From October 28 to 30, the "II ISCIII Platforms Conference for Support in R&D in Biomedicine and Health Sciences" took place in Lleida, with around 400 attendees and the participation of pioneering international speakers in these fields, as well as leaders from various international research infrastructures.

Dr. Ana Aldea, head of MarTrials at the Hospital del Mar Research Institute, participated in the SCReN Platform Activities section, presenting the challenges and solutions of a European clinical trial in an "Interactive Case Discussion" workshop, and showcasing the activities of the Working Group on Communication and Citizen Participation, and she also participated in one of the ISCIII joint panel discussions on "Citizen Participation," where she explained the importance of involving citizens in the study design stages and evaluating the impact of all activities carried out.

The Conference was also attended by Marta Bódalo, coordinator of MarBiobanc, Erica Torres, specialist technician of MarBiobanc, and Aina Bernal from Innovation.

The ISCIII Platforms are a set of infrastructures and professionals from different institutions, capable of providing transversal support services to the R&D+i system for the generation and transfer of high-quality knowledge to the National Health System. Currently, there are three ISCIII Platforms supporting R&D+i in Biomedicine and Health Sciences: the Biomodels and Biobanks Platform, the Platform for Promoting and Innovating Industrial Capabilities of the NHS and its Effective Transfer to the Productive Sector (ITEMAS), and the Support Platform for Independent Clinical Research (SCReN).

Until now, separate conferences were held for each platform, but since last year, a joint conference has been organized to address topics such as collaboration among the three platforms, internationalization, clinical trial development, knowledge transfer, and the use of animal models, among others.