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MVN Association to capitalize on success

Launch in Brussels

The newly formed Med-Vet-Net Association was officially launched at the October handover meeting with the announcement of the Association’s 10 means of action.

The self-funded Association, which currently comprises all 14 of the Network’s scientific partners, is set to become Med-Vet-Net’s most enduring legacy and will build on the success of its predecessor by strengthening existing partnerships and forging new collaborations both within Europe and around the world.

Indeed the Association has linked its very purpose to continuing Med-Vet-Net’s success through its overarching aim to increase, capitalize and disseminate scientific knowledge on zoonoses with the main emphasis on food-borne zoonoses.

In announcing how it plans to achieve its aim, the fledgling Association unveiled 10 means of action at the October event:

To organize scientific meetings
To launch calls for scientific collaborative projects funded by partners involved
To organize joint training courses and short-term missions
To develop a website and specialized databases
To promote active communication and dissemination of research results and achievements to relevant stakeholders via publications, website, news bulletins and networking
To create and maintain strain collections and DNA libraries
To prepare joint applications to European calls
To develop liaisons with European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, and the European Food Safety Authority
To provide scientific evidence for risk assessors, risk managers and policy‑makers
To develop scientific collaboration with non-EU partners.

In explaining at the launch how the actions would drive the Association’s purpose, newly elected President, Dr Valérie Baduel of AFSSA, said the next step would be setting the Association’s priorities. It’s very first task, however, would be preparing the Association’s proposal for the specific EC call: CSA on Sustainability of Networks of Excellence.

The Association also announced its final membership categories of which there are three levels: Full members, who at present are the existing Med-Vet-Net partner institutes; Associated members, comprising small to medium-sized research groups in the field of zoonoses; and Acceded members, who will, for the most part, be industrial organizations and companies.

The membership priority will be to bring new research groups under the Association’s wing to ensure the fight against zoonoses in Europe maintains the collaborative momentum generated by Med-Vet-Net.

Finally, joining Dr Baduel at the helm of the Med-Vet-Net Association are the VLA’s Dr Roberto La Ragione as Vice-President, and the Project Management team comprising Project Manager and Association Secretary, John Threlfall of the Health Protection Agency, and Treasurer Arnaud Callegari, from AFSSA.

Med-Vet-Net signed off as a Network of Excellence with a handover meeting and event in Brussels on 5–6 October 2009. The well-attended public event on day two doubled as the launch of the newly formed Med-Vet-Net Association, which is taking up where Med-Vet-Net left off to continue the Network’s overwhelming success. To officially farewell the old and welcome the new at the public launch were newly elected President and Vice President of the Med-Vet-Net Association, Dr Valérie Baduel (right) and Dr Roberto La Ragione (centre); Med-Vet-Net’s Coordinator’s Representative Dr André Jestin; former Chair of Med-Vet-Net’s Governing Board, Prof. Peter Borriello; Tim Hall from the European Commission; and Med-Vet-Net Project Manager Prof. John Threlfall.