Letter: NEURON – a network of European funding organizations ||FREE PAPER||

Marlies Dorlöchter and Hella Lichtenberg

Project Management Organisation, German Aerospace Center, Bonn, Germany; email Marlies Dorlöchter [email protected]

There is little doubt that the maintenance and restoration of health are highly valued and fundamental to citizens in all countries. Among the many diseases affecting health, brain disorders are major causes for impaired quality of life. According to estimates by the World Health Organization, more than one billion people suffer from disorders of the central nervous system (WHO 2001). In Europe, approximately one-third of all burden of disease is caused by brain diseases (Olesen and Leonardi 2003). With increasing average life-expectancy, especially in highly industrialized countries, and the rapidly growing incidence of neurodegenerative diseases, this percentage will rise even further. Neuroscience research and its translation into diagnostic and therapeutic measures is therefore a high priority.