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.

“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.” Dr Pierre Meulien, Executive Director, IMI.

“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.”  Mr Carlos Díaz, CEO, SYNAPSE Research Management Partners (SYNAPSE), NEURONET Project Coordinator.

“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.” Dr Darrel Pemberton, Senior Director, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, NEURONET Project Leader.

NEURONET has the following objectives:

1. Creation of an overall platform for efficient collaboration and communication among current and future IMI ND projects;
2. Mapping of ND actions, initiatives and partnerships as well as impact analysis of the individual projects;
3. Management support of the programme (timelines, dependencies, synergies and key results across projects); 
4. Identification of project best practices and providing the tools for transferability of best practices across the ND portfolio; 
5. Support the ND portfolio through development of tools, services, expert advice and providing guidance;
6. Promoting enhancement and coordination of communication across the IMI neurodegeneration projects, increasing programme visibility, outreaching to key stakeholders and establishing relationships with initiatives in the field and
7. Securing the long-term sustainability of NEURONET.

The NEURONET project has a budget of EUR 2.3 million distributed across a total of nine partners from the public and private sectors.

For more information, check out http://www.imi-neuronet.org/

Follow the project on Twitter @IMI2_NEURONET to stay up-to-date about developments in the neurodegeneration research area.

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.

More information can be found at www.imi.europa.eu

Acknowledgement

This project has received funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 821513. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and EFPIA and Parkinson’s UK.

Disclaimer

This communication reflects the views of the NEURONET Consortium and neither IMI nor the European Union and EFPIA are liable for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.

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