion at the Centre for Infection and Immunity AMC (CINIMA). Laboratory facilities include biosafety laboratories up to level 3, state-of-the-art microbiology, molecular diagnostic, molecular biology, proteomic and genomic facilities including high-throughput next generation sequencing facilities.

Contact: m.d.dejong@amc.uva.nl

Cardiff University (CU) is part of the prestigious ‘Russell Group’ of UK universities. The Institute of Primary Care and Public Health (IPCPH), with over 100 applied clinical researchers, is one of five research institutes within CU’s School of Medicine. 65% of IPCPH research outputs were rated as ‘internationally excellent’ or ‘world leading’ in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. The IPCPH has won over €50M in research funding over the past 5 years, including funding from EU-FP6 and FP7, the Innovative Medicines Initiative, the UK Medical Research Council, Department of Health, and Wellcome Trust, and the Netherlands Research Council, and has been conducting clinical research into infections in primary care for over 35 years.

Contact: butlercc@Cardiff.ac.uk

The UMC Utrecht is an internationally renowned research and teaching hospital with 1,200 beds and all medical specialties represented. Within the Department of Medical Microbiology and the “Julius Centre for Health Sciences and Primary Care” >50 researchers from different medical specialties collaborate in studying antibiotic resistance, epidemiology of infectious diseases and ICU-acquired infections, applying molecular, microbiological, epidemiological and theoretical methods. Both departments harbour extensive experience with large-scale multi-centre intervention trials and epidemiological analyses of large patient databases.

Contact: M.J.M.Bonten@umcutrecht.nl

Erasmus MC is the largest university medical centre in The Netherlands. It participates with the Department of Viroscience that employs more than 110 employees of different disciplines and runs an extensive experimental research program on the epidemiology, pathogenesis, prevention and treatment of infections by human and animal viruses. The department houses the National Influenza Centre and the international reference centre for viral haemorrhagic fevers for WHO. It coordinates the FP7 projects EMPERIE (223498), ANTIGONE (278976) and VECTORIE (261466). The department is closely linked to the clinic with lab-clinical teams consisting of molecular biologists and a paediatrician and/or internal medicine enabling structural and direct translational research on a broad range of viral pathogens and IDs. It also collaborates with regional public health partners through a dedicated collaborative research centre, the Huisman Centre, and with the National Institute of Public Health through joint PhD projects and appointments.

Contact: m.koopmans@erasmusmc.nl

Imperial College London ranks in the top three Universities in the UK and the top five scientific universities in the world. The National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI) is a Division within Imperial’s Faculty of Medicine and includes Respiratory and Cardiovascular Science. Imperial is responsible for more than 50% of the UK’s high impact publications in respiratory research, and an independent review recently rated Imperial as the best research organisation in the world in respiratory sciences. The Section of Respiratory Infections is one of the Division’s most active and productive sections. The Centre for Respiratory Infection (CRI) was founded in 2008 with support from the Wellcome Trust. It provides a College-wide network of investigators to investigate, develop, test and apply innovative interventions in respiratory infections by promoting systematic and interdisciplinary research into the immunobiology and pathogenesis of respiratory infections (in animal models and in man) with the aim of enhancing preparedness for future outbreaks of respiratory infection. The CRI’s goals are to provide an infrastructure to facilitate applications for future projects and programmes of research and to train the next generation of scientists and clinicians. The CRI provided a springboard for the launch of MOSAIC in the face of the 2009-10 influenza pandemic.

Contact: p.openshaw@imperial.ac.uk

The University of Oxford ranks in the top three Universities for research in the UK and the top five in the world. The Centre for Tropical Medicine, which is part of the Nuffield Department of Medicine, is based within the Medical Sciences Division of the University of Oxford. The Nuffield Department of Medicine (NDM) employs approximately 1000 research staff working in a range of basic science and clinical disciplines and involved in world-class clinical trials and translational research. The Nuffield Department of Medicine in Oxford hosts a number of research groups complimentary to and directly involved in PREPARE including the International Severe Acute Respiratory Consortium (ISARIC – Jeremy Farrar) the Global Health Network (GHN – Trudie Lang), and Worldwide Antimalarial Resistance Network (WWARN – Philippe Guerin). There are very strong links within the University with the Clinical Trials Service Unit (Richard Peto), the Centre for Human Genetics (Peter Donnely), the ETHOX Centre (Michael Parker) and the Department of Public Health (Rory Collins). Strong linkages with the overseas programmes and Oxford research groups within Medical Sciences and the wider University give the Oxford Centre groups unique access to collaborations and networks covering respiratory research globally. The Centre provides resources and other support to enable research to be conducted in the most efficient and effective way whilst enabling the training of the next generation of world-class scientists and clinicians.

Contact: peter.horby@gmail.com

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Contact: welte.tobias@mh-hannover.de

The SERGAS is an autonomous administrative body responsible for the management and provision of health services in the Public National Health Care system in the Region of Galicia (Population: 2.772.533). Total Budget 2009 3.788 M €. It includes a network of 14 hospitals, 3 of them university hospitals, 457 primary health care centres and more than 37.000 workers (7314 physicians). Biomedical research and development is one of the most important activities in the SERGAS (1200 biomedical publications in 2011). Fundación Ramón Domínguez (FRD) is the non-for-profit entity in charge of the management of the research carried out in the main Hospital in Galicia, the Hospital Clínico Universitario de Santiago (CHUS). FRD manages at present more than 100 research projects funded through competitive national and international calls, more than 400 clinical trials as well as numerous collaborations with industry.

Contact: Federico.Martinon.Torres@sergas.es

HLA & Medicine-Systemoscope (HLA-MED) is a non-profit organisation supporting research and training activities, international workshops and conferences in the area of predictive and systems medicine. The European Institute for Systems Biology & Medicine (EISBM) is the European component of the Systemoscope International Consortium, founded by Charles Auffray, Zhu Chen (CSBM, Shanghai, China) and Leroy Hood (ISB, Seattle, USA). EISBM was founded in December 2010 by HLA-MED with the academic, hospital, industrial and local government partners of the Lyonbiopole international competitive cluster focusing its activities on the fight against infectious diseases, with facilities on the Charles Mérieux campus of Lyon University in the Gerland Biopole. EISBM is fostering the development of a cross-disciplinary environment in support of systems biology and systems medicine projects, with emphasis on multi-scale integration and control of energy metabolism and immunity in physiology, chronic and infectious diseases.

Contact: cauffray@eisbm.org

Institut Pasteur (IP) is a non-profit foundation dedicated to the prevention and treatment of diseases through biomedical research, education, and public health activities. For over a century, IP has been at the forefront of the battle against infectious diseases. Organised in 10 departments IP is recognised as a leader in infectious diseases research, and ranked as a top-level institution for publication impact in the field of microbiology. Through its International network of 32 Pasteur Institutes in 27 countries IP contributes to a better detection and control of pathogens of major concern for Human and Animal Health. A high-level technology park, composed of 10 state-of-the-art technological platforms, offers cutting-edge equipment and know-how. The IP’s Teaching Centre offers a high-quality training program to young French and foreign researchers through a unique combination of high-quality theoretical, analytical and technical courses and lectures. Within the Department of Virology, the unit of “Molecular Genetics of RNA Viruses” is headed by Prof. Sylvie van der Werf. The unit is the coordinating laboratory of the French National Reference Centre for influenza and hosts the WHO National Influenza Centre (Northern-France) and WHO H5 reference laboratory. The unit currently coordinates the FP7 project PREDEMICS (278433) and participates in several other European FP7 projects (EMPERIE, FLU-PHARM, FIBEBIOTICS) as well as in the FLURISK project funded by EFSA.

Contact: sylvie.van-der-werf@pasteur.fr

The School of Medicine, University of Split was founded in 1997 and is currently one of the four national medical schools. Assistant Professor Ozren Polasek is a member of the Department of Public Health and also serves as the Head of the Croatian Centre for Global Health, an inter-department unit that fosters excellence in biomedical research, especially in areas of global health, genomics, public health and epidemiology, research methodology and also serves as the Cochrane collaboration unit for entire Croatia.

Contact: opolasek@gmail.com

The School of Medicine and Medical Sciences (SMMS) and the School of Public Health, University College Dublin (UCD). UCD is the largest university in Ireland with over 1,500 Academic Staff and produces over 25% of Ireland's PhD graduates each year. The SPH has a large and dynamic research portfolio, currently managing grants worth approx €75 million, and 300+ peer reviewed publications per annum. The School has clinical research centre with specific research expertise in population based studies and also has established links with the School of Public Health, in UCD.

Contact: alistair.nichol@ucd.ie

Biocartis aims to improve healthcare outcomes by enabling the practice of personalised medicine anywhere, anytime. Biocartis’ ambition is to establish a new gold standard in diagnostic testing. Biocartis develops assays which have high clinical utility and compelling health economic value. Biocartis’ broad platform capabilities are well suited to address the growing need for individualised and primary care diagnosis. Biocartis is a rapidly growing company; to date Biocartis staff includes over 140 people. Biocartis SA is based at the EPFL's Innovation Square in Lausanne, Switzerland; the Belgian entity which counts over 100 staff, is located in Mechelen.

Contact: gmaertens@biocartis.com

Biomax Informatics AG is a Munich based SME that, since 1997, provides services and computational solutions for better decision making and knowledge management in the life sciences, with a special focus on semantic knowledge representation, data integration and knowledge aggregation. Knowledge generation is based on proprietary tools for text- and data-mining (e.g. generating the NCI cancer gene index in collaboration with the NCI or data mining based patient stratification and biomarker profile development). Within Healthcare projects these frameworks allow to establish solutions which integrate electronic health records, clinical and environmental data, experimental results and general knowledge on the affected morbidities to provide individually tailored care suggestions to improve the quality of life for diseased patients.

Contact: dieter.maier@biomax.com

Janssen Diagnostics (formerly Tibotec-Virco) is a small, global diagnostic and health information technology company based in Beerse, Belgium, and is one of the Johnson & Johnson operating companies. For the past sixteen years it has focused on infectious diseases, such as HIV and HCV, bringing innovative services and products in clinical practice. Our on-site commercial laboratory is the largest of its kind in Europe. Janssen Diagnostics also commercialises an electronic health record system for ambulatory care HIV clinics in the United States, and we are developing a pilot longitudinal registry in Northern Europe for HCV monitoring in clinical practice. The company applies the most advanced technologies in molecular biology, virology, genomics, robotics and electronic data processing to improve the diagnosis and management of infectious diseases and to reach its mission in providing innovative therapeutic solutions in the field of infectious diseases. The company’s BSL3 lab is the biggest of its kind in Europe. With broad expertise in the area of diagnostics and direct links within the JNJ Group of Companies- including other major diagnostic players such as Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, Janssen Diagnostics is uniquely positioned to play a pivotal role in bringing novel technologies in infectious diseases that can be integrated in a therapeutic solution for infectious diseases worldwide. In addition, the company is actively involved in multiple European research projects including FP7 grants and government funded private-academic consortia (eg. RAPP-ID IMI Project). The company has a research and business relationship with Biocartis and is committed to advancing rapid molecular diagnostic technologies in infectious diseases through partnerships in respiratory tract infections.

Contact: jvillaci@its.jnj.com

bioMérieux designs, manufactures and markets systems and technologies for in vitro diagnostics used in clinical and industrial applications. With 50 years of experience in the field of in vitro diagnostics, bioMérieux has contributed to the technological transformations in the field, leading to a commercial offer comprising a range of increasingly sophisticated tools that are currently being automatized to the largest possible extend. bioMérieux works closely with healthcare professionals in the three areas of healthcare-associated infection control: Prevention, Surveillance and Intervention. bioMérieux pursues an ambitious innovation strategy focused on two priorities: (a) Giving biologists, clinicians and industrial laboratories more comprehensive, high medical value and/or predictive information, (b) Optimizing the management of workflows and processes in clinical and control labs, with the dual objective of constantly reducing time to results and improving productivity. bioMérieux has developed partnerships across the globe to drive advances in diagnostics. A very extensive sales network facilitates a universal spread of our products and philosophy.

Contact: alex.vanbelkum@biomerieux.com

The Institute of Virology in Bonn is one of the largest Medical Virology settings in Germany, serving a 1400 Bed University hospital in the most populated area of the country. Bonn is one of the focal points of clinical HIV- and hepatitis research in Germany, with a full serum sample archive dating back almost 20 years in the Virology laboratories. Other main focuses of work are respiratory viruses and viral zoonoses including Arthropod-borne viruses. The Medical Faculty of the University of Bonn (including the Institute of Virology) is one of seven partner sites of the newly founded German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF).

Contact: drosten@virology-bonn.de

The PENTA Foundation was set up in May 2004 as PENTA coordinating centre, to support activities aimed at carrying out research on HIV and related diseases. As per its statute, the Foundation is a promoter/sponsor of clinical trials according to the GCP guidelines and new relevant European Directives, a centre for the collection, study, research and dissemination of information on HIV and infectious diseases and coordinator of training programmes for health providers. The founder members have been working together and running the PENTA network since 1991 and represent key institutions for PENTA activities such as Dipartimento di Pediatria of Padova, ANRS/INSERM SC10 HIV Trial Unit, Paris, MRC-CTU, London, Necker Hospital, Paris and University of Padova. Throughout the years PENTA has been funded by the European Commission, the Medical Research Council, the NIH, the Italian Institute of Health and pharmaceutical companies and has established framework agreements with key health care institutions such as Padova Hospital and Paediatric Hospital Bambino Gesù in Rome. Since 2008 PENTA has been formally present within the EMA Paediatric Committee (PDCO) as scientific and research organisation.

Contact: carlog@pediatria.unipd.it

The University of Western Australia is ranked 96th in the Shanghai-Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities. It is one of only two Australian members of the Worldwide Universities Network a partnership of 18 research-led universities from Europe, Africa, the Americas and the Asia-Pacific. Medicine and health are one of six strategic research priority areas for the University. Research strengths within health and medical research include preparation and analysis of linked datasets, genetics, the mind and nervous system, and critical care. The University has about 2000 higher degree by research students at any given time.

Contact: steve.webb@uwa.edu.au

ERS is an international organisation that brings together physicians, healthcare professionals, scientists and other experts working in respiratory medicine. We are one of the leading medical organisations in the respiratory field, with a growing membership representing over 140 countries. Our mission is to promote lung health in order to alleviate suffering from disease and drive standards for respiratory medicine globally. Science, education and advocacy are at the core of everything we do. One in eight people in Europe die due to lung diseases – this means one person every minute. It includes well known diseases like asthma and lung cancer and other less known like Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which is now the third most common cause of death. ERS is involved in promoting scientific research and providing access to high-quality educational resources. It also plays a key role in advocacy – raising awareness of lung disease amongst the public and politicians.

Contact: A.Simonds@rbht.nhs.uk

The WHO Regional Office for Europe (Regional Office) is one of the 6 WHO Regional Offices. It supports about 900 million people in 53 Member States in the WHO European Region in developing and sustaining their national health policies, health systems and public health programmes; working to identify, prevent and overcome potential threats to health; anticipating future challenges; and advocating public health. This enables WHO/Europe to inform and advise countries on the most effective ways to improve the health of their populations. The Regional Office implements its work together with its Country Offices in 30 Member States in central, south-eastern and eastern Europe, WHO headquarters, WHO collaborating centres, the European Commission, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, national institutes of public health in the Region and the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

Contact: zalika.klemenc.ketis@gmail.com

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Contact: chris@semiotics.be

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Contact: A.Simonds@rbht.nhs.uk

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Contact: Gunnar.Kahlmeter@ltkronoberg.se

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Contact: scott@berryconsultants.com