Ongoing projects
Project Name | Acronim | Description | Time | Scientific/ Educational Coordinator |
Administrative Coordinator |
HORIZON 2020 | |||||
SMART LIVING HOMES – WHOLE INTERVENTIONS DEMONSTRATOR FOR PEOPLE AT HEALTH AND SOCIAL RISKS | GATEKEEPER | The rising population of elderly in the EU member states is giving rise to new challenges in relation to independent living. The GATEKEEPER project aims to ensure healthier, independent lives for the ageing populations. It will connect healthcare providers, businesses, entrepreneurs, elderly citizens and the communities they live in. The goal is to create an open, trust-based arena for matching ideas, technologies, user needs and processes. The project will also incorporate data protection while underpinning value creation using advanced marketing patterns. The solutions deployed will involve 40 000 elderly citizens, as well as authorities, institutions, companies, associations and academics, and 8 regional communities from 7 EU member states. | 01.10.2019 – 31.03.2023 | prof. Przemysław Kardas |
Ewelina Łojewska |
Identification of the Molecular Mechanisms of non-response to Treatments, Relapses and Remission in Autoimmune, Inflammatory, and Allergic Conditions | 3TR | The identification of the molecular mechanisms that influence a patient’s response to medical treatment is a key issue among health practitioners. A study promoted by 3TR, a consortium of university institutions, SMEs and pharmaceutical companies, will address this issue. This project will apply bioinformatics and control methods to collect and analyse data from blood, tissues and other fluids during the treatment process. It will create a centralised data platform for better management and implement an inclusive molecular and clinical picture of patients experiencing similar diseases. The project intends to explain the role that our microbiome, genetics and regulatory genomics play during treatment. | 01.09.2019 – 31.08.2026 | prof. Maciej Kupczyk | Agata Wiśniewska |
Constructing a ‘Eubiosis Reinstatement Therapy’ for Asthma | CURE | A key characteristic of asthma that remains relatively unexplored is susceptibility to infection. Recent studies reveal that the respiratory microbiome is characteristically imbalanced in asthma. Our data indicate that a feature of dysbiosis in asthma is reduced abundance of bacteriophages. We propose that reinstating eubiosis within the asthmatic airway through phage therapy will be able to control the immune dysregulation and clinical presentation of the disease. We must be able to predict the effects of adding phage mixtures to the complex ecology of the airways and design appropriate interventions. In CURE, we will develop a predictive model using information from virus-bacterial interactions, host responses and clinical disease expression, validated and fine-tuned using an in-vitro host-microbe-phage interface system. The project will develop phage preparations as candidates for clinical testing in asthma | 01.10.2017 – 31.03.2022 | prof. Maciej Chałubiński | Kinga Zel |
A high-dimensional approach for unwinding immune-metabolic causes of cardiovascular disease-depression multimorbidities | TO_AITION
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Depression is highly associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD), significantly increasing the risk of CVD development, acute events and mortality, especially in women. It represents a social and economic issue affecting the patient’s life and causing healthcare costs. However, the mechanisms and progression of the disease remain unknown. The TO_AITION project works on the hypothesis that immune-metabolic dysregulation due to genetic, lifestyle and environmental risk factors affects immunity mechanisms leading to CVD-associated depression. The project will effectuate preclinical and clinical research applying data-driven strategies to detect and describe immune-metabolic mechanisms responsible for CVD-depression comorbidity, aiming to improve diagnosis and management of the disease. | 01.01.2020 – 31.12.2024 | dr hab. Jakub Kaźmierski |
Kinga Zel |
European Research and Preparedness Network for Pandemics and Emerging Infectious Diseases | EU-RESPONSE | COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the necessity of improving the global clinical trial capacity based on the cooperation between the EU and international partners. DisCoVeRy (WP1), designed as a multi-arm adaptive repurposing trial, can be expanded to several European countries with adequate multinational financing and trial management capacity. The EU-RESPONSE project will establish a multinational, adaptive European COVID-19 and emerging infectious diseases trial network, taking advantage of the existing initiatives, allowing the European expansion of DisCoVeRy (WP1) and the creation of a COVID-19 adaptive platform trial (WP2). The project will produce solid evidence for drug repurposing or registration, permitting most European hospitals to participate at their preferred level of commitment in establishing a network of investigation sites within the EU and associated countries. | 01.07.2020 – 30.06.2025 | prof. Anna Piekarska | Kinga Zel |
Leveraging AI based technology to transform the future of health care delivery in Leading Hospitals in Europe | ODIN | Hospitals across Europe have been struggling to cope under the enormous pressure caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the biggest challenges has been increasing the capacity of intensive care units. In this context, the EU-funded ODIN project has identified 11 hospital care challenges that can be addressed by combining robotics, IoT and AI. For instance, autonomous and collaborative robots can reduce the workload on overstretched hospital staff. The robots can provide a range of assistance services – from clinical to logistic. The project’s overall goal is to pave the way for data-driven procedures and management in healthcare. | 01.03.2021 – 31.08.2024 | prof. Przemysław Kardas |
Ewelina Łojewska |
Alliance for Life Sciences: From Strategies to Actions in Central and Eastern Europe | A4L_ACTIONS | Research and innovation are key to addressing Europe’s societal challenges, including the health and well-being of its citizens. In spite of investments, countries are still characterised by differences in research and innovation. In some sectors, such as health, these differences can have an impact on the quality of life of European men and women. Building on the successes of the Alliance4Life project, the A4L-ACTIONS project team aims to address the research and innovation gap by developing the culture, governance, recognition and innovation capacity of health research institutions in underperforming CEE countries. Such measures will increase their attractiveness and pave the way for cooperation with European countries. | 01.05.2021 – 30.04.2024 | prof. Lucyna Woźniak |
Kinga Zel |
National Science Center | |||||
Improving rational prescribing for UTI in frail elderly | ImpresU | Antibiotics are among the most widely prescribed drugs in long-term care facilities, including UTI cases, which highlights the importance of antibiotic stewardship (ABS). The project compares the experience in the field of the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Sweden. In these countries a large variety of initiatives to develop and implement ABS (e.g. in Nursing Homes) have been introduced in recent years. Among these initiatives are national antibiotic prescribing surveillance systems, specific prescribing guidelines and national networks of healthcare institutions that exchange information and develop ABS policy. Several initiatives evolved as a result of political prioritization of antibiotic resistance. Experiences of the 4 countries with the different initiatives may inspire other countries that aim to develop or improve ABS. | 01.04.2018 – 31.03.2021 | dr hab. Maciej Godycki-Ćwirko | Anna Kowalczyk |
EIT Health | |||||
Airway Disease Analysis and Prevention | ADAPT | ADAPT will validate an entirely new, non-invasive diagnostic device for topical sampling of chronic airway diseases and combine it with an innovative panel of precision-medicine biomarkers. The solution will allow early detection and differentiation of allergic rhinitis and asthma endotypes, which are responsive to prevention and specific treatment. The innovation opens new perspectives in precision medicine, allergy prevention and home care. The ADAPT solution combines newly developed biomarker candidate panel with “Nasosorption™ FX·i”, a safe, single-use device for non-invasive nasal sampling. More sensitive assessment is applicable in clinical practice, even in children or the elderly. The diagnostic test is envisioned as a tool for primary care, and there has also been consideration of developing it further, for home-care settings. | 01.01.2019 – 31.12.2021 | prof. Maciej Chałubiński | Kinga Zel |
Maintaining and improving the intrinsic capacity involving primary care and caregivers | POSITIVE | POSITIVE provides a technological infrastructure to enable a new organisational model for elderly care – a model that involves patient, caregiver and primary and specialised care. By monitoring intrinsic capacity, POSITIVE not only provokes a shift in the care setting but also shifts the focus from disease to capacity, from diagnosing diseases to monitoring trajectories across the life course, centring care on the person in an integrated way. Patients are assessed constantly, and, as needed, a tailored physical activity programme is automatically prescribed to maintain or improve their condition. Caregivers are aware of any decline and can check whether the senior being monitored is alright at any given time. As the remote system keeps them in regular contact, primary carers can involve specialised care if needed. | 01.01.2019 – 31.12.2021 | prof. Tomasz Kostka | Kinga Zel |
New ways for self-management knowledge to yield up care | New SkyCare | New SkyCare aims to establish the first pan-European virtual hospital, providing patients safe, comfortable home-centered treatment through telemonitoring and remote medical assistance. The project will develop a Medical Service Centre to provide hospitals with a 24/7 care-service that monitors and guides chronically ill patients with diabetes type II and chronic heart failure. | 01.01.2019 – 31.12.2021 | mgr Piotr Jagiełło | Piotr Jagiełło |
Using data to improve prostate cancer diagnostics and treatment | OncoWatch | OncoWatch provides game changing improvements to prostate cancer diagnostics and treatment by combining Big Data, AI and cloud-based technologies to achieve several advances. OncoWatch Image provides faster, better and cheaper image analysis of prostate biopsies, OncoWatch Explore brings new analytical tools for precision medicine, leading to reduced time to treatment and accelerated drug implementation, and OncoWatch Control is a cloudbased, IEC62304- and GDPR-compliant, infrastructure tailored to provide access to OncoWatch Image and Explore. It is in the EIT Health Focus Area of “Care Pathways” because it speeds and improves screening for prostate cancer and can improve treatment with personalised medicine approaches. | 01.01.2019 – 31.12.2021 | dr Marcin Braun | Kinga Zel |
Soft bone cement for better treatment of osteoporotic fractures | Softbone | The Soft-bone project aims to evaluate the performance of a special bone cement which, when set, is less hard than classically used preparations. Cement is injected into the broken vertebral body. In the case of fractures in osteoporosis, we are dealing with less strong bone tissue. In such cases it happens that the classically cemented shaft is hard and poses a risk of fractures in the adjacent vertebrae weakened by osteoporosis. Soft-bone cement is softer and thus “friendlier”, it is supposed to eliminate this phenomenon. The potential results of this project will be important for clinical practice. | 01.01.2020- 31.12.2020 | prof. Maciej Radek | Agata Wiśniewska |
Epidemiology of Ageing and Dementia Prevention | Ageing@EITHealth | The EIT Health Ageing PhD School is a pan-European collaboration of academic and non-academic partners working to train a new generation of PhD specialists in ageing science, neuroscience, gerontology and epidemiology – while also equipping learners with the innovation and entrepreneurship skills they can use to develop and market new healthcare solutions. The consortium includes accredited PhD programmes at 12 European universities with internationally recognised scientific competence in research areas and proven competence in offering high-quality PhD training. The programme also incorporates courses in innovation and entrepreneurship and exposure to the EIT Health netwo | 01.01.2020- 31.12.2023 | prof. Lucyna Woźniak | Kinga Zel |
From Scientists to Innovators for Industry | Sci-Fi | Transitioning from academic research to working in the pharma and medtech industries can be challenging. This course helps you overcome that challenge with the guidance of academic and industry partners, so that you can learn from real-life cases and have the opportunity to work with experienced mentors. | 01.01-31.12.2021 | Joanna Baranowska |
Joanna Baranowska |
Innovation Days | i-Days | i-Days promote health innovation among university students through dozens of one-day and two-day programmes held in academic institutions around Europe. Students from all academic areas receive an introduction to practical health innovation tools and compete in teams to tackle real-life health challenges posed by EIT Health, local organisations, private corporations or start-ups. The winning team of each i-Day will attend the Winners’ Event, a final competition that unites students from around Europe. | 01.01-31.12.2022 | Anna Bulińska | Joanna Baranowska |
3rd Health Programme | |||||
Evidence-Based Guidance to Scale-up Integrated Care in Europe | VIGOUR | The programme is designed to understand and guide 15 care authorities through a staged process of analysis, advice on good practice and training in care system capacity and capability building and implementation approaches at the operational, organisational and strategic levels of stakeholders involved in different localities throughout Europe. Knowledge exchange and mutual learning will be enhanced by a twinning scheme bringing together VIGOUR “pioneer” care authorities with “followers”. Further external care authorities will benefit from the experiences gained throughout the staged scaling-up process in terms of dedicated webinar and podcast programmes. | 01.01.2019 – 30.06.2022 | prof. Tomasz Kostka | Kinga Zel |
Health Alliance for Prudent Prescription and Yieldof Antibiotics in a Patient-centered Perspective | HAPPY PATIENT | HAPPY PATIENT expects to reduce the inappropriate prescription of antibiotics by 40%. Its key outputs will be both scalable and capable of implementation throughout the diverse health systems in the EU. It aims to reduce the inappropriate use and dispensing of antibiotics in the most common community-acquired infections (i.e., respiratory tract infections, urinary tract infections, dental infections) with a multifaceted intervention in health care facilities as suggested in point 4.2 of the EU guidelines for the prudent use of antimicrobials in human health. Activities of HAPPY PATIENT will target patients, primary care professionals (general practitioners, nurses, and dentists), secondary care (out-of-hours services), nursing homes and community pharmacists. | 01.01.2021 – 31.12.2023 | dr hab. Maciej Godycki-Ćwirko | Anna Kowalczyk |
Erasmus+ KA2 |
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Network of Health Science Innovation Incubation Programs | NetHIIP | The aim of the project is to unify incubation programs, which in different countries, at different universities, are aimed at students with innovative ideas and solutions. The project included an analysis of startup ecosystems in different countries, as well as local and university conditions. An online platform has also been created to host hackathons for students from all countries, interdisciplinary and international. The methodology used in the project will also be described in scientific articles, as well as other materials that will help disseminate the results during and after the project. | 01.09.2019 – 31.08.2022 | Marcin Ciszewski | Ewelina Łojewska |
Development of a training program for improving QoL of seniors living in loneliness | Healthy Loneliness | Unwanted loneliness has increased all across Europe, especially in the elderly, hindering their health and well-being. Through different co-creation initiatives and considering their needs, our project addresses elderly loneliness. This project will provide elderly and other actors with tools to tackle with their loneliness, increase self-esteem, and understand that living alone does not mean living in loneliness. It will co-create, develop and validate high quality adapted learning program tailored to the needs of low-skilled or low-qualified seniors living in a situation of loneliness with the aim of acquiring skills and competences to minimize the negative effects in both mental and physical health. | 01.03.2021 – 30.04.2023 | dr Magdalena Wieczorkowska | Ewelina Łojewska |
Education and commitent as a strategy to fight against doping | ECASFAD | The project aims to gather knowledge about current anti-doping activities and to create a public education program, an educational platform for various people interested in the fight against doping – students, athletes, trainers, coaches, physiotherapists, doctors. This is an international program coordinated by the center in Spain. The project is already after the first stage – a handbook has been made defining the current state of available sources of knowledge on anti-doping activities. | 01.01.2021 – 31.12.2022 | prof. Anna Jegier | Ewelina Łojewska |
Online Adaptive International Progress Test | OAIPT | The Online Adaptive International Progress Test project drew on global experience in progress testing and aimed to explore an innovative method. It is an adaptive test, that is, it is administered by computer, which adjusts the difficulty of the question to the student’s level of knowledge. The aim of the project is, among other things, to draw up universal guidelines for implementing adaptive testing at universities and university consortia, to improve academic teachers’ skills in writing test questions, to develop students’ self-education skills, to investigate the effectiveness of adaptive testing in relation to ordinary test progression. | 01.09.2018 – 31.12.2021 | prof. Janusz Janczukowicz | Ewelina Łojewska |
COST | |||||
Leukemia Gene Discovery by data sharing, mining and collaboration | LEGEND | Childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and lymphoma account for ~30% of all childhood cancers, but the causes remain largely unknown. Studying patients with distinct rare genetic predisposition to leukaemia/lymphoma is crucial, because the underlying biologic mechanisms are likely to be relevant for leukaemogenesis and lymphomagenesis in general. To learn as much as possible from and for these patients, international collaboration between leukaemia and lymphoma experts is crucial. Accordingly, this Action consisting of paediatric oncologists, geneticists, and scientists from multiple countries in- and outside Europe will meet on a regular basis to exchange research strategies and to establish joint research projects and therapeutic activities addressing patients with leukaemia/lymphoma predisposition. | 26.10.2017 – 25.04.2022 | prof. Wojciech Młynarski |
Agata Wiśniewska /Justyna Strumiłło |
European Network to Advance Best practices & technoLogy on medication adherencE | ENABLE | Due to an ageing society, there is a steady increase in chronic diseases and multi-morbidity in Europe. This rise of chronic diseases and multi-morbidity requires a multidisciplinary response, which often involves lifestyle changes combined with lifetime medication use. Medication non-adherence affects however up to half of the chronic medication users, poses considerable challenges in managing chronic diseases, and is associated with almost 200,000 deaths and €80-125 billion of potentially preventable direct and indirect costs in Europe. Technological advances (e.g. smart pillboxes, digital inhalers, tracking devices, e-injection pens, e-Health, big data), have significant potential to support healthcare professionals and empower patients in detecting and managing non-adherence. | 20.10.2020-19.10.2024 | prof. Przemysław Kardas |
Ewelina Łojewska / Justyna Strumiłło |
CliniMARK: ‘good biomarker practice’ to increase the number of clinically validated biomarkers. | CliniMARK | Thousands of circulating proteins are hallmarks of disease, response to treatment, or a patients’ prognosis. The identification of these molecule biomarkers holds a great promise for improvement of personalized medicine based on blood tests. For instance, diagnosis and prognosis with biomarkers (e.g. carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)) has significantly improved patient survival and decreased healthcare costs in colorectal cancer patients. Despite significant investments to increase the number of biomarker studies, only about 150 out of thousands of identified biomarkers have been implemented in clinical practice. To increase the number of clinically validated biomarkers, rather than increasing the number of biomarker discovery studies, CliniMARK will improve the quality and reproducibility of studies and establish a coherent biomarker development pipeline from discovery to market introduction. | 14.03.2017 – 31.10.2021 | prof. Lucyna Woźniak | Agata Wiśniewska /Justyna Strumiłło |
Interreg Central Europe | |||||
Innovation ecosystem for smart elderly care | I CARE SMART | The I CARE SMART project aims to build and strengthen partnerships with organisations that are able to deliver cutting edge technology solutions in the area of health and social care for older people. It aims to bring innovation to the senior community by introducing innovative products and services that actively engage their audiences and develop the “silver economy”. The silver economy means, among other things, providing and modifying products tailored to the needs of seniors, valuing seniors as active market participants, as well as activities addressed not only to seniors, but also to institutions and organizations whose customers are seniors. | 01.11.2019 – 30.04.2022 | dr Sebastian Wawocki |
Ewelina Łojewska |
EU Operational Funds | |||||
Opracowanie prototypów leków do zastosowania w terapii komórkowej i egzosomalnej zespołu ostrej niewydolności oddechowej wywołanej przez wirus SARS-CoV-2 | KELI | The aim of the project is to evaluate the possibility of using placenta-derived stem cells and the secretome of these cells in inhibiting the inflammatory process during SARS-CoV-2 virus infection. The research will be carried out under a joint project of Kaunas University of Medical Sciences, Medical University of Lodz and Lithuanian company Kelifarma and will be financed by the European Union Funds Investment Operational Programs. On the part of the Medical University of Lodz, the project will be implemented by the team of Prof. Małgorzata Czyż, in which the main contractor is Katarzyna Kluszczyńska, M. Sc. , a student of the International Doctoral School. | 01.03.2021 – 01.02.2022 | prof. Małgorzata Czyż | Aneta Andrzejczyk |