The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), has now launched a call for a pool of patient experts. By establishing a pool of patient experts, IMI intends to strengthen the role and voice of patients in IMI activities at both strategic and operational levels.
Deadline for submitting expressions of interest: 16 July 2019 at 17:00 CEST (Central European Summer Time / Brussels time).
IMI is a partnership for research between the European Union and the European pharmaceutical industry, represented by the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA).
IMI’s facilitates open collaboration in research to advance the development of, and accelerate patient access to, personalised medicines for the health and wellbeing of all, especially in areas of unmet medical need. The EU project IMI2 JU seeks to improve the access and development of innovative medicines, and will facilitate transnational cooperation between healthcare research (including universities, the pharmaceutical and other industries, small and medium-sized enterprises [SMEs], patient organisations, and medicines regulators).
In EU member states, there is a gap in meeting the needs for medical and social care for patients with chronic diseases or lifelong conditions. This is where IMI2 JU comes in. A pool of patient experts (those living with the condition or a family member/informal carer of a patient), from across the EU, is to be assembled to influence this initiative. The IMI2 JU pool of patient experts is open to a wide range of patients (and family members and carers) with a chronic illness or condition that is linked to IMI’s Strategic Research Agenda.
As a patient expert, your personal experience is vital to this research and will have a direct impact on the project. Furthermore, you will have some responsibilities which may involve you travelling to Brussels or may be done remotely via Skype for example.
Basic criteria to be a patient expert for this project:
- being a patient (or a family member or carer of a patient) with a chronic / lifelong illness or condition;
- being a resident of an EU Member State, a country that is associated with the EU’s research programme Horizon 2020, or the WHO European Region
- having a specific interest in one of the disease areas featured in IMI’s Strategic Research Agenda;
- have a working knowledge of English.
You are entitled to reimbursement and an allowance for any activities you perform. Moreover, if you are asked to perform any specific work assignments, you will be paid €450 per day (the standard expert contract) plus travel, accommodation, and subsistence expenses. Experts work on an ad hoc basis on this project.