EuroPa - the European Cooperative Network for Research, Diagnosis and Therapy of Parkinson’s Disease is a multinational project funded by the European Commission. It associates clinical centres from currently 11 countries: Austria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, and United Kingdom. The project started in December 2001. During the 3-year funding period EuroPa aims to establish the infrastructure of a European clinical research network using modern Internet technology. A central patient registry combined with web-based data capture will facilitate fast recruitment of clinically well described patients.

Members of EuroPa are neurologists with a special focus on movement disorders like Parkinson’s disease (PD). They are experienced scientists with a particular expertise in clinical research. By bundling the experience and resources of clinical centres in various European countries, the EuroPa network will provide excellent foundations for multi-centre studies aimed at improving diagnosis and therapy of Parkinson’s disease. The EuroPa research centres are qualified for conducting industry-sponsored clinical trials, self-initialised research projects as well as epidemiological research. Furthermore, the network supports comparative studies, such as the analysis of health care strategies in all participating countries.

Our vision

EuroPa will become an independent, non-profit organisation. We expect to carry out our first clinical study towards the end of the funding period in 2004 in order to evaluate the capability of the research network and the patient registry. The network will extend its scope successively by including additional members from various European countries. Ideally, national networks will develop by associating several members within each country from the EuroPa network.

In the longer term it is hoped that EuroPa will both promote clinical research on Parkinson’s disease and help to accelerate the standardisation of diagnostic and therapeutic strategies and the spread of good clinical practice.