Specific Challenge:
Effective and efficient collaboration and coordination among the IMI portfolio of projects in the area of Neurodegeneration and related national, European and global initiatives is a key success factor for the important public-private investment to achieve its full impact, as also highlighted in a recent meeting hosted in Brussels by the IMI2 JU.
It also is evident that projects share several areas of common interest (e.g. modelling and simulation, imaging) and have developed best practices that would be very useful for other ongoing and upcoming initiatives, but due to the silo-like structure of the individual initiatives, the opportunity for real and effective cross fertilisation is limited and based on the “good will” of enthusiastic individuals. The portfolio of IMI projects has grown significantly and it is diverse in scope and focus, making the need for a more structural and tailor-made support structure mandatory.
Projects would also benefit from support (including access to learnings from other projects) towards the submission of results for regulatory and/or health-technology assessment (HTA) to ensure that important results can timely impact regulatory practice and the health care system. Often the data to support a regulatory/HTA submission are only fully available in the very final phase of the projects or even after their official end which may hamper their submission and subsequent follow up.
A significant challenge in collaboration is the burden required to develop agreements and good practices for sharing and re-use of data, biological tools (e.g. cell lines) and other materials, activities that are normally either not or only minimally resourced under individual initiatives and can be labour intensive and require expertise (e.g. legal, ethical) not always readily available for each project.
All projects face the challenge of sustainability of their results, and the lack of a source of advice and support in finding/choosing relevant solutions beyond the project lifetime.
There is therefore a clear need for support to ensure that collaboration and coordination become intentional and structural to the portfolio of projects in the IMI strategic area of neurodegeneration, by providing the necessary resources and framework.
Last but not least there would be a very high value in having a framework to facilitate collaboration and coordination of the many initiatives focussed on neurodegeneration, in and beyond IMI, and to develop some metrics to show their value in advancing research and remove bottlenecks toward the delivery of innovative treatments to patients.
Scope:
The overall scope of the coordination and support action is to provide the necessary overall framework and resources to achieve effective and efficient coordination and collaboration among the ongoing and future projects in the IMI strategic area of neurodegeneration. This will include:
Expected Impact:
The expected impact would be:
SMEs can be of great benefit to IMI projects and, inter-alia strengthen the competitiveness and industrial leadership of Europe. Their involvement might offer a complementary perspective to industry and the academia, and help deliver the long-term impact of the project. For these reasons, applicants should consider engaging SMEs throughout the proposal.
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