ALLIANCE-O
“ European Group for Coordination of National Research Programmes on Organ Donation and Transplantation”
Alliance-O is a coordination action of the ERA Net scheme of the 6th framework programme.
Organ transplantation is a well-established, life–saving and efficient treatment which represents the most clinically effective and cost-beneficial treatment for end-stage renal and renal-pancreas failure and the only available one for liver, lung, heart and intestine. Nevertheless, there is a chronic shortage of organs supply, while at the same time all necessary steps should be taken to ensure to receiving patients best possible performances in terms of quality and safety for all such therapeutic treatments.
The objective of ALLIANCE-O is to establish a coordinated action between national/regional research programmes that exist in contracting countries in the field of organ transplantation.
Project summary
Research programmes for improving Organ Transplantation efficiency addressed in this action are:- Expanding donor pool (heart beating and non heart beating deceased donors, living donors)
- Improving efficiency and equity of allocation rules
- Improving safety and quality of organ transplantation
- Improving evaluation methodology
- Improving fundamental research.
ALLIANCE-O in numbers :
7 member states partners : De, Fr, It, Hu, Sp, Po, UKDuration : 3 years
EC funding : 2 Mi Euro
The Agence de la biomédecine (ex-Etablissement français des Greffes) is the coordinator of the project
The activities of the Consortium will address questions at the level of coordination of research programmes. We will proceed to the identification and comparisons of the respective national/regional programmes and their methodologies (aims, organisation, evaluation, funding, benchmarking) and results.
The aims of this benchmarking are beyond coordination and improvement of the exchange of information, good practices and results of research programmes among partners, i) to enhance research relevance and validity and maximise research utility by avoiding duplication; ii) to develop applicable methodology that could be used (through joint actions) to improve the potential for organ donation, the allocation, quality and safety of organs, and the evaluation of organ transplantation.
The ERA-NET Alliance-O coordination action will have an impact at several levels:
In countries in which organ transplantation is already a well-established and organised activity, the identification of best possible strategies will have a positive effect on quality and coordination. The partners have a strong history of cooperation and networking, this is a considerable asset regarding the feasibility, implementation and long-term sustainability of common actions. A mid-term benefit will be the avoidance of duplication and maximising of efficiency of the respective national programmes. The main deliverable of this coordination action is a White paper on the issues of OT treated in the project. This is the first ever coordination of donation and transplant activities across such a number of different countries and a variety of tasks.
The expected outcome is harmonization and coordination not only in research programmes but also in defining the best common practices and guidelines. It will therefore be of major relevance and interest not only for professionals but also for policy makers.
Partners organisations involved :
- Agence de la biomédecine - France
- German Ministry of Health, Deutsche Stiftung Organtransplantation - Germany
- Ministry of Health, Hungarotransplant Psc - Hungary
- Instituto Superior di Sanita, ISS, National Transplant Center - Italy
- Ministry of Health, Organizaçao Portugesa de Transplantaçao - Portugal
- Centro Nacional de Trasplantes - Spain
- British Ministry of Health, UK Transplant - United Kingdom
