The 2nd General Assembly of the EPTRI – European Paediatric Translational Research Infrastructure, project will be held in Athens at the President Hotel (address: 43 Kifissias Av. Athens, Greece 115 23) on the 9th and 10th of October, 2018.
EPTRI is a EU-funded project coordinated by Consorzio per Valutazioni Biologiche e Farmacologiche (CVBF) with the aim to design the framework for a new European Paediatric Research Infrastructure (RI). Minors represent 20% of the European population and their care is one of the most important priorities and challenges for Europe. It’s essential the development of evidence-based paediatric medicines and treatment strategies. Nowadays around the 50% of the medicines addressed to children and young patients have not been tested specifically for them. For this reason, it’s strategic the development of the suitable research infrastructure that can solve this problem, studying the paediatric research from the early phases to the paediatric formulation. Children and young patients cannot be never compared with adults as they are growing up and their metabolism is different. For this reason, the only way to develop better medicines for children and young patients is studying them specifically for this type of “special” population. 
A dedicated infrastructure integrating the different basic research networks addressed to paediatric population will help in the process to reduce time and increase the number of projects. On the other hand, it also can help to a fast translation into the clinical practice.
EPIONI officially supports EPTRI, having recognised the relevance of this new European research infrastructure for the patients and the patients’ organisations because it can lead to a dramatic improvement of the health conditions of children, also enhancing the paediatric patients’ involvement and empowerment.