The SHIELD project successfully concluded its 2nd General Assembly (GA) meeting, held on 10–11 December 2025 in Athens, Greece, kindly hosted by Netcompany.
The meeting marked an important milestone for the project, bringing the consortium together in person to align across work packages and move decisively from planning into concrete implementation.
Over two intensive days, partners reviewed progress and coordinated on upcoming milestones, reinforcing collaboration between clinical, technical, and innovation-driven teams. The agenda covered a wide range of strategic and operational topics, including ethics and governance, identification and recruitment of high-risk individuals, genetic testing approaches, clinical validation pathways, secure data management, AI-supported tools, dissemination and exploitation strategies, as well as policy engagement and long-term scalability.
Key takeaways included:
- Strong alignment across clinical, technical, and coordination teams on project objectives and next steps
- In-depth discussions on recruitment strategies, genetic testing, and clinical validation pathways
- Progress reviews on data security, ethics, and regulatory frameworks to ensure compliance from the earliest stages
- Hands-on co-creation workshops on the SHIELD platform architecture, public portal, and clinical dashboard
- A clear focus on AI- and LLM-based tools to support knowledge extraction, surveillance, and decision-making
- Productive exchanges on dissemination, exploitation, policy outreach, and sustainability
- Reinforced collaboration and trust among partners, enabling smoother cross–work package implementation going forward
A strong emphasis was placed on cross-work package coordination and co-creation, helping translate SHIELD’s vision into actionable plans and a clear roadmap for the next project phase. These discussions further strengthened the consortium’s shared mission to advance early detection of pancreatic cancer through integrated, data-driven, and patient-centred approaches.
The consortium extends its sincere thanks to all partners for their constructive contributions and collaborative spirit, and to the hosts in Athens for the excellent organisation of the meeting.
As SHIELD moves into the next phase of implementation, the consortium looks forward to sustaining this momentum and delivering meaningful impact together.