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Progress in Leukodystrophies: Advance, Rate and Implement new treatment Strategies

Objective

Leukodystrophies are severe genetic disorders of the brain white matter that cause profound disability and premature death, mostly in children, and lack effective treatments. POLARIS aims to accelerate therapy development by training the next generation of leukodystrophy scientists capable of collaborating across the full spectrum of discovery, development, evaluation and implementation of innovative and accessible therapies. Researchers will develop gene-therapy approaches (RO1), pharmacological strategies (RO2) and treatment-evaluation tools (RO3) to advance therapies for leukodystrophies and strengthen R&I frameworks for other rare diseases.
A key barrier to progress is fragmentation: discovery, preclinical development, outcome definition and regulatory pathways rarely coexist in a single environment. POLARIS bridges this through 3 cross-cutting themes: (I) Affordable, Accessible and Timely—embedding cost, accessibility and real-world feasibility from the earliest stages; (II) Relevant Outcomes—focusing on what matters to patients, caregivers, clinicians, regulators and society; and (III) Transferable Knowledge & Tools—producing broadly applicable insights and platforms beyond individual diseases. The programme integrates all relevant stakeholders, including strong engagement of patient organisations, industry and public bodies.
POLARIS generates major scientific advances through innovative gene-therapy and pharmacological platforms, validated biomarkers and harmonised outcome measures that directly support future clinical trials. Its end-to-end translational pipeline creates scalable technologies relevant to a wide range of rare neurological disorders. POLARIS enhances researchers’ career prospects, skills, employability and contributions to Europe’s innovation capacity. By reducing development barriers and enabling more effective, affordable treatments, POLARIS delivers substantial economic and societal benefits for patients, families and healthcare systems.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

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Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-DN - HORIZON TMA MSCA Doctoral Networks

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-DN-01

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Coordinator

STICHTING AMSTERDAM UMC
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 305 285,76
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

No data

Participants (12)

Partners (19)