Under EU-OPENSCREEN-DRIVE, the ILO initiated six collaborative technological projects across Europe, offering specialised expertise in areas such as high-content screening and medicinal chemistry. The initiative has already delivered concrete results, including joint projects with academic groups, SMEs and pharma companies, and the development of innovative assay technologies such as NanoBRET (with Promega) and CETSA (with Revvity, Pelago Bioscience and partner sites including USC, ITMP Fraunhofer and Karolinska Institutet). By standardising access rules, legal frameworks and intellectual property agreements, the ILO significantly reduced barriers to collaboration.

Building on this success, the ILO model is now being expanded in our IMPULSE project where it will support the creation of new scientific and technological nodes addressing urgent biomedical challenges. The Industry Liaison Office operates on a steady and well-established rhythm. This includes annual face-to-face meetings hosted in different European locations. The next in person meeting will be held on March 17, 2026, in Berlin.

The European Commission’s recognition confirms what EU-OPENSCREEN partners experience every day: that effective collaboration between academia and industry is not only possible, but essential for accelerating drug discovery in Europe. We would like to thank all our ILO partners for their commitment and trust, which made this success possible, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration in the years to come.

Read the full article on the European Commission's website: https://projects.research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/en/projects/success-stories/all/how-europes-research-labs-and-pharma-firms-learned-talk-each-other