Efficient translation of research discoveries into industrial application is an essential element to maintain Europe’s competitiveness in the biomedical and health industry. The main bottleneck is the lack and the fragmented nature of essential research infrastructure and know-how, leading to unacceptable delays and/or preventing the development of new innovative medicines. The aim of EATRIS is to fill this gap by developing a European Advanced Translation Research InfraStructure consisting of key preclinical and clinical components necessary to support the development of new diagnostic or therapeutic strategies at all stages of the biomedical R&D-process. EATRIS will operate through a network of biomedical translation research centres across Europe which will provide user access to: • State of the art animal facilities for preclinical proof of principle and proof of concept studies • Small molecule screening facilities to identify and characterize new drug targets • High-resolution imaging facilities for preclinical and clinical validation • Disease-specific patient and population cohorts to develop and validate new innovative diagnostic and therapeutic strategies • Centralized GMP facilities for bioprocess development and manufacturing • Facilities for Clinical Phase I studies. During the preparatory phase EATRIS will work out a master plan describing in detail the establishment and mode of operation of the planned pan-European infrastructure during a later construction phase: This will include an agreement on the key legal, governance, strategic and financial issues as well as a concept to train and educate the next generation of biomedical translation researchers. Users of EATRIS will be biomedical researchers and clinical scientists located at universities, research institutions or SME´s that need to use this infrastructure in order to overcome specific bottlenecks and to move their research projects from a discovery to a preclinical and clinical stage.