PAE News
Participation to DG Research workshop
PAE President, Mr Joop van Griensven was invited to participate in the “Towards transatlantic co-operation in pain research ” workshop organised by DG Research in order to explore possible collaboration activities between EU and North American states under the Horizon 2020 and the next Framework programme Horizon Europe.
See the Agenda of the event.
Mr van Griensven joined the first panel of speakers whose role was to set the scene for the discussion, outlining the current aspects of pain as a burden for the economy and society in general.
PAE’s President pleaded for a larger involvement of the patients in the research process, paying attention to all related aspects – work, family life, society, ageing, multi morbidities and patient’ involvement and insisted that the involvement should last from project proposal to the dissemination of the outcome.
The aspects of accessibility for all stakeholders, including patients and patients organisations were brought into discussions: the language used, its technical or academic expression as well as language barriers, the overwhelming bureaucracy and administrative endeavours related to an application for research funding and the chances of winning against the energy spent to apply.
The collaboration between countries in research is regarded as a necessary part of the scenario especially concerning the health and pain research – as necessary as the pain is borderless. Global problems require a global thinking, and pain may affect everyone at a certain moment in life, almost 90% of us when we reach a certain age.
Mr van Griensven concluded with an advice for the researchers: “Put the patients’ interest first – and adjust anything else accordingly. “
