Research Commissioner launches new health care initiatives

Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn

At the same time, Geoghegan-Quinn called for fresh ideas from parliament and the public and private sectors.

The scientific advisory board of the Joint Programming Initiative on combatting Neurodegenerative Diseases (JPND), comprising 15 of the top neurodegenerative disease scientists from Europe and elsewhere in the world, came together for the first time on 15 April in Stockholm. The board will advise on the development and implementation of a strategic research agenda for neurodegenerative diseases.

The Commissioner said, “Thanks to this Joint Programme, the best European medical researchers will be working together and pooling resources to help the millions of people who suffer from Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.” The European Commission is putting €2 million into the initiative, which is the first of a series of initiatives designed to address ‘grand challenges’ which cannot be tackled efficiently by individual member states.

The EU is also joining an international research effort coordinated by the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC), to sequence the genomes of breast and kidney tumours. “Unless progress is made in understanding and controlling cancer, the world will be seeing 17.5 million deaths and 27 million new cases annually by 2050. Cutting those numbers must be an absolute priority for the EU,” the Commissioner said.

On her first visit to the European Parliament since the hearings of the new commission, Geoghegan-Quinn called on MEPs and representatives from the public and private sector to contribute ideas to make the European Commission’s new research and innovation plan “efficient and coherent.” The commissioner made her statements at a conference on healthy ageing hosted by MEP Judith Merkies (S&D, Netherlands).

The commissioner added that she hopes to submit the plan, which aims to close the gap between research and the market, to the heads of state and government at a Council summit this autumn. Geoghegan-Quinn is confident that the Council will welcome the plan, noting, “President Van Rompuy has said research and innovation form a central plank of the Council.”