Horizon Europe

With Horizon Europe, the European Commission (EC) aims to boost science and innovation in Europe. Horizon Europe finances research and innovation projects, both small-scale and large-scale and aimed at both fundamental research and market-focused development. With this programme, the EC aims to challenge the industry and the academic world to join forces in the search for solutions to European societal issues. A total of €95.5 billion is available.
Horizon Europe is the successor to Horizon 2020, which aimed to secure Europe’s international competitiveness, stimulate economic growth, and create jobs.

The UG and Horizon 2020

At the UG, several researchers carry out their projects with grants from Horizon 2020. Prof. Martien Kas for example is coordinator of the PRISM2 project that, partly on the basis of Horizon 2020 funds, is researching the biological causes of Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and depressive disorders. A total of 14 research institutes and companies are working ogether on the PRISM2 project, which is building on the success of the previous PRISM project. The aim of this research is to identify quantitative biological characteristics that occur in all three medical conditions. This would offer the possibility to develop focused treatments, regardless of the traditional diagnosis. The ability to grasp the biological causes of psychological disorders before clinical onset has long been a ‘holy grail’ for neuroscientists, as this offers the possibility of early diagnosis and focused treatment.

Kas: ‘The new PRISM2 project aims to determine how reproducible and accurate our first findings are, particularly in the cases of schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease, and we will study the generalizability of the findings to a third case, namely depressive disorder. The final goal is to translate our findings into practical diagnosis and treatment.’