The SRIA is the central strategy/plan of the future EP BrainHealth, outlining the strategic priorities and the main lines of action, research and innovation initiatives.
Over the last 20 years, the EU has funded significant research in brain health. It’s now time to join forces towards a unified system for brain health. The Coordination and Support Action (CSA) BrainHealth – Designing a European Brain Health Landscape (2023-2025) has a mission to set the ground for a future European Partnership for Brain Health (EP BrainHealth) set to bring together key organisa-tions and initiatives in the brain space according to its roadmap, the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA).
The SRIA is the central strategy/plan of the future EP BrainHealth, outlining the strategic priorities and the main lines of action, research and innovation initiatives. It also encourages maximum engagement of member states and relevant players in the brain field – including not only researchers but also neurologists, psychiatrists, people living with brain disorders, industry, and global organisations – to join forces and align efforts and funding. The SRIA is structured around four priorities with specific objectives and strategies to accelerate scientific and medical breakthroughs and innovation in the brain space with the expected societal impact of decreasing the burden of brain disorders.
Priority 1: Promoting brain health and preventing brain disorders
This priority aims to identify protective factors for brain health, including economics, environmental, digital and social-economic factors, as well as relevant comorbidities, and to strengthen citizens compensatory mechanisms and resilience. It will also promote policies for early, acceptable, and sustainable prevention of brain disorders. The citizens’ needs will be considered inclusively and across the lifespan.
Priority 2: Improving early recognition, diagnosis, monitoring and intervention for people living with brain disorders
Specific aims will be to improve the early detection of diseases, understand the mechanistic determinants of their origin and progression, and accelerate the offer of new therapeutic interventions and monitoring which are tailored to the individual’s biological and environmental context and compatible with lifestyle at all ages. A synergistic combination of digital technologies, modelling, and artificial intelligence tools will also be required to achieve this.
Priority 3: Improving treatment, care and support for people living with brain disorders and their caregivers
This priority aims at bridging the gap and accelerating the translation process between research and practice, involving patients in the research process, and tailoring interventions and care to their needs. Patient engagement, therapeutic acceptability, leveraging real-world data, and assessing the cost-effectiveness ratio of interventions will be the primary objectives to achieve.
Priority 4: Integrating the social, ethical, and legal dimensions to advance research and innovation for brain health
EP BrainHealth will promote research in the social sciences and humanities to better understand the impact of social and economic determinants on brain health across the lifespan, as well as the individual, psychological, social, and environmental factors which promote resilience and brain health. EP BrainHealth will put together all the expertise needed to jointly develop guidelines, norms and gold standard practices concerning ethical, social, and legal aspects of brain research, care and technology while promoting the development of responsible innovations in the field.