Tag Archives: Call for proposals

Alzheimer's & DementiaThe JPND working group on vascular contributions to neurodegeneration, which was selected under the 2014 call for working groups on cohort studies, brought together 55 international experts on brain disease and dementia to survey the data from more than 90 studies, representing more than 660,000 participants.

The working group’s final results and recommendations were recently published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia. To access the full paper, “METACOHORTS for the study of vascular disease and its contribution to cognitive decline and neurodegeneration,” click here.

The Active and Assisted Living Programme (AAL), which aims to improve the conditions of life for older adults through the use information and communication technology (ICT), has opened its 2016 call, Living well with dementia.

The objective of the call is to advance the contribution of ICT to integrated solutions that enable the well being of people living with dementia and their communities, including their family, caregivers, neighbourhood, service providers and care system. The call aims to support innovative, transnational and multi-disciplinary collaborative projects with a clear route to market and added value for the different types of end users. A key priority underlying this challenge will be to bring together technologies and services to create ICT-based solutions addressing the specific aspirations and challenges of people living with dementia and their communities.

The submission deadline is 26 May 2016, 5PM CET. To learn more about the call or to register to watch the live webcast on 8 March, please visit the AAL website.

The ERA-NET NEURON has launched a new call for research proposals that will aim to address key questions relating to external insults to the central nervous system. These insults often cause permanent disability and constitute a heavy burden for patients and their families.

The call will accept proposals ranging from understanding basic mechanisms of disease through proof-of-concept clinical studies in humans to neurorehabilitation. The focus of the call is on primary physical insults to the central nervous system, i.e. Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Spinal Cord Injury (SCI). The call covers acute traumatic events over the entire lifespan.

Excluded from this call are research projects on haemorrhage and hypoxia. Moreover, research on psychological/mental consequences of insults, including stress-related disorders (e.g. post-traumatic stress disorder), is not part of the present call. Research on neurodegenerative disorders will not be eligible in the present call.

The ERA-NET NEURON funding organizations particularly aim to promote multi-disciplinary work and to encourage translational research proposals that combine basic and clinical approaches, for the benefit of the affected patients.

The deadline for pre-proposal submission is March 14, 2016.

Visit the ERA-NET NEURON website to learn more about the call and to apply.

The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) has launched a new call for research proposals that will aim to accelerate the development of medicines in a number of key areas, including neurological disorders.

The Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease topic of the call focuses on better understanding how the protein tangles found in both diseases spread through the brain, with the ultimate goal of establishing new drug targets.

The IMI initiative, a partnership between the European Union and the pharmaceutical industry association EFPIA, aims to stimulate the development of safer and more effective medicines.

Other topics in the call, known as IMI 2 – Call 7, include safety, pain, cancer, eye diseases, and big data. Call 7 has a budget of €46.8 million from IMI, which will be matched by €46.8 million from the EFPIA companies in the projects. The submission deadline for this call is March 17, 2016.

IMI simultaneously launched a second call, known as IMI 2 – Call 8, for research proposals on Ebola and related diseases.

Visit the IMI website to learn more about the call topics and to apply.

The EU Joint Programme – Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) has announced a rapid-action call inviting leading scientists in the field to bring forward novel approaches that will enhance the use of brain imaging for neurodegenerative disease research.

Imaging techniques such as MR, PET and EEG mapping have brought about a dramatic improvement in the understanding of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. In recent years, access to cutting-edge imaging technologies and platforms has expanded, and advances have been made in the harmonisation of acquisition procedures across scanners and vendors. However, fully capitalising on the use of brain imaging technologies for neurodegeneration research will require the development of new methodologies and the ability to achieve image acquisition and analysis at scale and at the global level.

The aim of the call is to establish a limited number of transnational working groups to address the key challenges facing the use of new and innovative brain imaging techniques in neurodegenerative disease research. The working groups will be community-led and will establish ‘best practice’ guidelines and/or methodological frameworks to overcome these barriers. Each working group can bid up to €50,000 for the support of its activities, which are expected to run for a maximum of 9 months.

According to Professor Philippe Amouyel, Chair of the JPND Management Board:

“JPND recognises that state-of-the-art brain imaging techniques are a vital resource for neurodegenerative disease research. However, achieving scalability for these technologies poses new challenges. For this reason, we’ve launched a rapid-action call inviting international research teams to address the most urgent issues in harmonisation and alignment in neuroimaging. The establishment of effective new guidelines and methodological frameworks will represent a critical step toward the full exploitation of brain imaging in neurodegenerative disease research.”

The following neurodegenerative diseases are included in the call:

  • Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias
  • Parkinson’s disease and PD‐related disorders
  • Prion diseases
  • Motor neuron diseases
  • Huntington’s disease
  • Spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA)
  • Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA)

Proposals must be submitted by 23:59H C.E.T. on March 10, 2016.

For more information about the call, please click here.

 

The EU Joint Programme – Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) will shortly begin another action to support working groups on “Harmonisation and Alignment in Brain Imaging Methods for Neurodegeneration”.

The aim of the call is to establish a limited number of transnational, JPND-sponsored expert working groups to address issues of key relevance for the future use of brain imaging techniques in ND research. Each working group can bid up to €50,000 for support of its activities, which are expected to run for a maximum of 6 months.

This will be a 1-step call, anticipated to launch in early January 2016, with a likely submission deadline of March 2016. Further details will be provided on the call launch date in January 2016. However, any new ideas to tackle harmonisation and alignment in brain imaging will be welcome. For example, this may include:

  • Harmonisation of acquisition for current markers (acquisition and harmonisation of procedures, for example, for MR, FDG PET, and EEG signals)
  • Simplification of web access to image analysis environments (improving the secure access to innovative web-based image analysis environments for neurodegenerative diseases)
  • Innovative PET molecular markers (fostering the use of established and experimental PET methods)
  • Innovative ultra-high field (UHF) MR markers

Please Note:

  • Proposals are not limited to these topics, and may cover other topics within harmonisation and alignment of brain imaging methods.
  • All information regarding future JPND Call topics is subject to change.
  • Final call information will be published on the JPND website (www.jpnd.eu).

The diseases covered by JPND are:
– Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other dementias
– Parkinson’s disease (PD) and PD‐related disorders
– Prion disease
– Motor neurone diseases (MND)
– Huntington’s Disease (HD)
– Spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA)
– Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA)

 

The Joint Programming initiative (JPI) “More Years, Better Lives“ aims at coordinating national and European research activities in the field of demographic change.

The first call of Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) “More Years, Better Lives” was officially launched on 1 April 2015. The call covers the topic ”Extended Working Life and its Interaction with Health, Wellbeing and Beyond”.

7 million Euros will be allocated to the call by ten participating countries (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Canada, the United Kingdom and Austria). The submission tool is open as of 18. April 2015. The Call deadline is 2 June 2015.

More information on the call is available at the link below:

On January 26th, 2015, Switzerland joined the recently-launched ‘JPco-fuND’ call for proposals.

Researchers from Switzerland are now able to participate as external collaborators in proposals submitted to this call under all three call topics.

Specific conditions will apply and can be found on the “Specific regulations” page of the call.

Should a proposal involving a collaboration with Switzerland be recommended for funding, this collaboration will be eligible for funding by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

 

The EU Joint Programme – Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) in partnership with the European Commission has launched the ‘JPco-fuND’ call for proposals aimed at supporting transnational research collaborations in three JPND priority areas:

  • Longitudinal Cohort Approaches;
  • Advanced Experimental Models;
  • Risk and Protective Factors.

The call will see more than 30 million euro being made available by JPND member countries, with a 10 million euro European Commission “topping up” fund.

‘Neurodegenerative Diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are a global health, economic and social emergency with numbers affected expected to double by 2030 and more than triple by 2050’ according to Professor Philippe Amouyel, Chair of the JPND Management Board. ‘With this in mind, JPND-participating countries have identified three further areas of greatest need for targeted investment in order to increase progress in the prevention and treatment of these diseases, as well as in patient care.

Professor Amouyel added ‘This call is launched as part of a major new cohesive action between JPND and the European Commission entitled JPco-fuND – the first concrete synergy between JPND and Horizon 2020 designed to address the global threat of neurodegenerative diseases’.

According to Professor Thomas Gasser, University of Tübingen and Chair of the JPND Scientific Advisory Board, ‘This call aims to pool the necessary expertise across Europe and globally to address these needs in the fight against neurodegenerative diseases. The call will support innovative, multi-disciplinary, collaborative research projects that will add value to the three research areas’.

The following neurodegenerative diseases are included for the three call topics outlined below:

  • Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias
  • Parkinson’s disease and PD‐related disorders
  • Prion diseases
  • Motor neurone diseases
  • Huntington’s disease
  • Spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA)
  • Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA)

Click here to link to the call for proposals webpage

Topic 1: Genetic, epigenetic and environmental risk and protective factors of neurodegenerative diseases

The aim of the first topic is to attract international teams of researchers who will explore the different processes at work in normal aging versus neurodegenerative aging and determine what role genetic and environmental factors can play. Factors such as family history, gender, stress levels, nutrition and others, can affect an individual’s risk, and provide protection from, or even resilience to, neurodegenerative diseases. However, it is likely that a combination of factors are involved, so a critical step will be to establish the relationship between genetic, epigenetic, environmental and social factors and their relative importance in order to identify those factors that can be changed or modified. This topic is a re-launch of the 2012 JPND call in this priority area. Details of the currently-supported JPND projects in this area are available here on the JPND website.

JPND countries participating in this topic (18) Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom

Topic 2: Longitudinal cohort approaches in neurodegenerative diseases

The goal of this topic is to further scientific progress at a transnational level by enhancing the capabilities of existing cohort studies, or by linking related cohort studies in a synergistic way. This may include bringing together well-characterised relevant cohort groups to harmonize, or make accessible, data to promote secondary analysis; adding new measurements, sample collections or data sweeps that add significant value or provide linkage to other studies; establishing novel assessment measures, taking advantage of new technologies, extending beyond the cognitive domain (i.e. motor and perceptual function) that can be applied to the broad spectrum of neurodegenerative diseases; delivering methodological developments or enhancements to establish cohorts as intervention platforms.

JPND countries participating in this topic (19) Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom

Topic 3: Advanced animal or cell experimental models of neurodegenerative diseases This topic aims to support the creation of experimental models that are more predictive of neurodegenerative diseases. This is a key barrier to progress in research as most of the current models are unable to take into account the multiple genetic and environmental factors that lead to the development of these diseases. However, in order to reproduce the complexity of these diseases there is a need for consensus in validating the platforms to be provided, which can only be achieved through a multidisciplinary approach that encompasses the best teams in a collaborative effort at a transnational level. Therefore, this topic encourages the implementation of a next generation of reliable and well characterized animal and cell models for neurodegenerative diseases. This may include the development of novel animal models for specific diseases to better reproduce the complexity of the clinical features of the disease in humans, the enhancement of existing animal models, e.g., by fostering a deeper characterization of the phenotypes and pathologies, and the exploitation of novel or the improvement of existing neuronal, neuronal-like cells or inducible pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, generated from different sources.

JPND countries participating in this topic (18) Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Turkey

Note 1: The call has a two-step procedure, with a first stage (pre-proposal submission) deadline of 23:59h C.E.T. on March 10th 2015.

Note 2: Proposals may cover more than one of the topics specified above, as long as the relevant work is carried out in a country that will financially support the topic. The balance of awards between the three topics will be decided by the Peer Review Panel and will depend on the quality of the applications. More information on the participating countries in each topic, in addition to specific grant practicalities is available on the call for proposals page here.

Note 3: Call applicants are encouraged to take advantage of the JPND online partnering tool to showcase their research group’s expertise, search for appropriate partners and pitch call-related ideas. An improved, multi-lingual version of the pilot tool is available on the JPND website here.

Note 4: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 643417 – JPcofuND.