Coordinator:

Maarten Dhaenens, Belgium

Throughout the course of the previous EuPA EC mandate under Lennart Martens’ presidency, a gap was identified and a new Executive Committee (EC) was founded: The EC of Industry.

As their first assignment, the EC of industry defined their own set of core tasks. Essentially, everything revolved around facilitating the contact and communication between EuPA as a mainly academic interest group on the one hand and industry on the other. During the first brainstorm session, the “industry” was defined in two important groups: (i) the industry whose business is focused on proteomics (mass spectrometers, kits, software, offer analysis as service) and (ii) industry partners that use proteomics as a tool (e.g. for biomarker discovery and drug development). The former group might be very interested to present their products or services e.g. as sponsors at EuPA events. Both groups are probably interested in learning and be part of the proteomic community. While not binary, this distinction helps to divide the different tasks of the EC.

For potential industry partners whose business is focused on proteomics and are looking for sponsorship deals, a set of packages are being developed to enable them to reach out to potential customers as much as possible. Briefly, EuPA has two kinds of activities: (i) all the digital events that overwhelmingly take place in Proteopolis, like the job fair, early career events, student exchange event (SEE)  and the EuPA Open Lab Days and (ii) the physical events, which mainly is our annual EuPA conference, which alternatingly is organized with Proteomics Forum (in Leipzig in 2022), with HUPO (in Dresden) and independently with local proteomics associations (in Newcastle, UK, with BSPR in 2023) and in Saint-Malo, France, with the FPS in 2025.

What is entirely new, is that EuPA is also reaching out to industrial users of proteomics technology. This was facilitated through the Proteomics in Industry Working Group (πWG) that was established at EuPA in Leipzig. Peter Blattmann is now connecting the Industry EC and the πWG and jointly we have defined a few key goals for the upcoming months. Most prominently, EuPA will start mapping the proteomics expertise (industrial, academic, core facilities) all over Europe on a central platform that can help academic labs, CRO’s and industrial partners to navigate the proteomics landscape in Europe and easily find the partnerships they are looking for. Additionally, by EuPA2025 in France in Saint-Malo, we aim to have a parallel track of sessions devoted entirely to proteomics in industry. This will not only make this conference a more appealing networking hotspot for industrial researchers, but also provide a platform for career development and academic-industrial collaboration.

For the more distant future, we start dreaming of an even more profound cross-fertilization wherein for example EuPA could help develop documentation for e.g. GLP in proteomics and for example in clinical trials or clinical care. Moreover, with a strong emphasis on valorization in the European Funding landscape, joining forces can facilitate grant writing for specific calls. Irrespectively, whatever we manage to realize, we are convinced that this new EC of Industry can have impact on proteomics in Europe.

We are looking to forward to embracing our goals.

Members of the EuPA Industry Committee are:

Maurine Fucito (Italy)

Mehwish Kanwal (Italy)

Christian Moritz (France)

Peter Blattmann (Switzerland)