Competitiveness Council presents its conclusions on the joint programming of research activities in Alzheimer’s disease

Thursday 03 December 2009

The Competitiveness Council of 3 December 2009 presented its conclusions on the joint programming of research activities in Alzheimer’s disease.

The Member States do recognise the need to adopt specific national plans and strategies for Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders in order to alleviate the burden on society in general and on healthcare systems.

They also emphasise that the joint programming in research on neurodegenerative diseases will contribute to the reduction of fragmentation of research efforts of the Member States and encourage the pooling of skills, knowledge and resources, to advance research on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

The Member States are now invited to :

• develop a common vision on how cooperation and coordination in the field of research at the European level can improve knowledge, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, in particular Alzheimer's,
• develop a Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) establishing medium to long term research needs and objectives. The SRA should be further developed towards an implementation plan,
• support the work of the newly established Management Structure mandated to establish common conditions, rules and procedures for cooperation and coordination and to monitor the implementation of the SRA,
• jointly implement the SRA,
• explore with the Commission possible initiatives to assist Member States in developing and implementing the common research agenda.

The European Commission is invited to act as a facilitator ; explore how to contribute with complementary measures to the SRA and to its implementation plan via EU funding instruments ; look into possible forms of consultation and cooperation with scientifically-advanced groupings at international level ; regularly report to the Council and the European Parliament on the progress and results of this initiative.

Link :

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/intm/111721.pdf