Partners of the IDEA project will develop an original research activity programme with technical applications, to design new solid state pharmaceuticals. The purpose is to enhance the bioavailability, efficacy, chemical and physical stability, safety and predictability of both new and existing drugs.The IDEA project aims to position the 2 Seas area as an international leader in the solid state pharmaceutical field. The partnership is formed of some of the worlds leading researchers in the challenging field of solid state pharmaceutical developmental science. The scientists from France, Flanders and the UK work in various fields (physics, chemistry, pharmacy) and will combine their subjects to meet the urgent demands of advanced drug delivery systems and approaches and to deliver high-level training in this field. Partners will first use a technical platform for preparing, characterising and testing the properties of the different components, excipients and active substances, then research formulations before examining the safety and predictability of the results. Expected Results: What are the key results of the project?The main expected results are :- to obtain new physical forms of active and excipient drugs ingredients- to provide new experimental protocols to obtain the various drugs compounds under original and inaccessible states by conventional means.- to produce galenic forms with completely characterized and certified dissolution, stability and bioavailability properties- to design new vectorization processes with predetermined stability and efficacy.- to provide efficient and easy to use control tools in order to increase the safety of the drugs and tools allowing for the prediction of the performance of the drug product- to provide formulation recipes for new drug candidates and performing scale up and manufacturing these drugs.Another key expected result is to set up a transdisciplinary training centre (focusing on physics, chemistry, materials sciences and pharmacy) at the PhD and Master level located at the different partner institutions. The partnership will train researchers and technicians who will be able to appreciate the various languages associated with the different disciplines. 12 phd students are expected to be recruited during the IDEA project.Are all partners and territories benefitting from the results?The target groups to be immediately positively affected by the IDEA project are the pharmaceutical industry SMEs as well as major pharmaceutical companies located in the 2-seas region. The project will benefit companies providing instruments for advanced characterization of drug products and personnel working in the health care domain with continued professional development (undergraduate students, PhD students, post-doctoral fellows and researchers in pharmacy, physics, medicine and chemistry). The IDEA project would be of great benefit for this research centre, providing excellent opportunities to appropriately formulate novel drug candidates into drug products.The final beneficiaries are the patients. More than 40 % of newly discovered drugs have little or no water solubility and 90 % of drugs approved by the regulatory authorities since 1995 have poor solubility, poor permeability, or both. The IDEA project aims at overcoming this major bottleneck. All types of diseases will be addressed, although, anticancer drugs exhibit particular challenges during formulation. Cancer is currently the second leading cause of death in Europe and the disease takes a very high human toll. This is particularly true for the 2-seas region. The improvement of drugs efficacy and availability resulting from the project is expected to have a direct positive impact on the therapeutic efficacy of these treatments.What are the effects / outcomes for the territories involved?The IDEA project addresses an urgent need of healthcare. The availability of effective medication must be constantly developed to meet the continuous changes in the modern society and most novel drug candidates are poorly suitable for administration, largely because they do not dissolve in body fluids and, thus, cannot be absorbed. To overcome this restriction, the physical state of the drug candidate must be modified. There are strategies to do so available but these are often based on empiricism rather than underpinning understanding. A rational approach is therefore required, encompassing the entire spectrum from fundamental research to concrete applications in drug products. Such a highly multidisciplinary approach does not exist in the academic or industrial landscape, and is not advantageous for SMEs.Here we provide a compelling source of development in creating an efficient tool to improve healthcare, education and to promote this EU border region. In order to render the 2-seas region competitive and attractive in Research and Development, it is mandatory that SMEs have access to local support with state-of-the-art know-how and comprehensive technologies . The project harmonises regional expertise available and takes the opportunity to exploit the local presence of world-wide leading experts in the field of solid state pharmaceutics in this EU region, potentially offering a unique partnership of highly complementary expertise and cutting-edge equipment.