BREAKTHROUGH T1D

Their core work

Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF) is the world's leading non-profit funder of type 1 diabetes research, headquartered in New York. In H2020, they serve as a disease-expertise partner contributing clinical knowledge, patient registry access, and translational research capabilities to large European consortia focused on diabetes, metabolic disease, and immune-mediated conditions. Their involvement spans biomarker discovery, clinical trial design, patient-reported outcomes infrastructure, and immunological safety assessment — always bringing deep diabetes domain knowledge and connections to global clinical networks.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their early H2020 period (2015–2017), Breakthrough T1D focused squarely on type 1 diabetes fundamentals: biomarker discovery, biobanking, clinical sample networks, prevention, and diabetic kidney disease. From 2019 onward, their participation broadened into computational immunology, micro-physiological systems for drug safety, obesity phenotyping, and patient-reported outcomes infrastructure — signaling a shift from disease-specific biomarker work toward platform-level capabilities in immunology and health data systems. This evolution suggests the organization is positioning itself as a broader metabolic and immune disease research partner, not just a T1D-focused funder.

Moving from narrow T1D focus toward broader immune-mediated disease research and patient outcomes infrastructure, making them relevant to consortia beyond diabetes.

How they like to work

Breakthrough T1D exclusively participates as a partner — never coordinating — which reflects their role as a domain-expert contributor and co-funder rather than a project driver. With 147 unique partners across 20 countries, they operate in very large consortia (average 20+ partners), consistent with major IMI/public-private partnership projects. This means they are well-connected and experienced in complex multi-stakeholder environments, but expect them to contribute expertise and network access rather than project management.

Extensively networked with 147 unique partners across 20 countries, reflecting their participation in large-scale European public-private partnerships. As a US-based organization active in EU consortia, they bridge transatlantic diabetes and metabolic research communities.

What sets them apart

Breakthrough T1D is one of the few major US-based disease research foundations with deep, sustained participation in European H2020 consortia. They bring something most partners cannot: direct connections to global T1D patient communities, clinical trial networks, and decades of disease-specific funding experience. For consortium builders, their involvement signals credibility to reviewers and opens doors to transatlantic clinical infrastructure and patient registries.

Highlights from their portfolio

• INNODIA
  Flagship T1D consortium (2015–2023) building a pan-European biobank and clinical trial network for type 1 diabetes — the foundation project from which INNODIA HARVEST grew.
• H2O
  Health Outcomes Observatory (2020–2026) builds cross-disease patient-reported outcomes infrastructure — marks Breakthrough T1D's expansion well beyond diabetes into general health data systems.
• imSAVAR
  Immune safety assessment using computational immunology and micro-physiological systems — the most technically distinct project in their portfolio, signaling new capabilities.