This meeting was organised by Professor Miguel Alaminos of Granada Medical School, Faculty of Medicine, University of Granada, Southern Spain.  This was a free-standing meeting which had been widely publicised across Spain and was a huge success.

The meeting was entitled “Cells & Tissues as Therapeutic Tools”.  There were two networking coffee breaks and a lavish networking lunch kindly provided by the organisers, which proved both popular and successful in transforming contacts and information.  As an added value the students present received exposure to a level of science uncommon in their curriculum – providing ‘role model’ experience.   

There were 430 delegates, 200 of which were Granada students but the remaining were delegates from all over Spain.  Out of region speakers were Professor Shelia McNeil (Sheffield, U.K.), Umber Cheema, (London) and Yen Choo (Industry, London).   There were 3 industry talks and 2 government agencies.  In particular, the opening speaker (N. Cuende: Government of Andalucía) gave an outstanding and impressive overview of a major initiative to push Regenerative Medicine within Andalucía.  (Note:  Strong recommendation to invite her to speak at future BRIDGE, especially next to Commission representatives and/or to compare/review Andalucian investment in this area with that in other European regions).

The networking was excellent in terms of information exchange and links formation.  In particular BRIDGE now has a number of major contacts with leading Spanish academics and government agencies.  Out of this meeting links have been made and strengthened between Sheffield University, UCL and Granada University for formal student and staff exchanges.  (Note:  Granada is particularly active/expansive in Erasmus exchanges and keen to find more European partners).