hDMT activities

Coordination

As coordinator of the consortium and central point of contact for external parties, the daily management of hDMT involves lobbying and branding, network formation, finding funding opportunities for research, organizing meetings, PR and communication, project coordination, stimulating and mediating collaboration and creating platforms for gathering and exchanging expertise, results and ideas. The research communication is through seven hDMT theme groups that form the heart of hDMT. In these theme groups, each focusing on specific types of Organ-on-Chip, latest developments are presented, funding opportunities discussed, and new projects created. All interested researchers are welcome, from professor to PhD student. After 5 years, an Organ-on-Chip research community has been realized, that demonstrates the added value of collaboration.

Lobby

In the Netherlands, hDMT has put Organ-on-Chip on the agenda of Ministries, Topsectors, Dutch Enterprise Agency (RVO) and RIVM, and convinced them of the importance of the technology and of hDMT. This resulted in uptake of Organ-on-Chip in the routes ‘Regenerative Medicine’ and ‘Personalized Medicine’ of the Dutch Research Agenda (NWA), in the Transition Animal-free Innovation program and in the strategy for reinforcement of Dutch ecosystems, supported by the National Action Program of Topsector Life Science and Health, but also in new funding options for Organ-on-Chip research.

Organization and communication

Organization of (inter)national scientific meetings belongs to the activities of hDMT. The managing director participates in advisory boards and user committees of (inter)national research projects, gives interviews, lectures, presents posters, writes publications, publishes news on the website and in newsletters and develops PR materials in order to visualize the hDMT consortium and the potency of Organ-on-Chip technology.