Partners
Partner 1 - UNIBE (Coordinator) 
Prof. Hans Rudolf Widmer
Prof. Jürg Streit
About UNIBE
The University of Bern (UNIBE) federates 8 faculties and some 160 institutes that date back to the XVIth century. With 14,300 students, it is of mid-range size among Swiss universities. UNIBE has a formal research collaboration with Inselspital (http://www.inselspital.ch), which is one of the leading Swiss University Hospitals with about 7000 collaborators and more than 220'000 patients annually. Dr. Pascal Senn’s group is working at the Univ. Dept. of Otorhinolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery, Inselspital and is working in close collaboration with the research groups of Profs. Widmer (Neurosurgery) and Streit (Physiology) at UNIBE.The groups cover a broad spectrum of basic and applied neurosciences. Dr. Senn has 11 years of experience in translational science of the auditory system and 6 years of experience in specific inner ear stem cell research. As leader of the CI-centre. He has extensive experience for all surgical, medical, social and political aspects of cochlear implantation. Prof. Widmer has 20 years of experience with cell culture work and neurotrophic factors. Prof. Streit has 15 years of experience with MEA and patch clamp recordings from cultured neuronal networks of spinal cord and cortex. The groups, among others, share laboratory space and state-of the-art equipment reserved for neuroregenerative sciences at the newly built ARTORG centre (for artificial organs), located in the hospital.
Partner 2 - UT 
Priv. Doz. Dr. Marcus Müller
About UT
The Löwenheim group is located at the University of Tübingen Medical Centre, Department of Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery. The group is situated in the Tübingen Hearing Research Center (THRC) which provides a unique setting at the national level. All areas of hearing research are integrated on a research and clinical level. The THRC covers a broad spectrum of basic and applied research of the auditory system.
Partner 3 - UU 
Wei Liu MD, Ph D.
Fredrik Edin M.Sc.
About UU
Uppsala inner ear research laboratory belongs to the ENT-Clinic in Uppsala University Hospital. It is a well-known research laboratory built-up by Nobel prize winner Robert Barany and Professor Hans Engström who first established morphologic works on inner ear using electron microscopy. It is located near the Rudbeck laboratory of the Uppsala University which houses research facilities for genetic and molecular research as well as the Bio-Medical Centre (BMC) housing pre-clinical research facilities and medical, pharmaceutical and biotechnology education.
Partner 4 - UTA 
Prof. Jing Zou (PI)
About UTA
UTA is a State University with medical school and academic hospital. Emeritus Prof. IlmariPyykkö was head of the Department of Otolaryngology and is working with several research projects. The Academic hospital is performing advanced inner ear surgery. The University has good research facilities and is involved in several EU projects. In 2013, Hearing and Balance Research Unit, Field of Oto-laryngology was established in School of Medicine. Prof. Jing Zou is head of the specified Research Unit that will focus on developing nanotechnology-based diagnosis and treatment of inner ear diseases.
Partner 5 - HES-SO
Prof. Dr. Harry Whitlow
About HES-SO
The IMA ARC institute, which is part of HES-SO, is an internationally recognised institute in the field of microsystems, thin film deposition and characterisation.
Partner 6 - BIU 
Prof. Jean-Paul Lellouche
Dr. Ehud Banin
About BIU
BIU is the 2nd largest university among the six existing leading Israeli academic institutions. Its six faculties host more than 24,500 students in graduate/undergraduate programs. Two departments which are both part of the newly established Nanomaterials Research Center (Institute of Nanotechnology & Advanced Materials) will participate: (i) the Department of Chemistry (27 academic staff members and 290 MSc & PhD/post-doctoral students) is deeply involved in organic/inorganic/organo-metallic and theoretical chemistries, therapeutic medicine, electrochemistry and Materials Science (nano (bio) technology). It has been ranked n° 13 in Nanoscience (EU ranking, 2001); (ii) The Life Science Faculty (42 faculty members, 310 MSc & PhD/post-doctoral students) deals with microbiology, immunology, parasitology, virology, cancer research, ageing, ecology, botany, developmental biology and computational biology- bioinformatics.
Partner 7 - EMC
Dr. Ute Wank
About EMC
EMC focuses on the generation and biochemical investigation of biologically and pharmacologically relevant organic compound collections and provides a full range of medicinal, combinatorial and solid phase chemistry services. Based on bioorganic chemistry, chemical biology and immunochemistry EMC holds a leading position in the areas of methods development and high throughput synthesis of validated compounds. Furthermore, the company provides a powerful spectrum of custom specific peptide and peptidomimetic synthesis and biochemicals for basic research and early stage drug discovery.EMC has leading knowledge in immunochemistry, particularly in the field of synthetic ligands for TLR 1, 2 and 6. Tools and methods include adjuvant evaluation, optimisation and production of synthetic lipopeptides for the development of therapeutic and prophylactic multi-component synthetic vaccines.
Partner 8 - MED-EL 
Dr. Carolyn Garnham
About MED-EL
MED-EL is a leading manufacturer of innovative implantable hearing solutions to treat various degrees of hearing loss, including cochlear, middle ear and bone conduction implant systems.
MED-EL’s mission is to “overcome hearing loss as a barrier to communication and quality of life” in children and adults. The company’s products are the result of over 30 years of focused research and development, and a commitment to fostering close relationships with users as well as clinics and research organisations around the world. Currently, MED-EL is working in close collaboration with more than 30 research institutes worldwide in all aspects of technology and clinical related research.
MED-EL’s Headquarters are based in Innsbruck, Austria. With more than 1400 employees, MED-EL is present in more than 100 countries.
Partner 9 - SCIPROM
Dr. Kirsten Leufgen
About SCIPROM
SCIPROM (http://www.sciprom.ch) is an SME specialised in the management of European research projects. SCIPROM supports scientific coordinators from the first project idea to the final report, in project set-up, submission, negotiation, and management.SCIPROM is currently involved in the management of more than ten FP7 and FP6 projects. SCIPROM manages projects in different thematic priorities (ICT, NMP, Health, SSH etc.), and with different types of funding schemes (IPs with 20 - 30 participants, several STREPs, a Marie Curie action, two coordination actions). All SCIPROM project managers have both a substantial scientific background with several years of research activities and sound experience in project management incl. training in IP and financial issues. SCIPROM has extensive in-house knowledge in the creation of project websites incl. custom made collaboration platforms and dissemination material (brochures, flyers).