Dear Partners,
It fills us with pride to have achieved so many things in the past year. Both Jim and I are impressed with the progress made thus far, as presented during our last General Assembly. This event was also a great opportunity to meet in person again. We hope you liked visiting the city of Groningen on this occasion.
With the end of the year approaching, there are two final things to remember. The first one is, retrospectively, to report on any of the final milestones or deliverables within our work packages and identify the best way to share our success stories, both internally and with the external research community. The second item is to build robust action plans for the final two years, while we wait for the decision on the one-year no-cost extension request.
Despite the COVID pandemic, we have made substantial progress in the past three years. In all work packages important milestones were achieved and novel work – also by our talented young scientists – was shared. This last newsletter of the year will highlight these newest insights.
The end of the year is also the moment to reflect on what still needs to be done. Taking stock of the outstanding work, we have concluded that, due to the pandemic, realizing all of this will not be possible in the year that is left. We therefore requested an extension of our project and will work towards exact plans to be performed in 2023 and in 2024, in order to make the most out of VITAL.
As the project has only become more relevant since its start, we are more than ever determined to reach our research goals and deliver important data, knowledge, and the tools to develop and build efficient vaccination programs for older adults in Europe.
For now, we wish you all a wonderful Christmas in the company of family and friends, and a successful start of the new year.
Best wishes
Debbie and Jim
