Exploitation and dissemination activities
Dissemination and exploitation of the results is considered to be a vital component of the proposed work programme. This is reflected in a dedicated work package to Information Dissemination and, in the interest of continuity, it has been agreed that all dissemination of information from this project will flow through the Information Dissemination WP manager. Information dissemination will be carried out on a number of levels.
Where applicable, scientific information will be disseminated in peer-reviewed international journals and international scientific meetings. All submissions for publications in journals and meetings will be approved by the consortium project management team. There is a target of 22 peer reviewed publications for the lifetime of the project.
Results generated will be specifically targeted at veterinary practitioners and pig producers by publications in the veterinary and farming press and meetings with pig producer consortia. Excellent lines of communication between consortium members and pig producers inside and outside the EU in relation to PCVD/PMWS have already been established by members of this consortium and the inclusion of multinational companies in the consortium will enhance these communications. This network facilitating increased awareness of and sound scientific information on PCVD/PMWS to end-users is a key objective of this project. To this end, the consortium will construct and launch a web site on the Internet that will be regularly updated with results and information.
The consortium has formally agreed with The Committee of Agricultural Organisations (COPA) that information will be disseminated to producers through their information dissemination network. COPA represents the interests of farmers in the EU Member States and is recognised by the EU authorities as speaking for the agricultural sector as a whole. Currently there are 69 organisations from the 25 members of the European Union in COPA. A similar agreement has also been reached with the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe and Canadian Pork Council. Dissemination of all information will be under the banner of EU-funded research and identified through the EU corporate logo of the consortium.
Dissemination of results at a policy level will also be relevant to this project and will occur through progress reports to the EU and, where necessary meetings between the co-ordinator and other members of the consortium with EU and national policy groups.
Commercial exploitation of the results generated will be within the consortium and led by our commercial partners. Terms and agreements relating to foreground and background information in the project and exploitation of results will be detailed in a consortium agreement.
Any and all intellectual property rights (IPR) opportunities arising within the project will be identified by the group and filed by our commercial partners who will carry all costs of patent applications and/or defence relevant to their commercial interests. This arrangement will reflect EU policy and guidelines related to IPR and exploitation of results within an EU-funded project. Importantly, some Partners within this consortium hold exclusive, world-wide patents on PCV2 technology, with one of our commercial partners (MERIAL) having exclusive rights for commercial exploitation of these patents. Consequently, this consortium is in a unique position to commercially exploit any vaccine based control measures for PCVDs based on this IPR.
It is anticipated that production and marketing of commercial products derived from this project will be beyond the time scale of the project, but will be substantially accelerated by results generated within the project.
Activities
The co-ordinator visited Partner 6 at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada in June 2005. The co-ordinator also gave presentations as part of the information dissemination activity on the EU project to Ontario Association of Swine Practitioners in Ontario and to the Association des vétérinaires en industrie animale du Québec in Montréal. Both presentations were well received and an informal collaboration was established with researchers in both these organisations.
All of the partners participated in the European Society of Veterinary Virology International Conference "Animal Circoviruses and Associated Diseases” held in Belfast in September 2005 and a number of the partners presented papers.
Dr. John Ellis, of the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, Saskatoon, (Partner 6) a talk entitled...."Across the Big Pond: Differences in Porcine Circovirus-Associated Diseases in the European Union and North America, Real, Perceived, Significant, or Not?" at the 13th Annual Swine Diseases Conference for Swine Practitioners at Iowa State University, on November 11, 2005.
