European neurodegeneration research collaborations are approaching the forefront of science. A driver for this is the increasing challenge for European social welfare and healthcare systems. For instance, there is a growing number of people affected who often lack effective treatment options.
Public-private partnerships provide an unprecedented opportunity for all concerned parties to work together to improve our current understanding of these conditions, and to create platforms that facilitate the development of new treatments.
At the time of writing, the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) is the world’s biggest public-private partnership in life sciences. Above all, it aims to accelerate the development of better and safer medicines for patients, especially in areas of unmet medical need. This unique platform for collaboration brings together key players who share the joint vision of a healthier future.
In the pursuit of this joint vision, the IMI launched a portfolio of European neurodegeneration research projects. These projects aim to better understand the biology of such diseases, discover new targets, define better taxonomies. Furthermore, they design innovative tools and provide the foundation to establish new methods of research and development, including initiatives for patient engagement and the use of data from the real world.
For an overview of the projects click here.
The Neuronet initiative was conceived to link IMI projects. It aimed to promote collaboration and to raise the visibility of research findings. Neuronet also aspired to support other initiatives and researchers from all over the world to collaborate and contribute towards our common vision of a healthier future for all.
Press release
Madrid, 21 March 2019 – Today, the members of the NEURONET project announced the start of a new collaborative pan-European coordination and support initiative for the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) projects of the Neurodegenerative Disorders (ND) portfolio. NEURONET will set up a platform that will enable collaboration across the IMI ND portfolio by assisting in identifying gaps, multiplying the portfolio’s impact, and enhancing its visibility with related initiatives in Europe and worldwide.
NEURONET consists of a small number of active partners in a variety of IMI ND projects and related initiatives. Its partners are specialists in complex/project management, data sharing & re-use, drug development, patient engagement, communication, sustainability and regulatory/HTA interactions.
NEURONET is sponsored by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and the European pharmaceutical industry (via EFPIA) under the auspices of the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking.
Dr Pierre Meulien, Executive Director, IMI.
“Neurodegenerative diseases are an area of major unmet medical need and have been a priority for IMI since the very beginning. By bringing together IMI’s excellent projects in this important area, NEURONET will help the projects to collectively make progress and give new hope to the millions of people in Europe and beyond who are affected by these diseases.”
Mr Carlos Díaz, CEO, SYNAPSE Research Management Partners (SYNAPSE), NEURONET Project Coordinator.
“NEURONET has been designed to take a different approach to a typical coordination and support action: we want to effectively connect resources and needs of the different projects ‘just in time’, making sure that we serve the projects and not vice versa. This demands a dynamic structure that puts the projects at the steering wheel, with NEURONET focusing on being a key enabler and mediator across the whole IMI neurodegeneration portfolio.”
Dr Darrel Pemberton, Senior Director, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, Former NEURONET Project Leader.
“Ensuring we are capturing and fully advancing the immense knowledge created in the numerous Neurodegeneration IMI projects is the key deliverable of NEURONET. This is critical if we are to make significant headway in the discovery of novel therapeutics for these devastating brain disorders.”
The Neuronet project has a budget of EUR 2.3 million distributed across a total of nine partners from the public and private sectors.
About the Innovative Medicines Initiative
The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) is Europe’s largest public-private initiative aiming to speed up the development of better and safer medicines for patients.
IMI supports collaborative research projects and builds networks of industrial and academic experts in order to boost pharmaceutical innovation in Europe. IMI is a joint undertaking between the European Union and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, EFPIA. Through the IMI2 programme, a €3.3 billion budget for the period 2014-2020 is available.