The European Rare Diseases Research Alliance (ERDERA) aims to improve the health and well-being of the 30 million people living with a rare disease in Europe, by making Europe a world leader in Rare Disease (RD) research and innovation, to support concrete health benefits to rare disease patients, through better prevention, diagnosis and treatment. This Partnership will deliver a RD ecosystem that builds on the successes of previous programmes by supporting robust patient need-led research, developing new diagnostic methods and pathways, spearheading the digital transformational change connecting the dots between care, patient data and research, while ensuring strong alignment of strategies in RD research across countries and regions. Structuring goal-oriented public-private collaborations targeted at interventions all along the R&D value chain will ensure that the journey from knowledge to patient impact is expedited, thereby optimising EU innovation potential in RD. To support its ambition and missions ERDERA has been designed as a comprehensive and integrated ecosystem of which structure can be compared to an institute encompassing three main parts: (i) funding, (ii) internal (in house) Clinical Research Network that implements research activities targeting clinical trial readiness of RDs and accelerating diagnosis and translation of research discovery into improved patient care, and (iii) related supporting services (Data, Expertise, Education and Training) as well as an acceleration hub that serve external and internal RD community, all supported by all-embracing coordination and strategy and foundational (inter)national alignment.

Children’s health is a major societal challenge for Europe and the world, requiring development of paediatric medicines and treatments strategies based on evidence derived from clinical trials demonstrating efficacy and safety in infants and children, rather than on uncritical extrapolation from adult data (over 50 % of the medicines used for children had not been tested in this specific age group). Conducting clinical trials in children requires specific competences and infrastructure. ECRIN-ERIC (www.ecrin.org) is a generic infrastructure for multinational trial management, in any disease area. However it does not specifically address the paediatric needs in terms of trial management capacity. In its 2016 Roadmap, ESFRI suggested an upgrade of ECRIN to develop a common infrastructure for paediatric trial management through cooperation with the European Paediatric Clinical Trial Research Infrastructure (EPCTRI). The resulting PedCRIN project is also a unique opportunity to improve ECRIN business model and financial sustainability, attracting more industry-sponsored trials and more Member and Observer countries. PedCRIN builds on five work packages : project coordination (WP1); establishment of a strategy and upgrade of the governance and business plan, through a Sustainability Board jointly involving the scientific partners and the government representatives (WP2); development of tools specific for paediatric and neonatal trials (WP3) (methodology, outcome measures, adverse event reporting, bio-sample management, ethical and regulatory database, monitoring, quality and certification); operational support provided as transnational access to a few pilot trials to test the updated organisation and tools (WP4); communication targeting user’s communities (including industry), policymakers, patient and parents’ empowerment (WP5). Two other ESFRI-landmarks, BBMRI-ERIC and EATRIS ERIC, will contribute to PedCRIN.

The general objective of this project is to design the framework for the European Paediatric Translational Research Infrastructure (EPTRI), a new Research Infrastructure (RI) aimed to enhance technology-driven paediatric research in discovery and early development phases to be translated into clinical research and paediatric use of medicines. The starting point of the proposal is the serious lack of medicines for children in EU and worldwide as well as the lack of a developmental model for paediatric medicines that integrates technology-driven aspects with the methodological, ethical and regulatory framework. The design for this new RI will be based on the following main pillars: • to harness efficiency and delivery of paediatric research activities and services strengthening collaboration within the scientific paediatric community; • to be a complementary RI in the context of the existing RIs covering the current gaps, while avoiding any duplication; • to develop a one-stop-shop for advice in paediatric drug development. To prepare a valuable Conceptual Design Report (CDR), the project encompasses three phases. During the Context Analysis phase, that will be performed in 5 technical and scientific domains (1- Paediatric Medicines Discovery, 2- Paediatric Biomarkers and Biosamples, 3-Developmental Pharmacology, 4-Paediatric Medicines Formulations and Medical Devices, 5- Underpinning Medicines Development to Paediatric Clinical Studies) the perceived value and the possible gaps to be covered will be estimated by enquiring the scientific communities and many other Stakeholders. During the Operational phase, the different components of the new RI will be depicted including governance model strategies for interaction with national Authorities and the existing RIs, the IT-architecture model, services to be provided and a business plan. Finally, a Feasibility phase is proposed to develop virtual exercises simulating the operations of the RI. The final result of the project will be the CDR to realize EPTRI.