UCD has signed a partnership agreement with the European Patients’ Academy on Therapeutic Innovation (EUPATI). This is the first partnership between the European body and an Irish academic institution.

The patient-led non-profit EUPATI provides training and education to patients and their representatives across Europe so they can effectively engage and partner in medicines research and development. 

EUPATI and UCD have agreed to work together for knowledge exchange, sharing of resources and expertise, and development of training related to patient involvement in medicines research.

The partnership agreement has been supported by the PPI Ignite Network @ UCD, based at UCD Research, which works to embed Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) in health and social care related research and enable community partners to develop their own research capacities. Engaged Research is a strategic priority at UCD, to support the involvement of people from all backgrounds in research and education.

Incoming UCD President, Professor Orla Feely said: “This partnership agreement will help us to enhance collaboration between researchers and people with lived experiences, and to improve access to knowledge on medicines’ research and development for interested patients and other stakeholders. We look forward to working with EUPATI to build on the important PPI work taking place at UCD and across Europe.”

Executive Director of EUPATI, Maria Dutarte said: "We are delighted to embark on this collaboration with University College Dublin as we believe that academic research and innovation are the key driving forces to improved health outcomes for all. Patients have an important role to play in the development of new medicines and treatments and together we can advance further awareness of this as well as the required skills and capabilities for meaningful involvement for both patients and researchers."

The partnership will give UCD researchers the benefit of EUPATI’s expert connections in key areas including medical devices, clinical research and PPI with industry, particularly pharma, as well as increased access to wider networks of multi-stakeholders in medicines research and development.

EUPATI will gain access not only to UCD’s expertise in clinical, non-clinical, preclinical and early development phases of medicines research, but also the university's resources for public involvement in research and innovative learning.

Academic Lead in the PPI Ignite Network @ UCD, Professor Thilo Kroll said: "We are delighted to welcome this partnership between UCD and EUPATI. Through our shared values of openness, trust and mutual respect, we at PPI Ignite Network @ UCD have no doubt that this will be a positive and constructive relationship. We welcome the diversity and knowledge of EUPATI's European patient perspectives and are delighted to share our knowledge and expertise in research and involvement in return. We see this as a great opportunity to share our respective strengths and learn together."

UCD will engage with EUPATI’s Patient Expert Training Programme, which has trained more than 250 patient experts and has over 750 currently enrolled via the EUPATI Open Classroom. It provides an open-access multilingual toolbox that has served more than 6.5 million users around the world to date. UCD and EUPATI will also collaborate on events and resources for the health research community over the coming year.

Working with the PPI Ignite Network @ RCSI, UCD has been leading the work package to embed PPI locally and nationally through a national review of institutional policies and procedures, with the goal of expanding best practices across stakeholder organisations, guided by local partners.

UCD has a long standing relationship with IPPOSI, the Irish Platform for Patient Organisations, Science and Industry, who are also the EUPATI National Platform in Ireland. This has been fortified more recently through collaboration via the PPI Ignite Network, for which UCD is a lead site and IPPOSI is a national partner. 

For more information visit the PPI Ignite Network @ UCD.

 

Dr Emma Dorris (UCD Research, PPI Ignite Network @ UCD) in conversation with Siobhan Gaffney, Mark Byrne and Mandy Daly at the 2022 UCD PPI Symposium. Siobhan, Mark and Mandy are graduates of the patient education programme hosted by IPPOSI, the Irish National Platform of EUPATI