While the chemistry Nobel Prize is given to multiscale modellers, it is frustrating to see how the European Commission fails to recognise the radical innovation that the VPH brought to biomedical research. Instead, in H2020 VPH will be diluted into a handful of themes, in a more ancillary role that we hoped. While this will provide our members probably even more funding opportunities than in FP7, H2020 will not guarantee the strategic cohesion that the VPH action in FP7 ensured.
Thus, the role of the VPH Institute becomes even more essential, if possible. It is our responsibility, as the community of practice revolving around the use of phyiology-based predictive models in medicine, to elaborate and disseminate this strategic vision in the near future. There are some fundamental steps we need to undertake in the near future:
a
) Expand our membership base. The introduction of the
new personal membership with a fee of €90 per year makes possible for every research group, no matter how small, to become member of the VPH Institute. This is a call to arms: the membership must increase significantly in the near future.
b)
Strengthen our collective identity. This is a work that is both internal and external. Internally, we need to ensure continuity around the networking initiatives that characterised FP7. The best opportunity is the VPH Conference: we must meet there every two years, present the best research we have, enrich the event with satellite happenings, etc. The organizing committee in NTNU driven by Stig Omholt is doing a great job with
VPH2014, but ultimately it is up to us to make this event a great success. Externally, we need to develop a professional targeted communication on the achievements of the VPH. The Institute will coordinate this effort, but as usual we can be only as good as our members are.
c)
Make bridges with the rest of in silico medicine. We need to position the VPH Institute and the research community it represents in a central but not omni-comprehensive role in the development of in silico medicine. Health informatics, bioinformatics, stratified medicine, personalised medicine; these and others need to perceive the VPH institute as an ally, not as a competitor.
A lot of work ahead of us; let's begin.
Marco Viceconti
VPH Institute, Executive Director
