These meetings were organised to facilitate the kick-off of the CA17103 Action. The CA17103 Action: Delivery of Antisense RNA Therapeutics aims to use networking and capacity building in the field of nucleic acid therapy delivery to allow RNA-targeting nucleic acid drugs to reach their full potential and become a mainstream therapeutic option.

First Management Committee Meeting (23/10/2018 Brussels, Belgium) aimed at the election of Chair, and Vice Chair, the setting up of the budget, the election of the Grant Holder institution and the establishment of Action Management structure. All the Participants (MC Members) were informed about COST policy and COST actions overview, structure, opportunities and obligations by Dr Inga Dadeshidze, Science Officer and by Ms Jeannette Nchung Oru, Administrative Officer of the Action. Relevant information can be found on the COST website. After setting up the frame for the Action, MC Members elected Dr Virginia ARECHAVALA-GOMEZA (ES) as the Chair and Prof Annemieke AARTSMA-RUS (NL) as the Vice Chair. Afterwords Leiden University Medical Center (NL) was selected as the Grant Holder Institution, and Prof Annemieke AARTSMA-RUS (NL) was appointed as the Scientific Representative of the Grant Holder Institution. Dr Virginia Arechavala-Gomeza (Chair) presented the Action, its objectives and implementation plan based on Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). She provided an overview of the main goals of the Action, with the focus on identifying gaps in the knowledge of the delivery of antisense RNA therapeutics, the need for standardised standard operation procedures, the necessity of sharing negative results and the focus on stakeholder dissemination. She also offered a few figures on countries included in the action, participation of ITC countries, gender balance and ECI ratio. The specific scientific objectives and the capacity building objectives were examined, as presented in detail in the Memorandum of Understanding.
Later on, leaders and a co-leaders were chosen for each specific role in the Action, trying to balance gender, experience and nationalities. To get more specific information on the DARTER Action organisation, please visit this page.

During Core Group Meeting (16/11/2018 Brussels, Belgium) the Chair provided a list of new members that had joined the action since the first MC meeting. Participants reviewed the budget and discussed Short Term Scientific Missions (STMS) and ITC Conference Grant plans. Additionally, participants talked about the webpage, and the social media set up plans, organising of the Training School in Stockholm (read more) and Inaugural Meeting in Bilbao (read more).