Objective There are at least 6000 to 7000 distinct rare diseases, the great majority of them being of genetic origin. Although individually rare, taken together, rare diseases affect at least 20 million of persons in Europe. They represent a major issue in health care since a large percentage of these diseases lead to a significant decrease of life expectancy, and most of them cause chronic illness with a large impact on quality of life and the health care system.Therefore further research on rare diseases is badly needed but is hampered by lack of resources at several levels.(1) Few scientists work on one specific disease.(2) There are few patients scattered over a large geographic area, causing difficulties to gather cohorts required for studies.(3) Usually existing databases and material collections are local, small, and not accessible or standardised.(4) Diseases often have complex clinical phenotypes and require interdisciplinary approaches to treatment and interdisciplinary cooperation for research.Due to the small number of patients affected by a specific rare disease and fragmentation of research, efforts in each individual European country are obviously limited in objectives and power. Therefore rare diseases are a prime example of a research area that could strongly profit from coordination on a transnational scale. The European research area should be enabled to realize its potential by reorganizing and combining scientific expertise, research infrastructure, well defined patient cohorts and biological material. Nine partners have thus decided to join their efforts to overcome the inherent difficulties of research on rare diseases. The general goal E-Rare is to coordinate existing programmes and to prepare joint and strategic activities to overcome some of the limitations imposed by scattered funding and fragmentation between national research programmes. Fields of science natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdatabases Programme(s) FP6-COORDINATION - Support for the coordination of activities: specific programme strengthening the foundations of the European Research Area under the Sixth Framework Programme 2002-2006 (FP6) Topic(s) COOR-1.1 - Networking of national or regional programmes or parts of programmes; actors: public authorities, research agencies, open call for proposals (ERA-NETs) Call for proposal ERA-NET/1/CA-SSA See other projects for this call Funding Scheme CA - Coordination action Coordinator INSTITUT NATIONAL DE LA SANTÉ ET DE LA RECHERCHE MÉDICALE EU contribution No data Address 101 rue de Tolbiac PARIS France See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data Participants (9) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all DEUTSCHE ZENTRUM FÜR LUFT- UND RAUMFAHRT E.V. (GERMAN AEROSPACE CENTER) Germany EU contribution No data Address Heinrich-Konen-Str. 1 BONN See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data GERMAN FEDERAL MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND RESEARCH Germany EU contribution No data Address Hannoversche Str. 28-30 BERLIN See on map Total cost No data FUNDACIÓN PARA LA COOPERACIÓN Y SALUD INTERNACIONAL CARLOS III Spain EU contribution No data Address Sinesio Delgado, 6 MADRID See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data FONDS NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE Belgium EU contribution No data Address Rue d'Egmont, 5 BRUSSELS See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data CHIEF SCIENTIST OFFICE, MINISTRY OF HEALTH Israel EU contribution No data Address BEN TABAI STREET 2 1176 JERUSALEM See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data ISTITUTO SUPERIORE DI SANITA Italy EU contribution No data Address Viale Regina Elena, 299 ROME See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data THE NETHERLANDS ORGANISATION FOR HEALTH RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT Netherlands EU contribution No data Address Laan van Nieuw Oost Indie 334, kamer 456 93245 THE HAGUE See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF TURKEY Türkiye EU contribution No data Address Ataturk Bulvari 220, Kavaklidere ANKARA See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data AGENCE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE France EU contribution No data Address 212 rue de Bercy PARIS See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data