Collaborative opportunities across work packages


Our research consortium offers a wide range of opportunities for collaboration, spanning data science, clinical research, exposome science, laboratory models, public engagement, and translational outcomes. View the opportunities for each work package below.

  • Mapping existing knowledge (work package 2)
    • Creating a network of existing studies and identifying variables
    • Planning the epi-exposome toolbox (across WPs)
    • Possibilities for more papers than the one already planned
  • Integrating cohorts and databases and biomarker exploration in CLDs (work package 3A and 3B)
    • Experts within the field (exposome, physicians in COPD, ILDs, asthma) to help set the scope and perform literature searches etc
    • Possibility to expand the inclusion of databases
    • Write a systematic review on the role of the exposome on the specific diseases (COPD, asthma, ILDs, PVDs)
  • Biomarker exploration in CLDs - ILDs (a subgroup of work package 3B)

    Sample Management & Harmonisation Coordination
    • Develop and standardise collection, labeling, and storage protocols for breath, blood, and urine samples across ILD centers.
    • Ensure biobanking integrity and regulatory compliance with ethical and GDPR standards.
    • Oversee chain-of-custody documentation and coordinate with local site investigators for sample traceability.

    Data Integration & Omics Analysis Support
    • Integrate proteomic, metabolomic, and transcriptomic datasets into unified analytical structures.
    • Design and refine multi-omics processing pipelines and metadata alignment strategies.
    • Collaborate with computational biologists to ensure reproducibility, normalization accuracy, and secure data handling.

    Airborne Exposome Data Analysis
    • Process and interpret data from environmental samplers, including air quality and settled dust measurements.
    • Model associations between environmental exposures and ILD clinical outcomes.
    • Contribute to identifying exposure-specific molecular signatures through combined exposome–biomarker analyses.

    Clinical Metadata & Data Curation
    • Harmonize ILD clinical variables, including HRCT patterns, disease stage, and comorbidities.
    • Establish standardized data dictionaries and ensure metadata completeness across sites.
    • Maintain and update the unified ILD database for downstream statistical and omics analyses.

    Quality Control & Data Validation
    • Implement quality control protocols for omics, exposome, and clinical data.
    • Verify consistency between laboratory outputs, sample inventories, and analytical records.
    • Generate data validation reports and coordinate periodic QC audits for WP3B datasets.

    Ethics & Data Governance Liaison
    • Manage ethical approvals, informed consent documentation, and anonymization workflows.
    • Supervise secure data exchange procedures and compliance with GDPR standards.
    • Serve as point of contact for data governance matters and inter-institutional transfer agreements.

    ILD Biomarker Validation Researcher
    • Experimentally validate candidate biomarkers derived from multi-omics analyses in ILD patient samples.
    • Perform laboratory assays, ELISA, and flow cytometry in collaboration with molecular and cellular pneumonology facilities.
    • Interpret biomarker data to support translational research outputs and deliverable development.

    ILD Clinical Data Coordinator

    • Coordinate collection and entry of ILD clinical data including pulmonary function, HRCT metrics, and longitudinal follow-up.

    •Liaise with participating centers to ensure data completeness and timely submission.
    • Prepare curated clinical datasets for integrated analysis with exposome and biomarker information.

    Biostatistical / Epidemiological Analysis
    • Perform correlation, regression, and multivariate analyses linking exposome measures with biomarker and clinical data.
    • Support the development of predictive models for ILD onset, progression, and exacerbations.
    • Contribute to defining ILD-specific biomarker panels and validating their statistical robustness.

    Pulmonary Function & Imaging Analysis
    • Coordinate standardized acquisition and interpretation of spirometry, DLCO, and body plethysmography data.
    • Lead HRCT scoring, quantitative image analysis, and integration with physiological measurements.
    • Provide expertise for linking imaging and functional outcomes to molecular signatures.

    Patient-Reported Outcomes (PRO) Data Liaison
    • Manage implementation of patient-reported outcome measures (e.g., IPF-PROM) within ILD cohorts.
    • Analyze associations between self-reported wellbeing indices and biological or exposome indicators.
    • Support design of longitudinal frameworks to monitor quality of life and disease burden.

    Research Assistance (ILD Data & Literature Support)
    • Conduct literature reviews and evidence syntheses on ILD biomarkers and exposome interactions.
    • Assist with data entry, reference management, and documentation for reports and manuscripts.
    • Support day-to-day coordination of database updates, logistics, and internal communication.

    Funding Strategy & Resource Development Officer
    • Identify and track competitive funding schemes aligned with ILD exposome and biomarker research.
    • Prepare pre-proposals, consortium inputs, and supporting documents for grant submissions.
    • Coordinate with institutional funding offices to ensure strategic alignment and compliance.
    • Develop sustainability plans securing long-term laboratory, data, and personnel resources beyond the CRC period.

     

     

  • Evaluating mechanisms underlying the development and progression of CLDs due to the airborne exposome (work package 4)
    • Experts on studying the exposome in in vitro/ex vivo models
    • Available data (or in vitro/ex vivo samples) on the role of exposome on CLDs to combine and use as base for future studies/recommendations
  • Patient and public involvement (work package 5)
    • Transcribing focus groups recordings
    • Designing questionnaires
    • Distributing questionnaires (networking!)
    • Processing returned questionnaires
    • Future work within our WP to achieve deliverables
  • Advocacy and policy engagement (work package 6)
    • Creating factsheets on the association between CLDs and the exposome
    • Promoting these factsheets in close collaboration with ERS and ELF