Meeting with the European Brain Council
Brussels, 10 December 2019
increased compared to the previous Framework Programme (FP7, €3.1 billion; rate of
€400 million/year).
The brain research community have also concerns with the
partnerships under Horizon
Europe. The process to rationalise the partnership landscape together with
insufficient
support by Member States, makes it likely that there will be no brain-related partnership
in the first strategic programme. However, it could be foreseen in the second phase of
Horizon Europe, while in the meantime Horizon 2020 can still provide brain research
support for a number of years.
Objectives
• Inform that the health cluster of Horizon Europe has six main areas of intervention,
(“Health throughout the life course”, “Environmental and social health determinants”,
“Non-communicable diseases”, “Infectious diseases”, “Tools, technologies and digital
solutions for health and care” and “Health care systems”), which are well-aligned with
the priorities of the European Brain Council.
• Highlight the EU’s aim to continue to support health research in Europe, including
brain research, and to foster better coordination and develop strategic international
cooperation; Reinforce the role of the European Brain Council in these endeavours.
• Stress the importance to build an ambitious brain research partnership providing new
impetus for comprehensive Member State-led initiatives.
• In particular, encourage the European Brain Council to engage further with patients
and citizens, and to translate research results into guidelines.
• Stress the importance of securing an ambitious research and innovation budget for
Horizon Europe, which would strengthen EU support to brain research.
Lines to take
• Recognise the importance of brain diseases as the leading cause of disability in
Europe and worldwide, as well as the great burden it imposes on patients, families,
carers and healthcare systems.
• Acknowledge that the road from research results to their translation into clinical
practice is particularly long in the brain area owing to its complexity, and that learned
societies like the European Brain Council have an important role in reducing this time.
• Underline that despite the non-disease focussed approach to EU funding, brain
research has been increasing from FP7 to Horizon 2020, and currently stands at a
rate of €600 million/year.
• Recall that the EU also counts on the EU-funded European Brain Research Area
(EBRA) project, which is being led by the European Brain Council, to structure
research in Europe and to develop strategic international initiatives.
• Acknowledge that EU priorities in non-communicable disease research are well
aligned with the scientific priorities and enabling activities proposed in the Strategic
Research Agendas of the key European brain research players. These include the
development of personalised medicine approaches, clinical research focussed on
prevention, early diagnosis and treatment or disease-modifying strategies, and
assistive digital technologies.
• Get support from the European Brain Council to develop an ambitious brain research
partnership.
• Update on the cancer mission with its strong focus on prevention, which will address
risk factors common to all non-communicable diseases.
Contribution from DG RTD, Dir. E, Unit E.2 to the meeting with the European Brain Council 2/5
Meeting with the European Brain Council
Brussels, 10 December 2019
Background notes
1. The European Brain Council (EBC)
The European Brain Council is a coordinating council formed by European organisations
in neurology, neurosurgery, psychiatry, basic brain research, as well as patient
organisations and industry. It therefore represents a vast network of patients, doctors
and scientists, and these stakeholders along with its industrial partners make it well-
suited to work in close partnership with the European Commission and Parliament,
national governments and other policy-making bodies.
EBC continues to make efforts to quantify the societal cost of brain conditions in Europe
and to identify research priorities, which are usually well aligned with EC views. It
frequently refers to the estimate that
1 in 3 Europeans are set to live with a brain
disorder within their lifespan and that treating
brain conditions accounts for 35% of
Europe’s total disease burden with a
yearly cost of €800 billion.
EBC advocates for more 1) basic, clinical and translational research on, for example,
prevention or the use of biomarkers in identifying patients with brain disorders as early
as possible; and 2) policy implementation research at healthcare level where, for
example, health system evaluations can identify impactful interventions, which can then
be replicated in other settings.
Two key EBC papers: In line with its mission on “advocating for brain research in
Europe”, the EBC published in 2016 the third edition of its “
Consensus Paper on Brain
Research in Europe”
1. A year later (2017) the EBC published a Policy White Paper on
the “
Value of Treatment for Brain Disorders in Europe”
2 aimed at addressing the
challenges that arise from the
treatment gap, which is the lack of treatment for patients
with a brain condition. The treatment gap is considered the result of a lack of investment
in research and care.
EBC’s involvement in Horizon 2020: EBC leads the ongoing Horizon 2020-funded
European Brain Research Area (EBRA) project: "
Coordinating European Brain Research
and Developing Global Initiatives" with the aims to structure brain research in Europe
and to develop strategic global initiatives. The EBC is also a partner in some projects,
including the MULTI-ACT project
3, which focusses on patient engagement.
EBC’s position on the new framework programme, Horizon Europe: EBC has had
several meetings with the Commission services: In January 2018, EBC met with
of the
Cabinet of the previous Commissioner Moedas
and were invited to develop a brain mission concept; In February-April 2018: EBC met
with the previous (Robert-Jan Smits) and newly elected
Director General, Jean-Eric
Paquet, to exchange views on the new framework programme and the concept of
missions.
Noteworthy, in February 2018, Prof. Mariana Mazzucato published a key report
4 providing guidance on how research and innovation can address global challenges,
1 Consensus Paper: http://www.braincouncil.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Consensus-Doc-pol-
summary-Launch-2016-03-18-final.pdf
2 Value of Treatment Paper: http://www.braincouncil.eu/wp-
content/uploads/2017/06/EBC white policy paper DEF26072017 Low.pdf
3 MULTI-ACT: A collective research impact framework and multi-variate models to foster the true
engagement of actors and stakeholders in health research and innovation
4 Prof. Mariana Mazzucato, Mission-Oriented Research & Innovation in the European Union - A problem-
solving approach to fuel innovation-led growth
Contribution from DG RTD, Dir. E, Unit E.2 to the meeting with the European Brain Council 3/5
Meeting with the European Brain Council
Brussels, 10 December 2019
which included a brain-related mission as an example (“Decreasing the burden of
dementia”) that raised a lot of expectations in the brain research community.
2) EBC & the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI)
IMI2 is the world’s largest public-private partnership in health with a total budget of €3.3
billion (half from the EU and half from the pharmaceutical industry (via European
Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries, EFPIA). IMI supports collaborative research
projects and builds networks of industrial and academic experts in order to boost
pharmaceutical innovation in Europe. IMI has made significant investments in brain
research, in particular in the field of neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases. The
EBC is a partner in the IMI-funded project called AETIONOMY
5. Through IMI, the
industry is slowly returning to brain research.
3) EU Brain Research efforts
EU funding for brain-related research has been increasing, from €3.1 billion in FP7
(~€400m/y) to €3.2 billion (~€600m/y) so far in Horizon 2020; and as an overall
percentage of FPs, from 6.8% in FP7 to 8.2% in Horizon 2020.
An increasing proportion of FP funding is going to basic research via ERC and MSCA
(from 40.2% in FP7 to 58.1% in Horizon 2020), while collaborative research via the health
programme seems to be decreasing.
Efforts to foster cooperation and coordination also continue through the Joint Programme
on Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND), the International Initiative for
Traumatic Brain Injury Research (InTBIR), and the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases
(GACD).
5 AETIONOMY – Organising Mechanistic Knowledge about Neurodegenerative Diseases for the
Improvement of Drug Development and Therapy
Contribution from DG RTD, Dir. E, Unit E.2 to the meeting with the European Brain Council 4/5
Meeting with the European Brain Council
Brussels, 10 December 2019
CVs
Contacts
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Contribution from DG RTD, Dir. E, Unit E.2 to the meeting with the European Brain Council 5/5