From Wednesday 19th to Friday 21st of February 2020, the first Working Group Meeting of the COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action VascAgeNet (“Network for Research in Vascular Ageing”, https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA18216/) was held at Paris Cardiovascular Research Center (PARCC) in Paris. KTU Biomedical Engineering Institute was represented there by director Vaidotas Marozas and junior researcher PhD student Birutė Paliakaitė. The three-day meeting was an excellent chance for interdisciplinary and intersectional discussions bringing together industry, clinical expertise, basic research and engineering to join forces to push the concept of vascular ageing. In total, 62 researchers and industrial representatives participated in the plenary sessions, workshop sessions and social activities.
During the meeting, the next activities were commenced to strengthen the collaboration and to refine, harmonize and promote the use of vascular ageing biomarkers. An important part of the activities will be the organization of training schools, the provision of conference grants for Early Career Investigators and PhD students from inclusiveness target countries and the possibility for grants to support short term scientific missions. The network currently compromises researchers and industrial partners from 30 European countries and two International Partner Countries (Australia and USA) and is open for the expansion to further COST countries.
About COST: COST Action CA18216 is supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). COST is a funding agency for research and innovation networks. Their Actions help connect research initiatives across Europe and enable scientists to grow their ideas by sharing them with their peers. This boosts their research, career and innovation. COST is supported by the EU Framework Programme Horizon 2020. www.cost.eu
Twitter: @vascagenet, #vascagenet
Website: www.vascagenet.eu