After five years of public-private collaboration, the European Platform for Neurodegenerative Diseases (EPND) has become EPND+. This new independent non-profit organization gives the initiative scaling support for a new generation of research initiatives. For example, it can keep supporting research into conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
From a shared challenge to a lasting organization
Since November 2021, EPND’s 28 partner organisations have addressed a fundamental challenge in neurodegenerative disease research: Europe has a wealth of valuable research data and biological samples, but these resources are dispersed across studies, institutions and countries, making them difficult to find, access and reuse.
To address this fragmentation, EPND developed the EPND Hub, alongside the tools, standards, standard operating procedures (SOPs) and processes needed to support data and biosample discovery, access and sharing.
How EPND+ will support researchers
EPND+ is now a standalone European legal entity. It will keep running and developing the EPND Hub, the infrastructure that lets researchers discover data and biosamples. Since the Hub is reusable, new research initiatives can build on it instead of creating their own systems from the ground up.
Today, the Hub connects more than 120 research studies, 126 datasets and 38 biosample collections across 12+ neurodegenerative diseases. It provides a unified gateway to these resources, underpinned by the AD Data Initiative’s AD Workbench. This provides secure cloud-based infrastructure and a growing range of data analysis tools.
BMD Software is proud to have contributed to this project and to see it grow. In our view, the launch of EPND+ is a key step, as it will keep serving the research community for discoveries.
Read the full announcement on the EPND website: https://epnd.org/news/epnd-launches-building-on-five-years-of-public-private-collaboration
Discover more about BMD Software’s contribution to the EPND project and the development of its data-sharing ecosystem:
- Five Years of EPND: BMD Software’s role in building a research platform
- Accelerating the Discovery and Validation of Biomarkers for Neurodegenerative Diseases – The EPND Initiative
- EPND Launches its Cohort Catalogue
- The Montra Project Now Supports BeaconV2 API
- EPND – Open Call for Expressions of Interest