The Generative Brain
Interreg POCTEFA REDPRION (EFA148/16) and NEURO-COOP (EFA 031/01), cross-border France Spain Andorra prion research funding logo

Interreg POCTEFA REDPRION (EFA148/16) and NEURO-COOP (EFA 031/01), cross-border France Spain Andorra prion research funding

Two projects from the EU Interreg programme for the Spain, France and Andorra border region (POCTEFA) have paid for much of the joint prion research between Zaragoza, the Basque Country, Barcelona and Toulouse. REDPRION, a cross-border research network on human and animal prion diseases, ran from January 2018 under POCTEFA 2014-2020 with a 2,000,000 euro budget, 65 percent from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), led by the Universidad de Zaragoza. Papers cite its grant as EFA148/16. Its successor NEURO-COOP (EFA031/01) is funded under POCTEFA 2021-2027. It covers neurodegenerative diseases caused by misfolded proteins, prion diseases among them, and works on early detection, biomarkers in body fluids, strain variability and the risk of medical transmission. Both grants appear in the funding lists of human prion papers already in the atlas, including the Toulouse strain typing work and the Bioaraba study of genetic prion transmission. Information only, not medical advice.

Key facts

  • REDPRION ran under the 2014-2020 Interreg V-A Spain-France-Andorra (POCTEFA) programme, research and innovation objective, from 1 January 2018; keep.eu gives an end date of 31 December 2020 and the UAB portal 31 December 2021.
  • The REDPRION budget was 2,000,000 euro in total with 1,300,000 euro from the ERDF; the Universidad de Zaragoza was lead partner with 540,000 euro, and INRA had 500,000 euro, CIC bioGUNE 330,000, INSERM Toulouse 200,000, the UAB and the Universitat de Barcelona 180,000 each, and Atlas Molecular Pharma 70,000.
  • The REDPRION site names partner leads at INRA, CIC bioGUNE, the UAB, the Universitat de Barcelona, INSERM Toulouse and Atlas Molecular Pharma, among them Joaquin Castilla at CIC bioGUNE and Isidro Ferrer at Barcelona, with associated partners including a Zaragoza livestock cooperative and a Toulouse neurology centre.
  • REDPRION set out to protect people from zoonotic and iatrogenic prion risk, develop therapies and diagnostic tools, and inform health officials and the public, noting that no reliable test before death or treatment existed.
  • A Europe PMC search for REDPRION or EFA148/16 returns 48 records from 2018 to 2025, mostly on animal prions; the human prion papers include the 2020 sporadic CJD strain mixture study, the 2021 peripheral tissue infectivity study, the first Spanish GSS A117V case, TREM2 and extracellular vesicle biomarker studies, and a prion decontamination method.
  • The 2021 paper on prion strains in French and UK growth hormone iatrogenic CJD lists Interreg EFA148/16 among its funders, and keep.eu lists it as a REDPRION output.
  • The 2021 Barcelona and Bellvitge mouse study of astrocyte and oligodendrocyte damage in CJD lists Interreg POCTEFA RedPrion, ERDF 148/16.
  • NEURO-COOP (call ID EFA31/1, IRTA code A4335_14720) is 65 percent ERDF funded under Interreg VI-A Spain-France-Andorra 2021-2027; its partners are the Universidad de Zaragoza, INRAE, CIC bioGUNE, IRTA-CRESA, the Universite de Toulouse and Atlas Molecular Pharma.
  • NEURO-COOP has three actions running March 2024 to September 2026: a cross-border network of researchers, clinicians and patient associations with longitudinal sample studies; work on strain variability, cross-seeding and transmission risk; and new methods and body fluid biomarkers for earlier detection of prion and prion-like diseases.
  • The 2025 E200K genetic CJD strain paper from Toulouse acknowledges both NEURO-COOP (EFA 031/01) and REDPRION (EFA 148/16), and the 2025 Bioaraba paper finding transmission above 50 percent for genetic prion disease lists ERDF EFA031/01 NEURO-COOP.
  • A Europe PMC search for NEURO-COOP returns 19 records from 2024 to 2026, including two new VPSPr cases from Navarra and new genetic mouse models, though at least two hits look like unrelated text matches.

Timeline

  1. 2018REDPRION starts under Interreg V-A POCTEFA 2014-2020.
  2. 2020Sporadic CJD strain mixture paper published from Toulouse, within the REDPRION search set.
  3. 2020REDPRION end date in keep.eu (UAB portal gives 2021-12-31).
  4. 2021Growth hormone iatrogenic CJD strain paper published with Interreg EFA148/16 funding.
  5. 2021Murine CJD glial vulnerability paper from Barcelona and Bellvitge published with RedPrion funding.
  6. 2023NEURO-COOP start date given by IRTA.
  7. 2024NEURO-COOP actions start, per the project site and the Toulouse page.
  8. 2025E200K genetic CJD strain paper published acknowledging both NEURO-COOP and REDPRION.
  9. 2025Bioaraba genetic prion transmission paper published with NEURO-COOP funding.
  10. 2026Planned end of the three NEURO-COOP actions.
  11. 2027NEURO-COOP end date given by IRTA.
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