ERA-NET NEURON JTC Call 2024 | FNS

Submission deadline: 28.06.2024

The NEURON Network has launched a joint transnational call for projects on “Bidirectional Brain-Body Interactions”.

The Network of European Funding for Neuroscience Research (NEURON) aims at coordinating and optimising research efforts and funding programmes of its partner countries in the field of mental, neurological and sensory disorders.

With the newly launched call, ERA-NET NEURON wishes to facilitate multinational, collaborative research projects that will address critical translational and clinical questions to improve our knowledge concerning the role of bidirectional central nervous system-body interactions on the genesis and progression of neurological and psychiatric diseases. A better understanding of these interactions has the potential to uncover solutions to prevent and treat those disorders. The present call is aimed at funding preclinical research up to proof-of-concept clinical studies addressing the pathophysiology and therapeutic developments for neurological or psychiatric disorders associated with bidirectional brain-body interactions.

Research areas may cover a broad range of aspects such as genetic, epigenetic and molecular mechanisms of disease. They may include research on the role of the immune system, gut and microbiome, metabolic system, autonomic system, hormonal system in neurological or psychiatric disorders, without ruling out others, e.g. the role of body representation in the brain. The development of preventive, diagnostic and/or therapeutic approaches including pharmacological studies and technological developments based on pathophysiological mechanisms are within the scope of the call.

The ERA-NET NEURON funding organisations particularly wish to promote multi-disciplinary work and translational research proposals that combine basic and clinical approaches.

Research proposals should cover at least one of the following areas:

• Fundamental research on the role of the bidirectional brain-body interaction on the pathogenesis and/or aetiology of neurological and psychiatric diseases. This may include the development of innovative or shared resources and technologies considered of relevance in the context of this call.
• Pre-clinical and clinical research to develop new strategies for prevention, diagnosis, therapy and rehabilitation procedures for diseases in which alterations in brain-body communication constitutes a relevant process of the pathology.

Research on neurodegenerative disorders addressed by the EU Joint Programme – Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND), proposals focusing on neuro-oncology, proposals dealing primarily with periphery organ functions (e.g. lung, sensory organs, liver, cardiovascular, etc.) without specifically focusing on the brain-body interaction aspect and proposals focusing solely on technological developments in disregard of neurobiological mechanisms are excluded from this call.

Pre-proposals must be submitted no later than 14:00 CET on 8 March 2024 via the electronic submission tool.

Full proposals must be submitted no later than 14:00 CEST on 28 June 2024 via the electronic submission tool.

• ERA-NET NEURON website