International award to support cooperative research projects at the interface between the rare childhood dementia CLN3 and more common neurodegenerative diseases.

The NCL Foundation (NCL-Stiftung) is a German charitable foundation working to understand what causes neuronal ceroidlipofuscinoses (NCL), and it aims to develop a therapy to cure childhood dementia.

With the Rare-to-Common Neurodegeneration Impact Prize: Special Research Prize of the NCL Foundation, the Foundation supports outstanding cooperative research projects at the interface between the rare childhood dementia CLN3 (Batten Disease) and more common neurodegenerative diseases (ND’s) such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease as well as ageing. The Prize aims to strengthen projects that deliberately connect insights from research into common ND’s or age-related processes with NCL research, with a focus on opening new therapeutic avenues that might benefit both conditions.

The thematic focus of the award is on CLN3 / jNCL and one of the following areas:

• Neurodegenerative diseases.
• Cellular ageing processes.
• AMD and retinal degeneration.
• Lysosomal dysfunction.

Applications are open to two cooperating research groups submitting a joint project. One group must be conducting research in the field of CLN3, and the other in one of the aforementioned areas. Both groups must be affiliated with scientific institutions. The call is open internationally – applications from German and international institutions are explicitly welcome.

The award amounts to €200,000.