[ Joint Programme on Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) | Research funding ]

The EU Joint Programme – Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) is the largest global research initiative aimed at tackling the challenge of neurodegenerative diseases. This Joint Programme is funded by the participating countries’ funding agencies, including the SNSF for Switzerland.
For the 2022 call, the JPND initiative has announced a EUR 19 million transnational call for understanding the mechanisms of non-pharmacological interventions.

This call for ambitious, innovative, multinational and multidisciplinary collaborative research projects with a view to promoting research aimed at improving the understanding of the mechanisms and biological substrates that underlie non-pharmacological interventions, in order to tailor a holistic personalised treatment approach. The SNSF has allocated CHF 1’000’000 for Swiss-based grantees from 3-4 research groups.
Proposals must focus on one or several of the following neurodegenerative diseases:

• Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias,
• Parkinson’s disease and PD-related disorders,
• Prion diseases,
• Motor neuron diseases,
• Huntington’s disease,
• Spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA),
• Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

• Determining biomolecular and/or physical underpinnings of effects of non-pharmacological interventions;
• Examining the mechanisms of effective non-pharmacological interventions on the molecular and cellular level by applying cutting-edge technologies;
• Identification of the mechanisms of non-pharmacological interventions within the brain, using brain imaging, electrophysiology and other equivalent state-of-the-art techniques;
• Identification of biological, psychological and social health markers and their associations to allow the identification of modifiable risk factors amenable to non-pharmacological interventions and better predict and monitor the effects of these interventions for future large-scale clinical studies;
• Elaborating modified concepts of non-pharmacological interventions with enhanced efficacy based on a deeper understanding of the mechanisms;
• Identification of potential drug-target sites for a combination of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions;
• Finding (individual) factors that predict response to interventions.

• International consortia composed of 3-6 researchers from at least 3 different participating countries. Partners from other countries can be part of the consortium, but must secure their own funding. If the proposal involves at least one regular partner from an EU-13 country (i.e. Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia) or from Turkey, the maximum number of regular partners is extended to seven. Eligibility rules depend on the national funding agencies.
• Applicants can be based at universities (or other higher education institutions), non-university public or private research institutes, hospitals and other health and social care settings, as well as commercial companies, in particular SMEs. Collaborations with companies from outside the traditional medical sector (e.g. computing, artificial intelligence) are welcome.

• Swiss-based applicants: must be eligible for SNSF Project Funding (see EPFL Instructions for SNSF Project Funding) and cannot participate in more than one proposal per call. The SNSF exclusively funds research conducted for non-commercial purposes. Please contact [email protected] to verify your eligibility for the call. In case of several overlapping SNSF projects, all projects must significantly distinguish themselves from each other.  

• Deadline for pre-proposals: 1 March 2022 at 12:00 (noon) CET.
• Deadline for full proposals: 28 June 2022 at 12:00 (noon) CET.