November 21, 2023

Moving One Step Forward Towards Unobtrusive Diabetes Management: Music4Diabetes Kicks off in Munich

On World Diabetes Day, the MuSiC4Diabetes consortium kicked off their research programme to improve insulin treated type 1 diabetes management – and the Eurice team was part of it! Following the invitation of MuSiC4Diabetes coordinator Martin Richter, all partners came to the Fraunhofer EMFT facilities in Munich to get set for the first months of the project. They were joined online by the European Innovation Council (EIC) project officer (PO), Alina Maria Tomoiaga.

After getting to know each other over dinner in a traditional Bavarian 'Wirtshaus' the evening before, the partners dived right into setting the frame for the project on 14 November 2023. Fruitful discussions sparked already in the morning sessions, especially regarding the development of the multi-metabolite (MM) sensor (work package 2) and the insulin delivery system connected to the multi-sensing device (work package 3). Also, the remarks of EIC PO Alina Maria Tomoiaga were heard and greatly appreciated. She gave an introduction to EIC instruments, as well as project management and communication, dissemination and exploitation (CDE) requirements – a great start for the coordinator to talk about how MuSiC4Diabetes will be managed in the upcoming four years.

There was, of course more to present and discuss. Chiara Toffanin (PV) presented the next steps for MM Data Science (work package 4), while Norbert Hermans and Dominic Ehrmann (FIDAM) gave insights on what is already known about the human factor in diabetes management, how to define 'unobtrusive' and how to involve the patients (work package 5). Éric Renard then gave an overview on the activities planned for clinical, animal and in silico system validation (work package 6). The Eurice team specified basic rules for CDE and presented communication measures planned and already started, dissemination activities as well as the first steps in strategic innovation management and exploitation (work package 7). Lastly, the set-up of stakeholder activities and possible members of project boards were discussed and agreed upon (work package 8), before this comprehensive and successful meeting came to its end.

With experienced diabetes researchers such as Claudio Cobelli (UNIPD) and Éric Renard (CHUM) in its consortium, MuSiC4Diabetes represents yet another step towards innovation in diabetes management. This journey gathers seven seasoned partners around a common purpose, and the Eurice team is happy to be a part of it.