TEDDY - EUROPEAN NETWORK OF EXCELLENCE FOR PAEDIATRIC CLINICAL RESEARCH

Their core work

TEDDY is a European network dedicated to advancing clinical research for children, connecting paediatric research institutions across Europe to close the gap between adult-focused drug development and child-specific medicine. Their core work involves facilitating paediatric translational research — moving laboratory findings into clinical practice for young patients — with particular focus on rare diseases where children are severely underserved. In the EJP RD programme, they contributed to building shared research infrastructures, harmonising omics data under FAIR principles, and empowering patient communities. As a network of excellence rather than a single institution, their real value is convening power: bringing together scientists, clinicians, patient organisations, and industry under one coordinated effort.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

TEDDY began their H2020 trajectory in 2018 focused squarely on building physical and methodological infrastructure for paediatric drug development — the ID-EPTRI project was about creating a translational research platform. By 2019 and into the mid-2020s, their work broadened considerably: rare diseases became the lens, and the priorities shifted to data governance (FAIR principles), omics integration, patient empowerment, and public-private partnerships. This suggests the organisation moved from infrastructure creation toward cross-sector data-driven collaboration, with a growing emphasis on patient communities and translatable clinical methods.

TEDDY is moving toward FAIR data ecosystems and patient-centred rare disease research, making them a relevant partner for anyone building omics databases, cross-border clinical registries, or public-private programmes targeting under-resourced paediatric conditions.

How they like to work

TEDDY has never led an H2020 project as coordinator — they consistently join as a participant or third party, contributing their network rather than managing the consortium. That said, the scale of their participation is notable: across just two projects, they connected with 167 distinct partners in 39 countries, which signals they function as a high-value connector node rather than a narrow specialist. Working with TEDDY likely means gaining access to their broader community of paediatric researchers, clinicians, and patient organisations across Europe.

Despite only two H2020 projects, TEDDY has collaborated with 167 unique partners across 39 countries — an unusually wide footprint for an organisation of this scale, explained by their participation in two very large pan-European programmes. Their reach extends well beyond Italy and the EU core, reflecting the genuinely international nature of paediatric rare disease research.

What sets them apart

TEDDY occupies a rare niche as a dedicated European network of excellence focused specifically on paediatric clinical research — not a hospital, not a university, but a coordinating body whose primary asset is its multi-country research community. This makes them particularly valuable for consortium builders who need a single entry point to paediatric expertise across multiple European countries, especially for rare disease or drug development projects that require broad clinical trial networks. Their dual involvement in both infrastructure development (ID-EPTRI) and applied rare disease programmes (EJP RD) shows they can contribute at both the platform and execution layers.

Highlights from their portfolio

• EJP RD
  A major COFUND-EJP programme running 2019–2024, this is TEDDY's primary funded project and the source of their documented expertise in rare diseases, FAIR omics data, and patient empowerment initiatives.
• ID-EPTRI
  As a third party to the European Paediatric Translational Research Infrastructure project, TEDDY contributed to shaping the pan-European platform for moving paediatric science into clinical drug development — demonstrating their role as a founding network in this space.