Page 88 - Annual Report 2018

lerate progress in understanding the basic mecha- • Ministero della Salute (MDS, Italy)
nisms of disease, and the identification of new the- Centre of Excellence for Brain Research
rapeutic approaches. (MESRS), Slovakia
• CIBERNED-Fundación CIEN, Spain
To this end, on June 10, 2010, the Canadian Institutes • Agence Nationale de la Recherche
of Health Research (CIHR), the German Centre for (ANR), France
Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE, Germany) and
the Medical Research Council (MRC, UK) launched The global objective of this initiative is to create a co-
a funding initiative to establish a collaborative ap- llaborative research framework in the field of neuro-
proach to research in neurodegenerative diseases, degeneration that transcends national borders, with
called "Centers of Excellence in Neurodegeneration special emphasis on critical mass and excellence.
(COEN)". These founding members were later joined COEN is aligned with the JPND, although it functions
by other European institutions and thus, in Decem- as an independent entity. The overlapping of the
ber 2011 the COEN membership application by CI- members of the COEN group with those of the JPND
BERNED-CIEN Foundation was approved, ensures that their complementary objectives are de-
recognizing the scientific excellence in both basic veloped in close cooperation with the rest. This has
and clinical science of the institution which became been carried out through a two-phase process: first
part of the COEN Oversight Group. conducting expert workshops to determine the
scope of the needs, followed by a call for proposals
In 2012, CIBERNED and CIEN Foundation joined this to establish collaborative teams among the PIs as-
Committee to participate actively in the design of signed to the participating National Centers of Ex-
the future COEN scientific strategy. Both institutions cellence.
are represented by Dr. Miguel Medina, CIBERNED
Deputy Scientific Director and member of the CIEN The first phase of the COEN initiative began at the
Foundation Scientific Advisory Board. During 2015 end of 2010 and was intended to establish common
the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche resources and methodological approaches to sup-
(ANR) has also been acknowledged as a new COEN port future studies. Some of the key issues addressed
member. have been: the refinement and validation of cellular
and animal disease models; the development of
Current COEN members are: new measures to define patient subgroups for clini-
cal trials; the identification of new biomarkers to sup-
• Canadian Institutes of Health port translational research; the development and
Research (CIHR) harmonization of cognitive test batteries for diagno-
• Deutsche Zentrum für Neurodegenerative sis and follow-up of disease progression; and the es-
Erkrankungen (DZNE, Germany) tablishment of common computer platforms to
• Medical Research Council improve data analysis and exchange.
(MRC, United Kingdom)
• Flanders Institute of Biotechnology (VIB Phase II of the initiative was launched during the
Flanders, Belgium) year 2013, with the launch of the 1st call for projects
• Health Research Board (HRB) / Science called “Pathfinder.” In the years 2015 and 2017, the
Foundation Ireland (SFI), Ireland subsequent 2nd and 3rd calls were launched,

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