The EPIICAL General Assembly was held online and in person in Venice on 2-4 November 2022. It brought together 80 participants from 29 organisations from the EPIICAL consortium. Attendees came together to discuss, among other topics, highlights of the project as a clinical and experimental platform to evaluate therapeutic strategies for HIV remission and/or cure in children, updates in the treatment and management of paediatric HIV and the vision for EPIICAL in 2024 and beyond.
The first day of the event focused on highlighting the perspectives of different stakeholders on the vision and role of EPIICAL in future paediatric cure initiatives. Among others, it tackled the benefits, opportunities, lessons learned, as well as the future challenges and key priorities of the EPIICAL project. In that regard, Professor Rossi, EPIICAL scientific coordinator stated that “we are at a time where we need to lift our program beyond the dates and data, we need to empower our consortium to do things that might be important in the future. So we need to exploit the assets of the EPIICAL consortium, and we need to promote intervention. With the aim to reach remission and cure”
The second day of the event focused on the EPIICAL working groups, including the milestones achieved and future steps. Among other aspects, it tackled the researchers’ experiences and challenges, risks and mitigation strategies. The third day of the event focused on the future of EPIICAL.
The event showcased the main achievements of the EPIICAL consortium and how we can make the most of the platforms and assets created by the project over the last seven years for the good of the children we work for. It was a great three days filled with ambition and drive to achieve HIV remission in children globally.