The project

Background

It’s estimated that 30 million people in Europe are currently living with asthma, and around 15,000 people die each year from asthma attacks in the continent Fourteen EU countries feature in the top 20 worst countries globally for asthma prevalence in adults.Between now and 2020, if no major breakthroughs in research and the management of asthma are made, about 120,000 people in Europe will die as a result of asthma attacks, and 4 million will be hospitalised. By co-ordinating asthma research activities at a pan-European level, EARIP will bring together world-leading asthma researchers to achieve a common goal.

EARIP

EARIP is a co-ordinated and integrated approach to asthma research, development and innovation across Europe. The project activities range from basic cell science research to assessing and improving European healthcare systems. Supported by the European Commission and run over a three-year period, EARIP will bring together asthma experts from across Europe to define what’s needed to reduce asthma deaths and hospitalisations in all EU member states. Activities will include workshops, prioritisation exercises, consensus strategies, and the development and publication of a set of recommendations about what’s needed to reduce asthma deaths and hospitalisations. These will result in a comprehensive ‘road map’ of asthma priorities in Europe that can be used by clinicians, researchers, industry, and patient groups to lobby for change and persuade EU funding policy-makers to invest in asthma.

EARIP will target a number of asthma research areas to ensure a comprehensive overview of all current research strategies from across Europe is included in the project road map. These include:

• Research into biological targets, aiming to discover new targets and  better define the role of existing biological targets
• Identify new systems, models and tools for phenotypic stratification
• Develop better and more efficient healthcare systems across Europe
• Define and develop new diagnostic tools
• Assess and improve patient self-management systems and provide suggestions for how these can be developed
• Identify how to establish a European Innovation Partnership (EIP) for the management of asthma
• Establish a European research network of clinical asthma research facilities

References

¹ Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA), 2004
² Calculated from data in the European Respiratory Society White Book (2nd Ed) 2012. Asthma in Adults (P. Cullinan & F Chung)
³ Global Burden of Asthma, GINA, 2004
⁴ European Respiratory Society White Book (2nd Ed) 2012. Asthma in Adults (P. Cullinan & F Chung)