Author Archives: jpnd

JPND will be represented at the Conference Exhibition on Thursday and Friday, March 8th-9th. Call over to stand S13!

The 27th International Conference of Alzheimer’s Disease International is being held in London from 7 to 10 March 2012. 

Hosted by Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) and the Alzheimer’s Society, the conference is conceived as ‘three conferences in one’, under the theme Science, Fact, Fiction.

The conference will be valuable for professionals, scientists, researchers, policy makers, people living with dementia, informal and professional carers.

JPND will be represented at the Conference Exhibition on Thursday and Friday, March 8-9.  Call over to stand S13 to find out more about JPND!

For more details on the Alzheimer International Conference 2012, click on the link below.

Videos of presentations and panel discussions from the Brussels launch of the JPND research strategy on February 7th, 2012 are available on the JPND Youtube channel

To access the video recordings click on the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL449263185907F6CB&feature=view_all

For other outputs from the launch, including copies of presentations, speeches, photos, press coverage, click on the link below.

JPND has conducted an exercise to map national and European research and infrastructure relevant to neurodegenerative diseases. Interested parties can now search for relevant activities and information on the JPND mapping database

The JPND mapping exercise aims to give an objective view of the scale and scope of research activity in neurodegenerative diseases amongst JPND member countries. The collated information was used to identify gaps and opportunities JPND could build upon and clarify medium to long-term research needs, objectives and priorities. The data collected also provides a baseline for monitoring spend on neurodegenerative disease research activity and resources relevant to neurodegenerative diseases across Europe.

The secondary aim of the JPND mapping exercise was to provide an updateable, publically accessible, database as a resource for the scientific community and other interested parties. The resource is available through the JPND websitehere or by clicking the second link below.

Research leaders and stakeholders from across Europe will gather today in Brussels for the launch of a European-wide strategy to coordinate and prioritize research aimed at tackling the enormous challenge of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease.

The EU Joint Programme in Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) is the first of the European Joint Programming initiatives which are designed to address the ‘grand challenges’ facing EU society in the coming years. These challenges are considered beyond the scope and resources of any one country to tackle.

Welcoming the JPND strategy, European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn said: “I am delighted to welcome this common strategy, agreed under this unprecedented collaborative initiative in research, to channel participating countries’ scientific competencies, medical strengths and social approaches to tackle this important challenge. The JPND strategy can not only make research efforts more effective in the area of neurodegenerative diseases but can also have very wide benefits for society, health and the research community in Europe.”

Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are debilitating and largely untreatable conditions that are strongly linked with age. Amongst these disorders, the dementias are responsible for the greatest burden of disease, with Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders affecting over 7 million people in Europe, and this figure is expected to double every 20 years as the population ages. It currently costs approximately €130 billion per annum to care for people with dementia across Europe, highlighting age-related neurodegenerative disease as one of the leading medical and societal challenges faced by EU society.

The strategy sets out the common vision of the 25 European countries involved, and provides a strategic approach to support world-class research that can exploit emerging scientific opportunities, confront barriers to progress, and provide new approaches to prevention, intervention and care.

“This common Research Strategy will guide research activity and investments in the field of neurodegenerative diseases over the coming decade in Europe”, says Professor Philippe Amouyel, Chair of the JPND Management Board. “The ultimate goal is to undertake research that can be translated into new interventions that improve the health and wellbeing of patients with neurodegenerative diseases and their families and carers, and that delivers economic and societal benefit throughout the European Union”, he said.
 
The goals of the European-wide strategy are;

  • To develop new treatments and preventive strategies
  • To improve health and social care approaches
  • To raise awareness and de-stigmatise Alzheimer’s and other Neurodegenerative disorders
  • To alleviate the economic and social burden of these diseases

JPND is working to implement these goals through;

  • building capacity in excellent basic, clinical and healthcare/social research
  • coordinating and aligning European and national research activities
  • translating research evidence into clinical, social and public health practice
  • partnering with industry, patient, carer and health service stakeholders, and decision makers

The strategy is based on the recommendations of the JPND Scientific Advisory Board which constitutes fifteen of the very best scientists and physicians from the research areas related to neurodegenerative diseases. Extensive consultations with over 140 scientists and multiple stakeholder communities were also conducted and recommendations were validated through a broad public consultation. Research priorities identified in the strategy include investigating the origins of neurodegenerative disease; studying disease mechanisms and models; exploring disease definitions and diagnosis; developing therapies, preventive strategies and interventions; improving healthcare and social care. 

“The recommendations outlined address the full spectrum of research and approaches that are required to achieve impact, and recognise the important role that other stakeholder groups including research funding agencies, patient and carer organisations and industry representatives have in delivering this agenda” says Professor Thomas Gasser, Chair of the JPND Scientific Advisory Board.

Identified JPND priorities will be addressed within the next ten years through a range of long-term, medium-to-large-scale, programmatic initiatives.  In order to implement and deliver its strategy, JPND is recognising the importance of engagement and partnership with industry, patient and carer organisations, research funding agencies and the European Commission. Working Groups are already classifying priorities according to scale, impact, and agreed timelines, and it is expected that the first of the implementation initiatives will emerge during 2012.

For more information, click on the link below:

Four international consortia have been proposed for funding under a JPND Transnational call between 21 countries

On December 9th, 2011, four new international research projects were recommended for funding to address a key issue in neurodegenerative disease research: the optimisation of biomarkers and the harmonisation of their use. 

Under a JPND transnational call for proposals between 21 countries  entitled “Neurodegenerative Diseases – a call for European research projects for the optimisation of biomarkers and harmonisation of their use between clinical centres”, four project proposals have been proposed for funding by the Peer Review Panel based on scientific excellence and by the Call Steering Committee based on budget availability.

For further information on the projects proposed for funding, clickhere or on the link below. 

Prevention, independent living, care and cure: are the main areas that the pilot European Innovation Partnership sees as being crucial to extending healthy and active life in Europe.

The Steering Group of the first initiative of the European Commission’sInnovation Union Flagship have agreed on a series of immediate actions to improve active and healthy aging. Philippe Amouyel, Chair of the JPND is a member of the Steering Group and has lead aworkshop on research mapping. Karine Baudin (INSERM Transfert) is a member of the Sherpa Group.

The target is that by 2020, the number of healthy life years in the EU will have increased on average by two years. To reach this target, the partnership wishes to enhance early diagnosis methods; remote monitoring; independent living solutions enabled by information technology; the construction of age-friendly environments; as well as health literacy and personalised health management.

The partnership’s Steering Group is made up of representatives of national governments, hospitals, companies and civil organisations. The European Commission will call for active commitment from Member States, regions and other stakeholders to further expand the range of participants and implement the prioritized actions.

Link toEuropean Commission andFrench Ministry Press Releases on the Innovation Partnership’s action areas.

Frequently asked questions about European Innovation PartnershipsLink to website of European Innovation Partnership on ‘Active and Healthy Ageing’

Professor Philippe Amouyel will present JPND at the first „European Day of the Brain – Ageing, Stroke and Alzheimer’s Disease – Finding Innovative Solutions” on November 18th in Warsaw, Poland.

The meeting is organised by the European Brain Council, together with the Polish Ministry for Health and DG SANCO, to co-incide with the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union (July-December 2011).

The event will be attended and addressed by European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek, together with representatives of the European Commission and Polish Government.

More details of the meeting are available at the link below.

http://www.europeanbraincouncil.org/meetings/european-day-brain-innovation-solution.asp 

Professor Amouyel also presented JPND at the Annual Joint Programming event entitled "Public-to-Public Partnerships", in Brussels on Nov 9-10th, 2011.

More details from this meeting can be found at the link below:

http://www.era-learn.eu/jpevent2011

Follow us @JPNDeurope for tweets on the JPND, neurodegenerative disease research, national initiatives, news from official EU bodies and other European research organisations.

Interested parties can stay up-to-date@JPNDeurope on relevant activties, events and news relating to JPND and neurodegenerative disease research. 

Link to JPND Twitter Page 

JPND also has a News Feed RSS and email alert to keep interested parties up-to-date on JPND-specific activities.  To sign-up for the e-alert, click on the link below:

Link to News feed page

Irish Minister for Research and Innovation welcomes the JPND Mangement Board

The Irish Minister for Research and Innovation, Sean Sherlock TD, extended a warm welcome to the JPND Management Board at its 9th meeting which took place in Dublin Castle on 29 September.

Excerpts from the text of the the Minister’s speech are available by clicking on the link below:

Minister’s speech excerpts

Photographs from the event are available at the link below:

Event photos

Eight new international research projects have been funded by the JPND-endorsed COEN initiative

The Centres of Excellence in Neurodegeneration Research (CoEN) -initiative, an international funding partnership, has announced investment in eight exciting new international research projects which will address key issues in neurodegenerative disease research.

The CoEN initiative, launched in 2010, funds highly innovative research in the field of neurodegenerative diseases such as dementias and Parkinson’s disease. Under a call for proposals for collaborative research that will serve to underpin future studies, €3.7m  has been awarded to eight new projects spanning the development of new disease models, the identification of biomarkers and the harmonisation of methodologies for clinical studies. These projects bring together a wealth of resources and expertise from a number of large research institutes in different countries to tackle scientific questions that are key to the advancement within the field. 

For further information on the funded projects clickhere or visit:http://coen.org/home.html