JPcofuND 2. Understanding the mechanisms of non-pharmacological intervention

The ANR launches in collaboration with the ERA-NET JPcofuND 2 a joint call to support multinational, collaborative research projects aiming at improving the understanding of the mechanisms and biological substrates that underlie non-pharmacological interventions in order to tailor a holistic personalized treatment approach. Several non-pharmacological interventions have been shown to be effective and accepted by the patients. Such interventions may include, among others, psychosocial interventions, neuromodulation, nutrition or exercise. However, there is yet little knowledge about the mechanisms of non-pharmacological interventions, e. g. on the molecular or cellular level.

The present call is supported by 19-member countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey.

Proposals to this call must be hypothesis driven, ambitious, innovative, multi-disciplinary and multi-national, i.e. include research teams from at least three different countries that aim at understanding the biomedical, psychological and/or social mechanisms of non-pharmaceutical interventions in order to identify potential target sites for enhanced personalized interventions or a combination of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions.

Proposals submitted under this call may include, but are not limited to, the following types of research:

• 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.