EuMed Cancer - GeMed Network

 The EuMed Cancer - GeMed Network is helping to develop centres of excellence in genetics in Mediterranean countries. Led by the European Genetics Foundation (EGF), the project is providing specialised courses and practical workshops to students across the Mediterranean region. These courses and workshops are delivered both in real time online, and as archived material, over the high-speed EUMEDCONNECT backbone network.

The GeMed Network includes 16 partner genetics research centres. Each has a lecture hall connected through EUMEDCONNECT to the European School of Genetic Medicine's main training centre in Bertinoro di Romagna in Italy.

A programme of nine courses and three workshops were developed, reflecting both universal and regional needs. Courses were delivered over EUMEDCONNECT, using specialised multi-casting of lectures and live streaming of video images. Online versions of the courses extended the benefits even more widely, allowing students and researchers to access course materials at any time.

The success of the GeMed Network has encouraged the European Commission to fund a successor project, MedGeNet (Euro-Mediterranean network for Genetic Services), for two years from 2007. EUMEDCONNECT will provide connectivity and support the project's needs for a common information and communications environment to facilitiate collaborative research, diagnostic activities, exchange of data and use of internet-based tools and services.