Main Events of the Past Year

 

August - September 2008

• The Federation of the European Societies of Neuropsychology (ESN) and Brains for Brain were admitted as Associate Members
• Nycomed has joined the industrial partners group
• Successful meeting was held in Vilnius to encourage formation of a Lithuanian NAG or NBC
• Annual General meeting and meeting of the industrial partners were held in September

 

July 2008

• Presentations by Jes Olesen and Ian Ragan at the EBC Symposium of the 2008 FENS Forum in Geneva
• A meeting in Valletta to launch the Maltese National Action Group

 

June 2008

• EBC Board Meeting was held on 16th June
• The European Accreditation Committee in CNS (EACIC) was admitted as an Associate Member
• EBC participated in the DG SANCO High Level Conference on Mental Health on June 13th.
• A new Lobbying Strategy Plan for the European Parliament, European Council and Media was approved
• The full report of the first European Brain Policy Forum was published on the EBC website

 

May 2008

• A meeting was held in Bratislava to establish a Slovakian National Action Group
• The Slovenian Cost of Brain Disorders study was published

 

April 2008

• The EBC’s position paper on the use of non-human primates in research was sent to the EC
• A letter was sent requesting a hearing on brain research at the parliamentary Industry Research and Energy Committee
• The EBC was represented and/or made presentations at several meetings of member and related organisations (Association of European Psychiatrists, European Science Foundation, European Association for Access to Safe Medicines, Austrian Society for Neurology and American Brain Coalition)

 

March 2008

• A report of 1st EBPF has been completed.
• A meeting was held with Dr Michael Rogers of CHES (Coalition for Health Ethics and Society) was held to discuss future joint projects
• EACIC have made an official application to become an Associate Member of the EBC

 

February 2008

• The EBC held its first board meeting of 2008 on Feb 7th
• Brains4Brain and EACIC (European Accreditation Committee in CNS) have expressed interest in becoming Associate Members of the EBC
• The 1st European Brain Policy Forum on Parkinson’s disease and the European Society was a great success and received very positive feedback from the nearly 200 participants. Representatives of 11 countries attended the first meeting of National Action Groups and National Brain Councils.
• Launch meetings for NAG’s and NBC’s were held in Cyprus and Germany

 

January 2008

• A very successful and well-attended meeting of the Industrial Partners of the EBC was held in Brussels at the headquarters of Medtronic.
• In preparation for the 1st European Brain Policy Forum, there was a meeting with Martyn Lewis, the conference moderator, to finalise the agenda.

 

December 2007

• The 2007 objective of recruiting 20 industrial partners was achieved.

 

November 2007

• Jes Olesen was a main speaker at the STOA (Scientific Technology Options Assessment) meeting at the European Parliament on “The Future of the Brain”
• Jes Olesen, Mary Baker and Ian Ragan met the cabinet of Commissioner Potocnik to express their concerns about the support for brain research in FP7.

 

October 2007

• A successful first meeting of the Portuguese National Group was organised by the EBC in Coimbra, Portugal