The European Medicines Agency and the European Commission DG Research are considering organising a joint workshop on 13 September 2010 to raise awareness on the potential funding opportunities through the 7th Framework Programme for health research in 2011 and provide guidance to interested parties on the application procedure to be followed to facilitate applications from SMEs.
The workshop will be confirmed in the event of sufficient interest i.e. receipt of a considerable number of pre-registrations.

As regards the nature of the service providers, this workshop is particularly intended for but not limited to: Contract Research Organisations (CROs), service providers, academic spin-off companies, consultancies with a specific interest and work experience in the field of pharmacovigilance, pharmacoepidemiology, health outcome research, patient-reported outcomes, drug utilisation studies, etc. It is not intended for pharmaceutical companies (i.e. Marketing Authorisation Holders).

To register your interest in this initiative, please send by 15th August 2010 the following information by email to: encepp_secretariat@ema.europa.eu

• Contact name
• Name and address of organisation
• Brief description of activities covered

The 5th Health Call was published by the European Commission on 20 July 2010 (deadline for submission of proposals is 10 November 2010). Further information and all relevant documents can be found on the CORDIS website.

Further information on the proposed priorities for adverse drug reaction research can be found at the ENCePP (European Network of Centres for Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacovigilance) website at: http://www.encepp.eu/events/index.html