Organ-on-chip technology will revolutionize healthcare, especially in regenerative medicine and medication. It is already providing new drug research platforms, while offering alternatives to conventional animal testing, and will soon deliver applications in personalized medicine and safety pharmacology.

Over the next two years, the European Union will finance the ORgan-on-CHip In Development (ORCHID) project, led by Leiden University Medical Center and Dutch organ-on-chip consortium hDMT, to the tune of 0.5 M€.

ORCHID has five objectives:

• Assessing state-of-the-art technology and unfulfilled needs;
• Identifying ethical issues, preparing standards and measures for regulatory implementation;
• Analyzing economic and social impact, training and education;
• Developing a R&D roadmap and;
• Raising awareness and building an organ-on-chip technology ecosystem via a digital reference platform.

ORCHID will have a broad impact in facilitating drug development, curtailing animal experiments and promoting personalized medicine. It will achieve these goals by offering key players a common framework and by raising awareness of organ-to-chip technology. This platform will concentrate data on existing and new initiatives, enabling ORCHID to secure and reinforce Europe's leadership.

The consortium of principal contributors to the field includes leader Leiden University Centrum, the Institute for Human Organ and Disease Model Technology focusing for strategy, Frauenhofer IGB for impact assessment, training and education, Leti for eco-system development, BIG for digital knowledge sharing platform creation, IMEC for ethical issues, regulation and standardization and the University of Zaragoza, which manages knowledge dissemination.

This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under a grant agreement (No 766884)