PERSPECTIVE

Future Framework EFMC

At the workshop organised in Frankfurt in February 2013, the invitees jointly discussed about future priorities the EFMC should emphasize, taking EFMC’s pillars as a starting point for discussion:

  • cooperation and networking within the global scientific community
  • lifuture training and mentoring of young scientists
  • rewarding scientific excellence
  • enabling communication within the scientific community
  • promoting influence and communication with the stakeholders

Goal of the brainstorming was to define future activities of the EFMC and to build a roadmap how to promote medicinal chemistry within Europe at a time where we see unprecedented changes in the life science enterprise.

The stimulating discussions, held in a good atmosphere were very fruitful. Ideas came up, proposals were collected and working groups have been established, translating creativity and lateral-thinking into concreteness.

As a result we established 8 working group who were asked to come up with concrete proposals for implementation. The topics/working groups selected were:

  • EU Policy
  • Visibility of EFMC/Medicinal Chemistry
  • Social Media
  • Interaction within the community
  • Young Scientist Meeting
  • Emerging markets
  • Links to other disciplines
  • Stakeholder map

Working group progress has been reviewed in the meantime and overall the project teams have made great progress. Already some of their proposals have turned into day to day activities (e.g. the use of Social media), some working groups are at the stage of prioritising proposals for follow-up, and one working group (stakeholder maps) has completed its activity and was closed. As expected we also identified some overlap between the different working groups and the committees.

Based on all the inputs of the last 12 months the EC proposed to modify the EFMC framework to focus on two strategic areas: to enable flexible exploration of new topics involving all EFMC stakeholders (Council, Scientists, Advisory Board, Executive Committee), and to improve day to day operations. As a result the EC proposes the following EFMC framework:

1. STRATEGIC THEMES

Influence on European science policy

Current Membership:

  • Rob LEURS, VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands
  • Uli STILZ, EFMC President, Germany
  • Christophe GENICOT, UCB, Belgium
  • Anders KARLEN, Uppsala University, Sweden
  • Danijel KIKELJ, University of Ljbuljana, Slovenia
  • Phil JONES, University of Dundee, UK

Visibility and recognition of medicinal chemistry

Current Membership:

  • Fabrizio GIORDANETTO, Taros, Germany
  • Gabriele COSTANTINO, EC Member, Italy
  • Laure BOUCHEZ, Novartis, Switzerland
  • Bernd CLEMENT, Kiel University, Germany
  • Vesna GABELICA MARKOVIC, Galapagos, Croatia
  • David REES (Astex Pharmaceuticals, UK)
  • Henk TIMMERMAN, VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands
  • Anna TSANTILI, University of Athens, Greece
  • Andrew THOMAS, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Switzerland

2. EXPLORATORY TEAMS

Emerging markets

Current Membership:

  • Edmond DIFFERDING, Differding Consulting, Belgium
  • Henk TIMMERMAN, VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands
  • Pascal GEORGE, EC Member, France
  • Katarzyna KIEC-KONONOWICZ, Jagiellonian University, Poland
  • Christa MÜLLER, University of Bonn, Germany
  • Rui MOREIRA, University of Lisbon, Portugal
  • Antoni TORRENS, Esteve, Spain

Biotech, SME, pharma landscape and how to interact with that landscape

Current Membership:

  • Rino RAGNO, University of Rome, Italy
  • Pascal GEORGE, EC member, France
  • Andy THOMAS, AstraZeneca, UK
  • Jarkko RAUTIO, University of Eastern Finland, Finland
  • Constance CHOLLET, University of Cologne, Germany
  • Roberto DI SANTO, University of Rome, Italy
  • Felix CALDERON, GSK, Spain

Links to other disciplines

Current Membership:

  • Christian OTTMANN, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands
  • Jordi GRACIA, EC member, Spain
  • Sarah SKERRATT, Pfizer, UK
  • Maurizio RECANATINI, University of Bologna, Italy
  • Graeme ROBERTSON, TES Pharma, Italy

Quality and visibility of training in medicinal

Current Membership:

  • Marko ANDERLUH, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • Hein COOLEN, EC Member, the Netherlands
  • Norbert HAIDER, University of Vienna, Austria

3. OPERATIONAL ACTIVITIES

Social media working group

  • Koen AUGUSTYNS, EC member, Belgium
  • Stuart CONWAY, University of Oxford, UK

Communication team (Newsletter/Yearbook/web/EU calls)

  • Gabriele COSTANTINO, EC member, Italy
  • Rasmus CLAUSEN, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Nele COULIER, EFMC, Belgium

Short courses team

Current Membership:

  • Henk TIMMERMAN, VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands
  • Serge VAN CALENBERGH, Ghent University, Belgium
  • Peter MOHR, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, CH

Encourage nominations for candidates for awards and prizes

Current Membership:

  • Henk TIMMERMAN, VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands
  • Gerhard ECKER, University of Vienna, Austria
  • Fabrizio GIORDANETTO, Taros, Germany


Editor

Gabriele Costantino
Univ. of Parma, IT

Editorial Committee

Erden Banoglu
Gazi Univ., TR

Lucija Peterlin Masic
Univ. of Ljubljana, SLO

Leonardo Scapozza
Univ. of Geneve, CH

Wolfgang Sippl
Univ. Halle-Wittenberg, DE

Sarah Skerratt
Pfizer, Sandwich, UK

Executive Committee

Uli Stilz President
Koen Augustyns President Elect
Hein Coolen Treasurer
Gabriele Costantino Member
Phil Jones Member
Jordi Gracia Member
Pascal George Member

For more information please contact info@efmc.info

MedChemComm