NEWS - EU NEWS

An experiment in EU research policy will take a step forward on 22 July 2009 when Janez Potocnik, the European Commissioner for research, sets out how countries can work together on research into dementia.  Twenty European countries have agreed to collaborate on neurodegenerative diseases, including non-EU members Switzerland and Turkey.

This will be the first outing for the EU's ‘joint programming' process, created last year to avoid overlaps in research and make better use of public money. Industry ministers endorsed the concept in December, as long as the programmes were voluntary and tackle “a European or global challenge”.

The dementia project will be watched carefully to see if the EU can co-operate on research into other big issues, from climate change to food supply. Low-carbon technologies could be the next venture for this type of joint work.

The idea to focus on neurodegenerative diseases gained momentum during France's presidency of the EU last year. France already has a €1.6 billion national programme on Alzheimer's disease in place.  The Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland and the UK also took an early interest and together with France called on the European Commission to issue a recommendation on how to take joint research forward – the document that Potocnik will publish next week.