NaBiA is Born!

On 27th January 2009, the first 25 partners of NaBiA, the European Alliance in Nanobiotechnology, have met for the first time in Brussels to launch this joint initiative of Nano2Life and Frontiers. The most committed partners of the two EU FP6 networks of excellence have agreed to join their forces and pull together their best practices for the benefit of the European S&T community in nanobiotechnology. NaBiA represents the single, largest and most competent network in Europe in nanobiotechnology.

This light and reactive network doesn't adopt a legal status and membership fees to prevent any unnecessary administrative burden. The activities to be implemented in the next 12 months will be supported by the internal resources of the partners. This unusual and transient /modus operandi/ is requested to keep the European nanobio S&T community sustainable, durable, competent and highly dynamic. It shows the high commitment of its partners, even though the low total budget cannot allow them to envisage large scale operations.

The one year programme established there focuses on 6 topics:

• Research implementation
• Education and training
• Communication and dissemination
• Ancillary aspects: ELSA, technology assessment
• Strategy and enlargement
• Technology transfer

We hope that NaBiA will positively interact with the DG Research - NMP unit for the benefit of the public and private community in nanobiotechnology.