EBRA at EAN Congress 2022

EBRA is looking forward to being part of this year’s Congress of the European Academy of Neurology, which will take place again in person on 25-28 June 2022 in Vienna, Austria. EBRA will have a Scientific Theatre Session on 28 June 2022, 10:30-11:00 (Theatre37).

Topics of the session

Brain research in Europe is a rapidly evolving field, and increasingly at the forefront of science. Although considerable amounts of knowledge and innovative approaches have been generated, the translation into new health interventions is hindered by excessive fragmentation. Effective and efficient collaboration and cooperation among the various initiatives are often identified as a key success factor to achieve brain research full impact. EBRA fully responds to these needs by bringing together the various stakeholders and major brain research initiatives, at European level and beyond. EBRA creates the conditions for real and effective cross fertilisation, dialogue, building consensus and exploiting research potential. At the strategic level, EBRA acts by fostering alignment and better co-ordination of research strategies across European and global brain initiatives. Therefore, an overview of the scale and scope of brain research activities funded in the EU framework programme and the funding initiatives of JPND, NEURON and HBP has been created. The results of this landscape analysis will be shared. In addition, the Shared European Brain Research Agenda (SEBRA) was developed, which focuses on research opportunities and research gaps to be addressed in the field, and priorities for action in the short– and long-term. It integrates pre-existing documents as well as expert (i.e., researchers, neurologists/psychiatrists, patient representatives) input that has been collected through surveys and in a dedicated expert workshop. The SEBRA and the results of the open consultation will be presented and will eventually be used to provide recommendations on future areas for excellent, innovative, and translational research comprising those for maximized cooperation, reduced overlap, and fragmentation. On the operational level, EBRA facilitates the emergence of research projects in specific areas in active clusters. A cluster is understood as a research community that can be directed towards basic research, clinical research and/or methodological approaches under a common topic and disease area within brain research. EBRA support clusters to: 1. Consolidate or expand further the research community expand their community, 2. Engage with policy makers and other relevant stakeholders, 3. Build consensus on various issues (research priorities, research roadmap, data sharing, etc.), 4. Promote links with existing research infrastructures, 5. Increase the visibility of the research community through communication and dissemination activities, 6. Coordinate the development of position/consensus papers, white papers, guidelines, meeting reports and/or other cluster outcomes. EBRA has 6 existing clusters: EPICLUSTER, Prevention of Severe Mental Disorders (PSMD)-cluster, TRISOMY21-cluster, BRAINFOOD-cluster, PREMOS-cluster and ECIB-cluster and the outcome of their meetings will be presented.