On March 25th – 26th, the IDEA-FAST consortium gathered for the 2025 General Assembly in Lisbon to discuss the project’s developments over the past year and plans for the upcoming months.
Around 100 participants from over 50 partner organizations attended the sessions, in person and online. The discussions enabled us to review the project’s progress, discuss challenges and future steps, identify new growth opportunities and links to be strengthened, and support interaction among consortium members.
The first day was largely centered around updates from all Work Package leaders on the past year’s progress, achievements, and challenges. A highlight of the assembly was the patient Q&A session chaired by Leonor Correia Guedes of iMM. For the second year in a row, the patient Q&A conversation covered a large scope of topics: technology and user experience, parameters, patients’ perspective on the research, and overall experience with fatigue. Consortium members also received feedback from the patients on the COS structure, the questionnaires, and more logistical aspects from a patient perspective.
The patient session proved once again to be essential. The discussion between the project partners and the patients not only answered our patients’ questions but also raised interesting points within the framework of the project, such as suggestions for changes on the questionnaire and parameters, which we aim to address as we progress. The patients also expressed their satisfaction with the study, highlighting their positive experience during the COS and their willingness to participate in more similar studies in the future.
Two workshops wrapped up the first day of meetings; the first was centered around communication and dissemination, encouraging IDEA-FAST partners to highlight their activities, milestones, and achievements, while the second concerned sustainability and exploitation efforts.
On the second day, we discussed the implications of the upcoming European Health Data Space (EHDS) regulation for IDEA-FAST and explored different considerations in the biomarker selection process. The fruitful discussions brought attention to collaborative efforts that should be pursued throughout the following year to ensure IDEA-FAST will have a lasting impact after its conclusion.
We are excited about the progress we have made so far on all fronts, especially the tight-knit collaboration that exists between all project partners and has enabled us to tackle any challenges that have arisen.
