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EU-OPENSCREEN ERIC Launches New EU-Funded Project IMPULSE

Apr. 26, 2024

EU-OPENSCREEN has secured funding from the European Union for the IMPULSE project (Grant Agreement No. 101132028), short for IMProving User experience, Long-term sustainability, and Services of EU-OPENSCREEN. Over this new three-year project, EU-OPENSCREEN, which has established itself as a leading provider of chemical biology and early drug discovery services for researchers across both academia and industry, will continue to expand its membership, services and capacities.

The IMPULSE project is a direct follow-up to EU-OPENSCREEN’s previous Horizon 2020-funded project DRIVE, which closed in Autumn 2023. DRIVE helped lay the foundation of EU-OPENSCREEN’s infrastructure and enable the setup of its first services in high-throughput screening and medicinal chemistry. IMPULSE aims to capitalise on this foundation and promote the growth of EU-OPENSCREEN through the following strategic objectives:

  • Foster relationships with scientific communities within and beyond Europe.
  • Expand EU-OPENSCREEN’s growing academic compound collection. [1]
  • Develop and implement services for bioactive molecule evaluation in advanced disease models.
  • Develop and implement services in new chemical modalities for drug discovery.
  • Support data reproducibility and common cross-consortium operational standards.
  • Implement machine learning and artificial intelligence for pathway and drug target prediction.
  • Offer a comprehensive suite of training activities for consortium members and external scientists.
  • Engage with industrial actors in relevant fields.

The IMPULSE consortium consists of 25 expert partner institutions spanning Europe, all of whom belong to member or observer countries of the EU-OPENSCREEN ERIC and who support our collaborative scientific projects [2].

On April 9–10, 2024, EU-OPENSCREEN hosted the kick-off meeting for IMPULSE in Berlin, Germany. Leaders from across the IMPULSE consortium attended this meeting in person to discuss project goals and chart the initial course of action.

Through concerted collaboration among all IMPULSE partners, EU-OPENSCREEN is poised to reinforce its position as Europe’s leading research infrastructure for chemical biology and drug discovery.  

[1] https://www.eu-openscreen.eu/services/academic-library-development.html

[2] IMPULSE partner institutions: the Leibniz Research Institute for Molecular Pharmacology (DE), the Institute of Molecular Genetics (CZ), Palacky University (CZ), Masarykova University (CZ), the Danish Technical University (DK), Fundacion MEDINA (ES), the Center for Biological Research Margarita Salas (ES), the Principe Felipe Research Center Foundation (ES), the University of Santiago de Compostela (ES), Helsinki University (FI), the i3S Association (PT), the Faculty of Pharmacy University of Lisbon (PT), the Karolinska Institute (SE), the University of Turku (FI), the Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis (LV), the University of Oslo (NO), the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics (PL), the Institute of Biological Medicine (PL), the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry (PL), the University of Coimbra (PT), Fraunhofer ITMP (DE), the University of Porto (PT), and the Helmholtz Center for Infectious Disease Research (DE).