The RenalToolBox ITN comprises a team of world-leading clinicians, scientists and industrialists from academia and private enterprise whose common goal is to develop innovative medical devices and imaging technologies to expedite the translation of cell-based regenerative medicine therapies (RMTs) to the clinic. The target disease for RenalToolBox is kidney disease, the incidence of which is increasing annually. The ITN provides an excellent framework for training 15 early stage researchers (ESRs) in a range of technological, entrepreneurial and transferable skills that will not only enhance their career prospects, but will also boost European scientific excellence and business innovation. By the end of the programme, the ESRs will have benefitted from a comprehensive multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral training experience that will equip them to expedite progress in the emerging supradisciplinary fields of biomedical devices, bio-imaging, cellular therapeutics and regenerative medicine. The research training objectives are as follows: 1. Train the young researchers in the development of diagnostic devices and novel tracers for monitoring renal function. 2. Apply cutting-edge imaging technologies to evaluate the safety and efficacy of novel cell-based RMTs in a rodent model of kidney disease. 3. Assess the safety and efficacy of different sources of mesenchymal stromal cells and explore the mechanisms whereby these cells can ameliorate kidney disease. This comprehensive training programme will endow the young researchers with the necessary scientific and industrial skills to ensure their employability and readiness to engage and lead the next European generation of scientists-entrepreneurs.

The Innovation and Knowledge Centre in Regenerative Therapies and Devices will provide a sustainable platform to address the creation of new technologies in Regenerative Therapies and Devices. It will promote their accelerated adoption, with increased reliability, within a complex global marketplace with increasing cost constraints. Therapies and devices which facilitate the regeneration of body tissues offer the potential to revolutionise healthcare and be a catalyst for economic growth, creating a new business sector within healthcare technology. The IKC RTD will build upon the culture and research landscape of the University and its partners (industry, NHS and intermediaries/users) through the development of new innovation infrastructure and practices which deliver major clinical, health and industry outcomes.In the first year of operation the IKC has:1. Recruited and established a core innovation team to manage and grow the activities of the IKC.2. Established academic supply chain, new centre with 160 researchers.3. Won 50m new research income, funding over 120 research projects.4. Defined a new strategic framework for innovation.5. Established an innovation pipeline with stage gates and criteria for progression.6. Defined and developed the IP portfolio through definition of the unique capabilities.7. Established a pipeline of 63 collaborative innovation projects.8. Engaged with 26 different companies in collaborative innovation projects.9. Established a wider network of 80 plus companies.10. Contributed to nine new products that have reached the market.11. Defined a model for sustainability of IKC RTD.12. Received significant national and global recognition through political visits and extensive media coverage for research and innovation.

Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) is provoking the greatest global health crisis of this generation. With no vaccine or specific antiviral treatment available to date, the use of convalescent plasma (CP) from recovered COVID-19 patients has been considered a potential curative strategy. To demonstrate its efficacy and safety, clinical studies are ongoing or planned in various EU Member States. Unfortunately, there lacks a coordinated approach involving a large number of blood establishments (BEs) and clinical centres to harmonise protocols and guidelines, to standardise assays for characterising the potency of the plasma and to validate clinical outcome which will be of great importance to ensure that significant conclusions can be drawn. SUPPORT-E brings together major European BEs with world leading research capabilities with the aim to support high quality clinical and scientific evaluation of COVID-19 CP (CCP) and thereby achieve a consensus on the appropriate use of CCP in the treatment of COVID-19 across EU Member States. Hence, SUPPORT-E will advance the current state-of-the-art by delivering the much needed harmonised evidence-based recommendations with respect to the use of CPP in clinical trials and monitored access programmes for COVID-19 patients in Europe. Further, standardised informative in vitro assays providing scientific insights that could support such recommendations will also be developed. SUPPORT-E offers an EU-wide collaboration between Member States, BEs and clinical centres in order to close the knowledge gap and to ensure applicability of the recommendations for all EU Members States. SUPPORT-E represents the first European Union coordinated research effort on passive immunotherapy, sharing data and protocols in real-time and pooling efforts to decrease the time as much as possible for validating CCP as a valid therapeutic treatment and also providing a basis for further optimisation by combined approaches with other anti-viral treatments.