Longitudinal-based cohort studies are an important resources for multi-disciplinary research, in particular for research into the causes of diseases (e.g. determining risk factors).  It is also widely acknowledged that collaboration across JPND member countries would add great value to current efforts and is urgently required for research into neurodegenerative diseases.

A JPND Action Group in 2013 provided recommendations on general population-based, targeted (preclinical) and disease-focused cohorts.  This work included:

• analyses of longitudinal and disease cohort studies
• an analysis of imaging studies
• a cohort reference list with web links

Recommendations span coordination, funding and policy areas, click here to access the full report.

In 2014, JPND funded ten international working groups through a specially designed call. The resulting reports and recommendations were published in October 2015. Click here to access the full reports. In 2017 a paper providing an overview of this work was published in Frontiers of Neuroscience.

The Global Cohort Portal was launched in 2017 to build on this work. The Portal is a searchable database of cohort studies from countries around the world relevant to ND research. Providing users with an overview of and contact details for cohort, this publicly available resource aims to facilitate information exchange and new collaborations, to help promote a greater volume of ND research, increased efficiency and ultimately greater scientific impact.