ENERCA is a European network for rare and congenital anaemias. It is a project co-funded by the European Commission (DG SANCO) through the Executive Agency for Health and Consumers (EACH). ENERCA has promoted awareness and knowledge on rare anaemias both for the public and for health professionals through its website since 2003.

Rare anaemias include some 90 syndromes, each one rarely encountered in clinical practice, and so are often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, and given inappropriate treatment. These problems are shared with many other rare disorders and there is a close collaboration of the ENERCA project with the  EURopean Organisation for Rare DISeases (EURORDIS) and Orphanet.

The ENERCA project has successfully completed two cycles, ENERCA I and II, and the project to be funded is now labeled ENERCA III. This new version includes added objectives such as:

• The creation of a network of expert centres for rare anaemias, with the adoption of criteria for such centres based on those adopted by the Rare Diseases Task Force of DG SANCO.
• The harmonization of diagnostic procedures and clinical practices through agreed guidelines and standards.
• Education and training of health professionals and dissemination of information to patients and the public, through workshops and other activities in addition to the development of the website.
• Encouraging collaborative research.

Rare anaemias include the haemoglobin disorders in Europe. In recognition of the increasing frequency and importance of these disorders they have been allocated separate workpackages in ENERCA III, one for Thalassaemia (led by the Thalassaemia International Federation) and one for Sickle Cell Disease (led by Dr Beatrice Gulbis). To promote collaborative, multi-centre research, which is paramount in the case of rare diseases, ENERCA is to collaborate with the ITHANET project and to use the e-infrastructure to assist researchers in their communications and exchange of data.