Page 3 - INTERIM NEWSLETTER FINAL

OVERVIEW OF GAPP INTERIM NEWSLETTER

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We dedicate this issue to GAPP interim meeting held in Rome on October 29 and 30 2019
because the dissemination team believe, as Dr Giancarlo Maria Liumbruno, Director general of
the National Blood Centre (CNS) said at the opening, “the outcomes of GAPP action are of
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paramount importance, and this GAPP action is really looking into the future of facilitating
innovation in BTC for patient benefit”. The aim of the meeting was to present the updates of the
project to the whole consortium, European Commission officers and External Advisory Board
members. Forty-seven people among collaborating stakeholders, project beneficiaries and 1 EU
Commission Officer attended the meeting.

BACKGROUND

GAPP is the acronym (FacilitatinG the Authorisation of Preparation Process for Blood, Tissues and

Cells) of a 36months EU Joint Action started in May 2018. The main aim of GAPP is to facilitate
the development of a common and optimal approach to assess and authorise preparation
processes, in Blood and Tissues Establishments adapting requirements as prescribed by Article
29 of Directive 2002/98/EC and Article 28 of Directive 2004/23/EC. GAPP is giving particular
attention to innovative processes under development and/or previously described in relevant EU
Joint Actions.

GAPP is coordinated by the Italian National Institute of Health, National Transplant Centre, and
National Blood Centre and includes 17 European countries and more than 40 organisations in
the consortium.

GAPP INTERIM MEETING ROME

General

The interim meeting was attended by representatives of all the horizontal and technical work
packages. It is important to note that the GAPP External Advisory Board (EAB) attended the interim
meeting. The EAB is composed by one expert for Blood, Johanna Wiersum; one for Tissues, Johan
Guns; one for HSC, Ineske Slaper Cortembach; one for Medical Assisted Reproduction (MAR),
Kelly Tilleman; one expert in TTD testing, Ines Ushiro Lumb; one for clinical trials, Andrijana
Tivadar; one microbiology expert, Veroniek Saegeman. Prior to the interim meeting, the EAB

evaluated one technical deliverable - D8.1. Their expert assessment was shared with WP leaders
present at the meeting, and is also available in the Intermediate evaluation report. Evolution of

This report is part of the project/joint action ‘785269/GAPP’ which has received funding from the European Union’s Health Programme (2014-2020). The content of this report represents the views of
the author only and is his/her sole responsibility; it can not be considered to reflect the views of the European Commission and/or the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency or any
other body of the European Union. The European Commission and the Agency do not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains.
GAPP JA | Deliverable 0.0