The primary aim of this Work Package is to provide a platform for the exchange of expertise of all members both on the European and the Russian side of the SICA-HF consortium. This approach provides a means for training in order to ensure identical test conditions and test performances as well as analytical procedures in all participating centres. Indeed, an ongoing feedback is important to ensure the success of SICA-HF. Additionally, members of the consortium, not familiar with the techniques required as part of certain Work Packages, will receive training in these particular techniques on-site and off-site. Moreover, this Work Package will provide technical means to update the members of the consortium (including the European Commission) on the current status of the project. This includes the creation of a corporate identity and the setting up of an internal website.
Workpackage Leader: Charité
Involved Partners: all partners
Objective 1: To develop a corporate project identity
The development of a corporate project identity is a core task for a project, which brings together European and Russian researchers who work together for the first time. Such collaboration requires extensive exchange of expertise, and it is important that all parties feel committed to the joint project. Moreover, it is important to establish a consistent public perception in all countries involved in the project and possibly beyond. Therefore, a logo and a website are the two first steps, paving the way for an effective PR strategy of the project. Furthermore, the researchers will be actively supported by a model presentation of the project, which will be provided at the internal part of the website and shall be used to present the project at conferences or other public appearances.
Objective 2: Establish internal dissemination procedures and organise training of project staff
The project website will be structured into an internal and a public part. The internal part of the website will be password protected and accessible only for project participants. This part is meant to be accessible for all parties from the consortium, either from the European or from the Russian side. It will provide access to data restricted to project participants and serve as an information and exchange platform. Furthermore, the project management tool will be accessible via the internal part of the website. Apart from dissemination via the website, training of project staff on standards and procedures will be carried out to ensure the dissemination of knowledge within the project. This part of the website may contain standard operating procedures (see also: WP 05) for clinical and preclinical tests, downloadable data such as labels for samples to be shipped to the Central Blood and DNA Bank (WP 10 and WP 11) to ensure standardisation in this regard, and address and contact information of third parties in close co-operation with the consortium. The internal part of the website may also contain anonymised data on samples stored in the Central Blood and DNA Bank.
Another important aspect is the organisation of training sessions for partners within the SICA-HF consortium. Patient recruitment is surely the most important task in achieving the aims specified by the consortium. However, since SICA-HF uses advanced technologies and methods that have in most cases not been used in large-scale trials before, the trial's design is based on the recruitment of patients in different centers of different partners. Thus, the trial's success relies on the comparability of these techniques and methods between different centers. Additionally, the applied techniques and methods need to be reproducible at any given center. This Work Package therefore aims to organize method-specific training sessions at experienced centers of the consortium. This is particularly important for cardiopulmonary exercise testing and cardiorespiratory reflex control (WP 04), body impedance and DEXA scan (WP 05), assessment of sleep disordered breathing (WP 06), muscle biopsies (WP 07 and WP 08), adipose tissue biopsies (WP 09), the isolation of circulating precursor cells (WP 12, WP 13, and WP 14) as well as intravenous glucose tolerance tests and for the assessment of peripheral blood flow by strain gauge-plethymography (WP 07).
Objective 3: To collect any original publication/review article/editorial/abstract/letter to the editor related to SICA-HF
All publications arising from the work for SICA-HF will be collected in a reference library. This includes all original publications, review articles, editorials, conference abstracts, and letters to the editor. All available publications will be downloadable from the project's website, if permitted by the respective publisher.
Objective 4: Ensure that the output of the project is disseminated in an efficient and timely fashion
The public part of the website is the key for external dissemination. It will be updated regularly and inform the public about the project in an appealing manner. Activities fostering the awareness of the respective target groups (researchers and co-operation partners from similar fields, patients and their relatives) are the electronic newsletter and press releases informing about project findings. Importantly, a corporate identity ensures that researchers identify themselves with the project by, for example, using the project's logo on their international and national conference appearances, i.e. on oral presentations and poster presentations showing data from SICA-HF. Furthermore, the publication of articles and interviews with project researchers will be actively supported. At the end of the project, an international conference will be held to present the project results and raise the awareness of the public.
Objective 5: To develop project sustainability
SICA-HF will seek and establish dialogue with the relevant stakeholders in Europe and Russia at an early stage of the project to develop project sustainability. Therefore, a workshop for stakeholders is planned at the beginning of the project. Collaboration is envisaged with societies, alliances and interest groups, for example, the British Cardiac Society (London, England), the German Cardiac Society (Düsseldorf, Germany), the Italian Federation of Cardiology (Rome, Italy), the Polish Cardiac Society (Warsaw, Poland), the Society of Cardiology of the Russian Federation (Moscow, Russia), the European Society of Cardiology (Sophia Antipolis, France), and their respective working groups on heart failure. The purpose of these activities is not only to disseminate the project findings but also to find ways of sustainability for the project after the EU funding period (for example, via sponsoring).
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