ERA-NET Neuron EPNA 2025

EPNA – Biomedical call: Excellent Paper in Neuroscience Award

With a thematic focus on «Mechanisms of Resilience and Vulnerability to Environmental Challenges in Mental Health»

The call is targeted to early-career researches with tight guiding criteria. Early-career researchers can apply with their sole first author research articles in international peer review journals. The topic of the article must be relevant to disease-related, translational, neuroscience and the work must be done in an ERA-NET NEURON participating country. The awardee receives a prize of EUR 3.000, and an invitation to present the paper during the FENS Forum 2026 in Barcelona, ​​including travel support.

Sole First Author of original research article published between January 1, 2024 and December 31, 2024, and affiliated with one of the call partner countries are eligible to apply. The article should contribute to the progress on important translational research questions to improve our knowledge concerning neurobiological mechanisms involved in resilience or vulnerability to environmental challenges in mental health.

Research areas may cover a broad range of aspects including, among others, genetic, epigenetic, anatomical, molecular, immunological, and endocrine mechanisms. Research articles that address the development of predictive, preventative, diagnostic and/or therapeutic approaches with the potential to enhance resilience based on known or hypothesized neurobiological mechanisms are within the scope of this call, as are articles to understand the neurobiological basis of therapeutic technologies promoting resilience.

The call will accept research papers ranging from understanding preclinical research up to proof-of-concept clinical studies addressing the neurobiological mechanistic understanding of vulnerability and resilience to mental disorders.

Submission deadline of applications: 15 October 2025