Tiko Pro team accepted the challenging task – not only to coordinate and contribute with proposal writing activities, but also to join a consortium of 20 different institutions with the aim to apply for EU grants within an innovation driven Marie Skłodowska Curie Action!
The EU funded programme Marie Skłodowska Curie Action enables research-focused institutions of all profiles to train and host talented researchers and to create strategic partnerships with leading institutions worldwide. MSCA has several types of actions, among which the “Research networks (ITN): support for Innovative Training Networks” was perfect for our project idea.
About the project
Continuous biomanufacturing is one of the grand challenges of Europe’s bio-industry. It offers a significant opportunity to boost productivity, improve competitiveness and to reduce the environmental footprint. Current progress is impaired by shortage of trained engineers and scientists, who can design and control continuous biomanufacturing processes. This Innovative Training Network (ITN) will focus on addressing the critical gaps in research training to enable advances in continuous downstream processing.
An expert consortium of nine industry partners, eight universities, one research organisation, a regulatory institution and a business consultancy has developed a research and training programme to address the most urgent topics in continuous downstream processing. These are:
(1) process control and modelling (including economic modelling),
(2) miniaturization, scale-up and scale-down of unit operations and
(3) process design and development of integrated continuous downstream processes.
Furthermore, regulatory framework questions, such as comparability of product quality between batch and continuous processes will be addressed. Adding the regulatory and environmental aspects to the scientific, technological and economic approach, makes our program interdisciplinary, comprehensive and unique. Specific Ph.D. topics for 15 ESRs have been outlined. The presented research and training programme will equip the ESRs with the scientific and important transferable skills, such as IPR, entrepreneurship, data management and innovation management.
The consortium’s strong track record in the management of interdisciplinary research and training will ensure effective and timely training of the next generation of leaders able to design innovative continuous facilities of the future for Europe’s bio-industries, ensuring affordability and widened access. Exposure to academic, industry and regulatory sectors will provide the researchers with unparalleled career opportunities.
Overall budget: € 3 991 008,24
EU contribution€ 3 991 008,24
What the coordinator said about us?
We are not only proud to be one of the 20 consortium partners of Marie Skłodowska Curie Action but we are also very proud of what Prof. Alois Jungbauer, one of the key scientists of the leading partner ACIB, said:
»We worked with TikoPro on a proposal for a Marie Curie Action in the framework of H2020. Their work helped us to coordinate, structure and focus meetings with a consortium of 20 partners. During project preparation their extremely efficient and reliable work enabled us to streamline discussions about the content and to successfully submit the proposal within a remarkably short preparation time.«
Prof. Alois Jungbauer
Laboratory of Protein Technology
and Downstream Processing
Austrian Center of Biotechnology
Department of Biotechnology
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences