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Towards sustainability and globalisation of the Joint Programming Initiative on Neurodegenerative Diseases

 

Specific challenge: The EU Joint Programming Initiative on Neurodegenerative Diseases Research, in particular Alzheimer's (JPND), was established in 2009 as the pilot of the Member State-led Joint Programming Initiatives (JPI) to enable the participating EU Member States to work together on the challenge of age-related neurodegenerative diseases. Throughout the past five years, the JPND has proved an important tool for the establishment of a European Research Area in this field. The JPND has made considerable progress in enabling Member States to pursue common visions, and contributed greatly to increasing awareness and creating an unprecedented mobilization of human resources, actions, and funding to tackle the challenge of neurodegenerative diseases. The HCO 7 – 2014 topic calling for an ERA-NET provides opportunity to the JPND to leverage the support for the implementation of its Strategic Research Agenda, as well as to network and align Members’ research activities.  

Another immediate challenge for the JPND is managing and extending its capacities. In this context, the JPND should capitalize on the current momentum to take the necessary management steps for securing its sustainability by Member States, to extend globally and mobilize the Members States which are not yet participating in the JPND, and to take up actions at the national level. The JPND’s major achievements and expected future developments call for careful planning for its long-term sustainability, in particular because as the pilot JPI, the JPND is paving the way for other JPIs. A sustainable structure should allow the JPND to progressively move from coordination to integration of national research activities, to further develop its visibility at global level, and to facilitate greater innovation to improve the quality of life for people with neurodegenerative diseases and their carers while reducing emotional and financial burden.

 

Scope: Proposals should support the development and extension of the JPND capacities. In particular, resources should be used to:

         Explore possible scenarios for long-term sustainability by Member States and create political awareness to prepare their implementation. The project should also dedicate resources to develop and implement a dedicated structure responsible for the long-term JPND management and implementation;

         Extend the capacities of the JPND globally and to the Members States which are not yet participating in the JPND. For this purpose, the project should dedicate resources to implement its global strategy and develop a strategy to attract and raise awareness of the missing EU-13 Member States. This should include identification of available national research & innovation resources in the area of neurodegenerative diseases;

         Develop and implement current and new strategies for further coordination of national and JPND research agendas, and in particular for the take-up of JPND strategies and policies at national level. This should clearly demonstrate the leverage effect of the JPND. In this context, the project should dedicate resources to develop and implement initiatives for knowledge management, brokerage and transfer, as well as establishing collaborations with other initiatives or partners at European and global level;

         Provide innovative strategies for the creation of infrastructures and tools to facilitate more rapid uptake of data and methodologies for research on neurodegenerative diseases in EU and beyond;

         Facilitate building networks of industrial and academic experts to boost industrial innovation in the field of neurodegenerative diseases research in Europe in collaboration with IMI.

The proposal should not duplicate work already covered under HCO 7. The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1 to 2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

 

Expected impact:

         Reinforcing the JPI scheme as a major tool for the achievement of the European Research Area;

         Implementing a stronger global dimension of the JPND, aligned with the G8 summit on dementia recommendations[1];

         Increased multiannual commitment of JPND members, long-term sustainability of the JPND research and innovation strategy, and long-term structuring effect and critical mass mobilization;

         Achieving coordination and integration of national research & innovation programmes with the JPND research strategy in coherence with Horizon 2020 objectives;

         Faster international progress for research and innovation on neurodegenerative diseases through the development of novel research tools and infrastructures;

         Increasing efficiency of research and innovation investments by European Member States by avoiding duplication of research and infrastructure investment at national level;

         Awareness and potential extension of the JPND to missing EU-13 Member States;

         Further establishing the JPND as a reference for European and global knowledge and innovation platform in the area of neurodegenerative diseases.

                                                                                                                                                   

Type of action: Coordination and support action

[1]     https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/g8-dementia-summit-agreements