Social and spatial inequalities between and within core and peripheral regions have re-emerged as a major economic and political issue in developed economies. Such divisions have generated economic and social discontent and growing levels of political support for populist and nationalist parties in peripheral regions, particularly certain old industrial areas. This turmoil fuelled the Brexit vote in the UK and the election of Donald Trump in the US as well as support for the Rassemblement National (National Rally) and Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) in France and the Alternative für Deutschland in Germany. In response, researchers, commentators and politicians have voiced concerns about the places ‘left behind’ by globalisation, technological and economic change. While welcome in increasing the political visibility of social and spatial inequalities, the ‘left behind’ category risks hiding and over-simplifying the different experiences and development paths of people and places. The aim of the project is to develop a new understanding of demographic and socio-economic change in peripheral regions, examining the circumstances and prospects of places and people currently categorised together as ‘left behind’. It will advance understandings of peripheralisation as an on-going process driven by the geographical concentration of people and prosperity in large urban centres alongside the decline or stagnation of other regions. The research is concerned with inner peripheries defined by their disconnection from external territories and networks, particularly urban regions and intermediate areas close to cities experiencing demographic and socio-economic stagnation or decline. Taking an approach that compares the experiences of France, Germany and the UK in their western European context, the research has four objectives: i) To understand the distinctive circumstances and development pathways of peripheral regions, overcoming the tendency to subsume different kinds of places beneath the broad category of ‘left behind’; ii) To assess the relationships between the population dynamics of peripheral regions and socio-economic, health and political outcomes, covering both people staying within, and moving from, peripheral regions to address the existing research bias towards migration between regions; iii) To examine the livelihood activities and practices of residents in peripheral regions, remedying the neglect of how ‘ordinary’ people deal with peripherality; iv) To identify new policy responses that combine conventional and alternative perspectives, moving beyond the reliance upon growing larger cities and spreading their prosperity to surrounding regions. Using a range of research methods and a cross-national research design, the research team will address these objectives by undertaking the following tasks: i) Identifying and categorising peripheral regions across western Europe to identify their different pathways of development and the key dimensions and processes of concentration and peripheralisation, drawing upon international and national secondary quantitative data; ii) Investigating the different experiences and outcomes for people moving from, and staying in, peripheral regions in France, Germany and the UK using secondary quantitative data; iii) Examining people’s everyday livelihood strategies and practices in peripheral regions through six neighbourhood case studies (two per country) based on semi-structured interviews, non-participant observation, livelihood infrastructures mapping, and focus groups; iv) Assessing current and informing future policy approaches to address the varied situations of peripheral regions through analysing secondary documentation and key actor interviews. v) Synthesising findings, relating them to the overall project aim and objectives, and writing up the project’s research outputs (8 international journal articles, 1 monograph) and policy report.

Bipolar disorder (BD) is an affective disorder characterized by recurrent major depressive and manic episodes. It is the 7th most burdensome disorder in the global ratings of morbidity, mainly due to its highly recurrent nature, the presence of persistent functional impairment and high risk of suicide. Lithium is the leading treatment for relapse prevention in bipolar disorders. A substantial proportion of patients remain asymptomatic for years on lithium (between 15 to 20%) but others (approximately 30%) do not respond, despite adequate treatment trials of at least 2 years at a therapeutic level. The variability in response to prophylactic lithium is poorly understood and it remains difficult for clinicians to accurately predict which patients will respond without recourse to a lengthy treatment trial. The identification of biomarkers capable of predicting response to lithium is highly desirable, as these would improve long-term management of those with bipolar disorder. Progress in this field would be informed by, and ultimately further inform a more complete understanding of the actions of lithium in the brain. From our current understanding of the actions of lithium, several sources of variability can be proposed to explain the inter-individual Li response variability: absorption; brain/blood pharmacokinetics; transport across the brain barrier; brain lithium concentration and distribution; adherence; biological targets (gene sequence and gene expression); long term physiological effect on brain structures. In this project we propose the creation of a network of scientific cooperation on brain imaging biomarkers of lithium response, and on the molecular signature of lithium response in blood. Collaboration is necessary to achieve the appropriate sample sizes and level of power for these endeavors, especially for predictive brain imaging studies, ‘omics’ studies, the conduct of prospective follow-up studies in which it is desirable to identify patients naïve to lithium. To identify biomarkers of lithium response, there is a strong scientific rationale to present ambitious brain imaging studies, ‘omics’ studies and the combination of the two. The necessary expertise is represented in the proposed network: anatomical MRI (volumes and connectivity), functional imaging, brain lithium content and distribution (MR Spectroscopy), genetic, transcriptomic, proteomic and methylomic. All scientific groups have ongoing research programs on lithium treatment in bipolar disorder. They have all agreed to meet again in October 12, 2015 in Paris to strengthen their ongoing collaborations and set-up new programs. If funded, they have agreed to prepare a project for a H2020 call (SC1-PM-02-2017: New concepts in patient stratification). The participating countries are France, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Australia and USA. Nacer Boubenna (European Affairs Officer, H2020 Coordinator of the National Contact Point for the Health challenge) will assist the network for the preparation of the application.So far, no private company is involved in the network but the participation of SMEs will be considered in the future notably for our database management.

Understanding the brain and its dysfunctions is one of the major scientific and medical challenges of this new century. This endeavour relies on very diverse, extremely rich and complementary experimental approaches encompassing computational modelling, in vivo and in vitro experiments up to human neurosciences and pre-clinical and clinical studies. Among the great diversity of animal models used to study brain functions, non-human primates (NHPs) are crucial to understand the complexity of primate brains, and to bridge in vivo studies with pre-clinical and clinical studies in humans. For obvious phylogenetic reasons, NHPs are a model of choice for the study of integrative brain functions, that is to say the understanding of how specific cognitive functions are implemented in the brain, how these functions interact with other brain functions and how they can be disrupted following lesions, depletion of certain neuromodulators or just the mere fact of aging. The focus of the consortium is to form a European network to train a new generation of PhD students, with the scope of bringing non-human primate integrative neuroscience research to a new level of excellence thanks to cutting edge innovative methodological combinations. The MRSEI funding will have a fundamental impact on the elaboration of this European project. The MSCA Innovative Training Network project will build on the existing strengths of highly qualified partners from several European countries and develop a network of excellence with complementary capacities in the field of NHP research. It will also emphasize the essential role of industrial and clinical partners for translating technical and clinical advances from NHP primate research to human applications. Currently, the training of PhD students in NHP neuroscience is too often limited to the academic environment with very incomplete access to private companies and clinical practice. This situation is particularly damaging since on the one hand, NHP research is closely dependent upon technological advances and their potential use in human and on the other hand, private companies and clinicians are seeking for trained researchers for collaborations or integration in the private sector. In this context, we are convinced that a networked academic and private public partnership at the PhD level is the most efficient approach to tighten the links between fundamental and applied research. To reach this goal the project proposes frequent training workshops and network meetings in which industrial and clinical partners play a leading role. These will promote innovative methodologies for the design of experiments, technological developments for neuroscience research, tools for trouble shooting and data analysis, translation of NHP research to clinical settings and will aim to enhance the economic impacts of NHP research. In line with the objectives of the MSCA ITN this project will also have a profound impact at the levels of scientific networking and European Policy making. Importantly, in the context of the current European concerns on animal research, this innovative training network will offer the opportunity for PhD students to be educated to the best practice in NHP research, to share their own experience with others and to anticipate rather than to catch up with future progress on these issues. It will emphasize the importance of a thorough education for the development of excellent scientific and ethical competences. As an outcome, young researchers will feel more confident to discuss with the public about the societal impacts of their research for the present and future generations. Altogether, this approach will ensure that Europe will continue to lead the world research for the understanding of brain function in health and disease, including non-human primate neuroscience research performed by scientists with optimal training in practices with the highest scientific and ethical standards.

The overall goal of The European LUng Transplantation and INovation (LUTIN) proposal is to prepare an application in response to the H2020 call SC1-BHC-30-2019: Towards risk-based screening strategies. Specifically, we propose to use lung transplantation as a model for developing new risk-based screening strategies to improve allograft allocation, prevention of chronic lung allograft dysfunction and overall survival of patients suffering from end-stage pulmonary diseases by bringing to the bedside personalized decision-support tools based on contextualised individual bioclinical data. Lung transplantation (LT) is the ultimate treatment for patients suffering from end-stage pulmonary diseases. It is the fastest growing segment of solid organ transplantation because of increasing incidence of advanced lung diseases such as COPD and lung donor utilization rates. The demand for lung transplants is however far greater than the available supply of donated lungs. Effective risk-based screening strategies to improve both the indications and timing of lung transplantation are therefore urgently needed. Post-transplantation, the development of chronic lung allograft dysfunction (CLAD), with an occurrence of 50% within 5 years is the major factor limiting the positive long-term outcome of LT [1,2].CLAD is a diagnosis of exclusion, once confounding factors related to allograft (persistent acute rejection, infection, anastomotic stricture, disease recurrence), or extra-allograft complications (pleural disease, diaphragm dysfunction or native lung hyperinflation) are ruled out[3]. The late diagnosis of CLAD, based upon persistent decline in lung function, reveals an advanced degradation of the allograft. Prognosis is poor, with respectively 4 and 2 years median survival for bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS) and restrictive allograft syndrome (RAS) after onset. Robust early decision support tools are therefore needed to set up active preventive immuno-interventions, improve the management of transplant recipients and transform lung transplantation into a sustained and long-term treatment of lung disease. To address these challenges the project aims to i) reframe paradigms for lung transplantation indications, ii) improve the timing of lung transplantation, and iii) after transplantation transform current management practices with real-time computations leveraging the wealth of data from existing cohorts; ultimately, we will deliver an integrated risk stratification and prognosis platform for lung transplant candidates and transplant recipients. - The specific aim 1 focuses on pre-transplant care: To enhance the risk stratification, personalization and timing for lung transplantation referral, according to geographic, demographic, functional and molecular data. - The specific aim 2 focuses on precision management of transplant recipients: To deliver data-driven diagnostic interpretation, prognosis, and a comprehensive disease management strategy a clinical decision support system (CDSS). - The specific aim 3 focuses on the patient perspective and evaluation of innovative tools in LT: To account for and integrate the patient’s perspective facing the emerging role of massive data visualization and probabilistic representations untangling multiple therapeutic scenarios. Our project considers a wide view of lung transplantation: from the patient with end stage respiratory disease and his pre-transplant process to the long term follow-up of LT recipients. This systematic study aims to deliver an integrated approach of lung transplantation.