On 21 June, partners working on the H2020-funded RECOGNISED project met during an online General Assembly meeting, chaired by Profs. Rafael Simo (Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona) and Noemi Lois (Queen's University, Belfast). Attended by representatives of the 21 Institutions participating in RECOGNISED, including academic institutions, SMEs and patient organisations, the General Assembly (GA) meeting summarised recent project developments and provided a forum for discussing upcoming plans.
RECOGNISED aims to determine the usefulness of eye tests to identify people with type 2 diabetes with cognitive impairment or at risk of developing dementia. The 10 workpackages of the RECOGNISED project involve studies that span preclinical research on animal models of disease, to clinical studies in which participants will undergo retinal scans alongside neuropsychological tests, brain scans and genetic screening. During the 21 June GA meeting, RECOGNISED workpackage leaders provided brief summaries of ongoing activities, updating project partners on recent advances and discoveries. Despite interruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic including the temporary closure of laboratories, preclinical research on animal models of diabetes and Alzheimer's disease are progressing well, with efficient collaborations between laboratories based in different countries, generating extensive genetic, behavioural, cognitive and imaging datasets for analysis. Of note, RECOGNISED partners highlighted the successful start of the RECOGNISED clinical studies, which are recruiting participants from 11 centres based in 8 different countries. Clinicians described the ways in which recruitment and follow-up processes have been adapted to ensure compliance with COVID-19 sanitary measures, such as offering evening and weekend appointments, and condensing visits to different services to allow participants to complete their visits in a shorter period of time than originally anticipated. The final session of the GA was focused on exploitation, dissemination and communications, highlighting some of the considerations for business development and underlining the importance of disseminating RECOGNISED outputs to relevant stakeholders.
The RECOGNISED project receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 847749.
