Neuronet consortium meeting held at Johnson & Johnson headquarters in Belgium

On 7 October, Neuronet held its third consortium meeting at Johnson & Johnson headquarters in Diegem, Brussels. The consortium meeting aimed at providing an update on each of the five Neuronet work packages to the Neuronet consortium, coordinated by Synapse and led by Janssen. Attendees of the meeting included representatives from Alzheimer Europe, the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and several pharmaceutical companies (Roche, Eli Lilly, Janssen, Takeda and Sanofi).

As part of the consortium meeting, the following five work packages were discussed:

    • WP1 Project and impact analysis (presented by Diana O’Rourke from NICE). This work package aims to profile Innovative Medicines Initiative projects in the neurodegenerative disease (NDD) area. WP1 is also collecting information on all NDD public-private partnerships worldwide. Consortium members discussed the progress on project data collection, which will form the backbone of a programme gap analysis.
    • WP2 Programme integration (presented by Carlos Dìaz from Synapse). This work package aims to support the integration of Neuronet NDD projects, creating a framework to support cross-project collaboration. After presenting an overview of the WP2 working groups on data sharing, sustainability, regulatory/HTA and patient privacy/ethics, discussions here focused on how Neuronet can encourage collaboration between NDD projects.
    • WP3 Tools and services (presented by Nina Coll from Synapse). This work package aims to develop specific tools and services for areas where unmet needs have been detected. Discussions focused on the design, content of and access to a knowledge base (KB), which will be an online tool that brings together information on all Neuronet projects, including lists of publications, deliverables, project teams and timelines.
    • WP4 Dissemination & Outreach (presented by Chris Bintener from Alzheimer Europe). This work package aims to promote synergy between project communication and dissemination activities, also acting as an ‘ambassador’ for the Neuronet portfolio. The Neuronet website and newsletter have been launched, as has a Twitter campaign publicising the projects and their objectives. Neuronet will hold four parallel sessions during the 2019 Alzheimer Europe Conference in The Hague where representatives of the different NDD projects will present.
    • WP5 Management & Sustainability (presented by Sandra Pla from Synapse). This work package brings together all management and governance activities for the Neuronet consortium. Synapse provided the consortium with an update on deliverables, budget and the planning of following meetings, highlighting the upcoming IMI review of Neuronet.

Provided by: Alzheimer Europe