Dementia and COVID-19: a health and research funding crisis

Neurological research is at a turning point. Emerging technological advances offer opportunities to understand brain function in health and disease in a way no one could have even dreamed of 5 years ago. With these advances, combined with new methods of targeting the brain with antisense therapy or therapeutic antibodies, we stand on the verge of breakthroughs in treating neurological diseases. Similar to our colleagues working in many other disease areas, we share a vision of how technological advances should be integrated and deployed to understand, predict, diagnose, and treat neurological diseases.

However, your Editorial¹ outlined the stark reality that we currently face, with the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affecting people living with dementia. In addition to the acute health and care crisis, we are facing a second crisis of dwindling research investments. Sadly, there is an intolerable disconnect between the ever-growing socioeconomic need for effective therapies for brain disorders, and the lack of ambition and long-term vision of European Union (EU) leaders.

In January, 2021 the new Horizon Europe framework programme will be launched, but the budgets have been cut substantially during negotiations in the wake of the pandemic. The European Commission now looks at national governments to increase spending on research and development, evading its own responsibilities. Europe is internationally applauded for the quality of its bottom-up, innovative research, and its coordinated, transparent, and open research programmes, but all of these achievements are now at risk.

We are urging EU and national leaders to intensify their support for blue sky research, notably via the European Research Council, and provide large-scale, coherent funding to support integrated research roadmaps, such as those established by LifeTime² or the NEURON network.³ This approach is the only way we will ever have an impact on areas of huge unmet medical need, such as neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases.

Now is the time to be ambitious. The neuroscience community is ready to take this challenge on. There is enthusiasm, support from patients and caregiver organisations, a broad scientific consensus on research priorities, and a unique momentum around large, multidisciplinary initiatives. Huge strides in early risk assessment, prevention, early diagnosis, and effective therapies are within reach if we invest funds and direct research efforts appropriately. We stand to lose so much if we do not act now.