Welcome Note by Dr. Helge Braun, Parliamentary State Secretary German Federal Ministry of Education and Research on the occasion of ERA-Net NEURON Final Conference October-27, 2011 Berlin, Germany Es gilt das gesprochene Wort!!
- 2 - Dear participants of this conference, Dear scientists, Dear NEURON partners, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the BMBF, I would Greetings from like to cordially welcome you to this final minister Schavan convention of the ERA-NET NEURON. I am delighted to pass on the best wishes from our Federal Minister, Professor Dr. Annette Schavan. Professor Schavan is strongly supporting this important cooperation of Ministries and funding agencies and she is very proud of its success. neurological and psychiatric diseases Understanding the brain and its diseases is cause 35% of the among the most exciting research areas of burden of all the 21st century, and in recent years there diseases in EU has been a growing societal awareness of the importance of disease-related 120 Mio. people of neuroscience research. Disorders of the 470 Mio. people brain are major causes for impaired quality of suffer from pain life. Epidemiological and health economic disorder studies covering the territory of Europe show that out of a population of about 470 million, almost 130 million people suffer
- 3 - from a brain disorder. With increasing average life-expectancy of the population especially in highly industrialized countries this number will even rise. Mostly only symptomatic treatment Treatment of diseases of the brain and nervous system is in most cases only symptomatic and patients may live for many years suffering and requiring specialised care. In many cases care is provided outside formal health services by family members and has a high impact on their lives. Total economic Apart from the human suffering caused by impact in 2004 386 brain disorders, there are enormous billion economic effects. The total cost of neurological and psychiatric diseases in Europe was estimated to 386 billion in 2004. This includes direct cost, such as medical expenditures, and indirect costs resulting from loss of workdays and productivity. Taken together, neurological and psychiatric diseases cause 35% of the burden of all diseases in Europe.
- 4 - Progress must be While the high complexity of the brain and made in research nervous system is a fascinating feature, it is and development of at the same time the cause for our still treatment insufficient understanding of their structure and function. Despite some progress in understanding the molecular mechanisms of the various brain disorders, research is far from being able to offer solutions how to conquer them, and the development of curative treatments or prevention strategies has not been very successful. On the other hand, novel research methods Improving strategies and approaches emerged during the past 10 for early diagnoses years and there is hope that biomedical is essential research using for example genetic, neuroimaging techniques or appropriate animal models will provide insights into the pathogenesis of these diseases and will eventually be translated to clinical application. Finding ways to prevent the diseases or strategies for early diagnoses will be among the most important research tasks. Thus, a concerted effort is needed to reach the
- 5 - long term goal of curing patients with disorders of the brain and nervous system and helping their relatives. Successful strategies by BMBF Germany has attributed major importance to brain diseases in the past and in its current Health Research Programme. In particular, research on neurodegenerative diseases and research on mental disorders have highest priority for us. A number of initiatives are dedicated to these topics to promote top-level research in our country and the BMBF uses various strategies to promote fruitful research on a national level. German centres for health research such as DZNE As such, we have put a strong effort into establishing structures that enable creative and efficient research conditions on a national, regional and local level. Let me share with you some of our most successful strategies:
- 6 - Recently, several national centres for research into major diseases have been built up. In the area of brain disorders, the German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases, DZNE, was founded in Bonn in 2009. The BMBF has granted about 60 Mio National competition per year to establish this highly Health regions of innovative research centre with the aim of the future integrating basic, clinical and health care research. Eight universities spanning from Rostock in the north to Munich in the south belong to the DZNE and cooperate on a long-term basis. For promoting research on a regional level, we launched a national competition called Integrated Research Health regions of the future. Experts from and Therapy Centres research, development and health care located in one region could apply to develop health care innovations. Regarding brain disorders, the Hamburg region was one of the winners and will focus on promoting innovations in mental health research. Locally, we support integrative research structures through our Integrated Research
- 7 - and Therapy Centres. For example, here in Berlin, the Centre of Stroke Research combines top-level expertise on basic, Interdisciplinary epidemiological, clinical, and health services approach is research related to stroke. successful Research into disease-related neurosciences gains enormously from an interdisciplinary approach. It is nowadays unimaginable that important questions of brain functioning or progress on preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic measures could be achieved without combination of methodology, skills and expertise from different disciplines. The successful translation of research results into clinical application, or the development of drugs or diagnostic products, needs to be tackled in multidisciplinary collaboration, often involving industrial partners. Proofed by bibliographic Interdisciplinary collaboration is even more studies successful when the best international research partners work together. Bibliographic studies show that the publication output from single institutes all
- 8 - over the world has been decreasing over the past 20 years while the publications coming from international collaborative projects have been constantly increasing. Research on a European level Brain disorders are not an isolated problem mandatory for future of one country they are a challenge for progress Europe as a whole. Governments from all European countries are asked to set up research funding strategies to tackle this problem. Funding of disease-related neuroscience research is relatively high in most European countries, although still not matching the burden of brain diseases. However, many efforts are still spent only on ERA-Nets, ESFRI a national level. To overcome this etc. fragmentation, collaboration of funding bodies on a European level is mandatory so that we can all profit from suitable research synergies. In this context, Germany supports many different European initiatives. The BMBF is involved in various ERA-Nets, Joint Programming Initiatives, in the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures
- 9 - ESFRI, and other bi- or multilateral approaches. ERA-Net NEURON Among these initiatives, the ERA-Net scheme by the European Commission has proved to be a highly efficient model for In 4 calls 300 international collaboration. Despite or consortia applied maybe because of their simple structure, consisting of 1000 research groups ERA-Nets are very flexible and well-adapted to the needs of funding bodies and research communities alike. Many ERA-Nets were successful in creating trust and understanding, which is the glue that is 40 research required for coordinated activities in the area consortia are funded of joint research funding. We consider the by a total sum of 40 ERA-Net NEURON a shining example for Mio. this. There is a large need for transnational projects as can be funded in the framework of an ERA-Net. The NEURON Joint Transnational Calls for proposals attracted increasingly high numbers of applications. Taken together in the 4 calls produced by NEURON, over 300 research consortia
- 10 - comprising far more than 1000 research groups submitted proposals. This by far exceeded the expectations of the NEURON partners. Each call focussed on one highly important topic for brain disorders, namely neurodegenerative diseases, method advancement, mental disorders and cerebrovascular diseases. More than 40 research consortia are currently funded by the NEURON partner organisations with a total sum of about 40 million euros. The ERA-Net NEURON brought us all together in this room. That is, on the one hand, the representatives of the 18 NEURON funding organisations from 13 European Member States, Associated States and Canada who are all working together for the advancement of research funding. And, on the other hand, scientists from all over Europe who collaborate in highly innovative interdisciplinary research
- 11 - consortia to understand neurodegenerative diseases. I would assume that it was not easy for any of you: The NEURON funding organisations first had to develop novel solutions for building a legal and procedural basis for their work a time-consuming and laborious process. The researchers who are funded by NEURON had to find new ways of communication, of sharing knowledge and methods, and had to convince in a highly competitive funding procedure. I dare say that the effort was worth it. Dear NEURON consortium: The work of NEURON will continue for another 4 years. The BMBF is delighted to congratulate you to the successful re-application for funding by the EU-Commission. We cordially wish that you may continue as motivated and highly creative as you have been in the past. Dear scientists: We are very much looking forward to hear about the results from your
- 12 - research work which you will be presenting in today s and tomorrow s symposium. I very much appreciate that the young investigators from each project are here and will likewise present their work. I hope that you will be able to build new contacts and networks and that these contacts will develop and endure over the years. You will be the future and the next generation to carry on the idea of fruitful transnational research collaborations. I am confident that thanks to your enthusiasm and hard work, the miracle of the brain might one day be better understood and its disorders cured. On behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research I would like wish to all of you the best for the future.