· Continue to contribute to relevant global initiatives like the Global Earth Observation System of Systems, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases, and further support relevant EU collaborations with non-EU partners, such as the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership 2.

We are proud to say that last November this government committed $20 million as part of a $34 million partnership with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to support the development of a Canadian clinical trials network, a groundbreaking effort to accelerate made in Canada solutions to the management, care and cure of type 1 diabetes.

Additional funding of rare disease research is ongoing in other funding initiatives such as the National Genome Research Network (NGFN), Innovative Therapies, Regenerative Medicine, Molecular Diagnostics, Clinical Trials and others, representing about €20 million per year.

Research will focus on: developing promising candidate interventions (vaccines, therapies and HIV microbicides) against the target diseases by sponsoring research over the full spectrum from basic molecular research, taking advantage of microbial genomics, through to pre-clinical testing and proof-of-principle; establishing a clinical trials programme to unite and support Europe's clinical trial activities specifically targeted at interventions for use in developing countries; establishing an AIDS Therapy Trials Network in Europe to improve the coherence and complementarity of clinical trials of AIDS therapies for European use.

Research will focus on: developing promising candidate interventions (vaccines, therapies and HIV microbicides) against the target diseases by sponsoring research over the full spectrum from basic molecular research, taking advantage of microbial genomics, through to pre-clinical testing and proof-of-principle; establishing a clinical trials programme to unite and support Europe's clinical trial activities specifically targeted at interventions for use in developing countries; establishing an AIDS Therapy Trials Network in Europe to improve the coherence and complementarity of clinical trials of AIDS therapies for European use.

There has also been an emphasis on the new Member States and neighbouring countries in eastern Europe, which have been invited to take part in both EU-funded proposals, such as the network of excellence on therapeutic clinical trials, and the evaluation process.