The EU Joint Programme – Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) launched a joint transnational call to support health and social care research and innovation.

Aim of the call: establish a limited number of ambitious, innovative, multi-national and multi-disciplinary collaborative research projects that address health and social care delivery at the macro level (system and infrastructures) as well as (at) the individual level of patients, their carers and families.

Diseases of interest: Proposals on health and social care can apply to patients with any 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)

Research areas and activities: proposals submitted under this call will include, but are not limited to, the research areas listed below.

Proposals can focus on one or several of these areas:

• Care pathways and services using the potential of patient involvement

• Factors influencing progression and prognosis of disease

• Outcome measures for patients and their informal carers

• Palliative care of patients

• Cost-effectiveness and affordability of interventions including ethical concerns

Training of young researchers and mobility (e.g., researcher exchanges for students and postdoctoral researchers) within the consortia are encouraged, where this can be specifically justified in terms of the training opportunities provided to the individual and the needs of the field. Please note that there may be restrictions according to national regulations. To have an impact at European and partner country levels, it is expected that all proposals will link activities across laboratories/clinics/care settings within JPND member countries. Proposals are encouraged to import expertise from areas outside of neurodegeneration research, e. g. from primary care, memory units or sentinel networks, which can bring innovation to the approach to be pursued. The case must be made for the added value that will be provided by the collaboration on a multidisciplinary level.

Consortiums: Each proposal must involve a minimum of three and a maximum of six regular partners from at least three different countries participating in this call (see section one). If the proposal involves at least one regular partner from an underrepresented European country (Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia), the maximum number of regular partners is extended to seven partners. For reasons of transnational balance, no more than two regular partners from the same country are allowed to join a proposal. External collaborators (e.g., research groups from countries that are not participating in this call or research groups that do not apply for funding) may participate in proposals but must be able to secure their own funding.

JPND has determined that Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) should be an integrated part of the implementation of its Research and Innovation Strategy. Proposals to be funded under this call will therefore need adequately to involve patients, carers and the public. Consortia are expected to make every effort to include PPI approaches, where appropriate, at each stage of the research process including the preparation of the application

Elegibility criterias (Spain – Instituto de Salud Carlos III):

1. Eligible entities:

- Hospitals, primary health care or public health settings of the Spanish National Health System (SNS)

- Accredited Health Research Institutes (Institutos de Investigación Sanitaria acreditados, IIS)

- CIBER or CIBERNED

- Universities

- Research Performance Organizations recognized as such according to the Act 14/2011, of June 1st, of Science, Technology and Innovation, as well as the other ones hold by Public Administrations

- Other:

- Only one partner per beneficiary institution may be funded within the same proposal.

- SMEs and other private companies are encouraged to participate at their own cost, as subcontractors or funded by other sources including CDTI open calls for internationalization

2. Eligibility criteria for Principal Investigator (PI):

                - The PI and all members of the group must belong to the eligible institution or be affiliated to CIBER, CIBERNED or an IIS.

- Excluded personnel as PI:

- Those undergoing a postgraduate training in Health Specialization (MIR, FIR, QIR, BIR, PIR)

- Those undergoing research training (e.g. PhD students, or “Río Hortega” contracts)

- Researchers contracted by a RETIC or a CONSOLIDER

- Those undergoing postdoctoral training (e.g. “Sara Borrell“ or “Juan de la Cierva” contracts)

3. Additional eligibility criteria by ISCIII:

                - Only one proposal per Principal Investigator is allowed

                - Researchers with ongoing JPco-fuND projects in 2019 cannot apply to the current call except if as coordinator.

                - There is no other incompatibility with AES 2018

- Researchers affiliated to Vall d’Hebron Hospital can participate both as coordinator and partner. Researchers affiliated to VHIR can only participate as coordinator.

Budget by ISCIII:

Up to 150.000 € per partner (overheads included)

Up to 200.000 € per coordinator (overheads included)

Application: IP (coordinator) should submit the proposal online application through the Submission Proposal Tool

Duration: 3 years

Deadlines:

- Internal VHIR: Please, send us an email to ajuts@vhir.org showing your interest before February 27th, 2018

- Submission deadline for pre-proposals: March 6th, 2018 (no later than 23:59h)

- Deadline for full proposals: June 27th, 2018 (no later than 23:59h)

Further information: Joint Programme – Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) webpage and attached documents (JPND Call for Proposals, Pre-proposal guidelines, Call procedures and call pre-proposal template)