Boost for international dementia research

An EU programme aiming to combat neurodegenerative diseases known as the JPND has announced £25.7 million for dementia research.

The funding will support 21 research projects, which will help researchers better understand, treat and prevent a wide range of debilitating neurodegenerative diseases. Nine of these projects involve UK teams who will receive MRC funds through the JPND initiative.

Professor Philippe Amouyel, Chair of the JPND Management Board and coordinator of the JPco-fuND initiative said: “We are delighted to be able to fund so many high quality proposals. This is a significant scale-up of implementation of the JPND research strategy, and a major step forward towards the alignment of European Member States, Associated countries and three third countries – Canada, Switzerland and Australia – to tackle altogether more efficiently the global challenge of neurodegenerative disease.”

The selected projects involve Europe, Canada, Switzerland and Australia and will aim to foster international collaborations in three key research areas: Risk and Protective Factors, Animal and Cell Models and Longitudinal Cohorts.

The MRC is the funder for UK groups participating within this JPND call and is investing £2.5 million in support of UK-based research in nine out of the 21 successful projects.

“Effective collaboration will be at the heart of the solution to how we understand and then tackle the dementias. These exciting new projects will allow world leading scientists work together to accelerate research progress and ultimately improve the lives of the millions of people with neurodegenerative disease. We’re proud to help spearhead collaborations across Europe and beyond,” said Dr Rob Buckle, Director of Science Programmes at the MRC.