Mission and Strategy

Mission

SafeSciMET provides educational training in Safety Sciences to lead to a new generation of safety specialists with strong competences in translational medicine and the application of novel technologies in risk assessment which will allow them to perform holistic and critical evaluations of the safety of drug candidates and new medicines by linking in vitro and animal data with patient data more effectively.

Scope and Objectives

SafeSciMET constitutes a new and unique pan-European education and training network developing and establishing a comprehensive modular Education and Training Programme in Safety Sciences for Medicines. This programme will fulfill the needs of pharmaceutical industry, regulatory authorities and academia. The network bringing together top institutes for drug safety education and research with Pharmaceutical Industry leaders, creates a new type, high quality and sustainable programme for education and training in Safety Sciences for Medicines. The tailor-made training courses will encompass the safety, ethical, regulatory and societal aspects in all phases of drug development, with emphasis on integrative, translational and 3Rs aspects of drug safety assessment.

Target Audience

Individual safety professionals who wish to address specific knowledge gaps in one or several of the Safety Sciences topics will be able to follow single selected courses. The modular set up also provides an excellent opportunity for following dedicated subsets of courses, to be accredited for Continuing Professional Development (CPD). Scientists successfully completing the full programme, including an integrative MSc-thesis, will be awarded with an accredited Master of Advanced Safety Sciences of Medicines. All training courses and procedures will be aligned with the Bologna process.

Potential Impacts of SafeSciMET concern (i) comprehensive Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme for safety scientists, (ii) a new and sustainable Advanced Masters program in Safety Sciences for Medicines, (iii) reduction of the costs for drug development and speed up innovation by the pharmaceutical industry. (iv) reduction of adverse drug effects in the clinical research phases and (v) improved quality of life for the European citizens by contributing to the introduction of new safer medicines, as a result of improved drug safety evaluation and regulatory procedures.

Project Consortium

In SafeSciMET a close collaboration is foreseen between 17 top-institutes for drug safety education and research and 15 industrial pharmaceutical companies, all members of EFPIA (European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations).