Description
The DISCONTOOLS project is a joint initiative of industry and a wide range of
stakeholders including the research community, regulators, and users.
DISCONTOOLS, an ongoing EU funded project, has three objectives. First, to
develop a disease prioritization methodology enabling the prioritization of
research in order to stimulate the delivery of new or improved diagnostics,
vaccines or pharmaceuticals. This will help to improve our ability to effectively
control animal diseases, a key input into meeting the challenges of future food
supplies. Once this methodology is agreed with stakeholders, the objective is to
establish a reference database ensuring a clear focus on priority research areas
leading to more rapid breakthroughs in technology development. Second, to
develop a gap analysis for each of the prioritized diseases to identify where
research is needed. Third, the DISCONTOOLS project will explore how new
technologies can be deployed more efficiently in the animal health research area.
Purpose
DISCONTOOLS will provide a mechanism for focusing and prioritizing
research that ultimately delivers new and improved vaccines, pharmaceuticals
and diagnostic tests to control animal diseases.
Scope Global
Primary Funders
European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).
Participants & Key Collaborators
DISCONTOOLS includes representation from universities, research institutes,
chief veterinary officers, farmers, veterinarians, the diagnostics industry, the
veterinary pharmaceutical industry, Heads of Medicines Agencies, European
Medicines Agency and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE)
amongst others. The purpose of the stakeholder approach is to be inclusive and
so build a strong consensus on the gap analysis.
Definition of One Health
None
Monitoring & Evaluation Strategy
The DISCONTOOLS project involves the analysis of 52 diseases including the gathering of information, gap analysis and prioritisation scoring. As the project progresses, the diseases should appear on the public website.
A publication on prioritisation is foreseen as are two publications on the deployment of new technology.
The results of the analysis of the 52 diseases will also be the subject of a number of publications.
Sources of Information
Website: http://www.discontools.eu
DISCONTOOLS Brochure:
http://www.discontools.eu/documents/1380_DISCONTOOLSbrochure.pdf
Contact Declan O'Brien
Project Coordinator
Neil Craven
Project Manager
