An EU Joint Programme - Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) call for transnational projects to improve understanding of the complex and multifactorial pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases.

The EU Joint Programme Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) has launched this transnational call for proposals with the aim of improving the understanding of disease mechanisms and advancing measurability of disease progression at early and pre-symptomatic stages of neurodegenerative diseases.

Proposals must focus on one or several of the following neurodegenerative diseases:

• Alzheimer's disease and other dementias.
• Parkinson's disease and PD-related disorders.
• Prion diseases.
• Motor neuron diseases.
• Huntington's disease.
• Spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA).
• Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

Proposals may include, but are not limited to, the following types of research:

• Unravelling the influence of molecular, physiological, psychological and social factors and pathways on disease progression as well as discovering new factors and pathways.
• Defining key regulatory steps affecting the disease onset and progression.
• Combining molecular, psychological, social and physiological markers in order to increase the robustness of the diagnosis.
• Harmonisation of the use of novel technologies and clinical measures to increase reliability and reproducibility of disease detection and monitoring.
• Identifying molecular, environmental, social and behavioural modulators of disease progression with the ultimate aim of determining risk, protective and resilience factors.
• Examining pathological processes related to neurodegeneration by using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other cutting-edge technologies to understand the role of mechanistic pathways.
• Enhancing patient stratification by establishing measures and technologies to characterise clinical subgroups at pre-symptomatic stages eg 'risk phenotypes' or 'at-risk' groups.
• Identifying compensatory mechanisms associated with the early stages of neurodegenerative diseases.
• Systematically analysing the influence of genetic, epigenetic and phenotypic variability underlying neurodegenerative diseases on disease progression.

The following countries and funding organisations are participating in the call:

• Spain, National Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII)

Joint transnational research proposals can be funded for a period of up to three years.

Proposals may be submitted by research groups working in universities or other higher education institutions, non-university public or private research organisations, hospitals and other health and social care settings, as well as commercial companies, in particular small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

Each proposal must involve a minimum of three and a maximum of six regular partners, including the coordinator, from at least three different countries participating in the call. However, if the proposal involves at least one regular partner from an EU-13 country (ie Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) or from Türkiye, the maximum number of regular partners is extended to seven.

Eligibility requirements, national/regional topics of interest, eligible costs and funding provisions may vary according to the respective funding organisation's regulations. Project partners must therefore refer and adhere to their own regional/national regulations and scientific remits, as detailed in the relevant regional/national announcements.

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