BRUSSELS and AACHEN, Germany, June 6, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Supporting Young Scientists on the Subject of Pain Research

For the 8^th time the European Federation of IASP® Chapters (EFIC®) in cooperation with the pharmaceutical company Grünenthal Group announced the EFIC-Grünenthal-Grant (E-G-G) - a grant aimed to support young scientists at an early stage of their experimental projects on clinical and human volunteer-based pain research.

The importance of the EFIC-Grünenthal-Grant is to support promising scientists at a critical phase of their early career when independent financial and logistic support is often difficult to obtain. The biennial grant totalling 200,000 Euro will be divided between the winning projects; individual grants are valued at up to 40,000 Euro per project. The importance of supporting pain research is underlined by the diversity of topics - basic and clinical human pain research still has many facets and unanswered questions - and the rising number of applications: 80 young scientists have submitted their promising research proposals on the subject of pain for an EFIC-Grünenthal-Grant 2012.

The E-G-G 2012

The winners of the E-G-G 2012 have been independently selected by the EFIC® Committee on Scientific Research. From the vast number of applications, these seven clinical and human experimental research projects of very high standard were chosen from five European countries:

• Nociceptive nerve endings as a target for autoantibodies.

Jordi CASANOVA-MOLLA (Spain)

• Visuospatial adaption with prisms in stroke-related complex regional pain syndrome: acting on pain or neglect?

Samar HATEM (Belgium)

• A longitudinal study on chronic pain, anxiety and depression.

Lannie LIGTHART (Netherlands)

• Fear generalization as a pathway to chronic widespread pain.

Ann MEULDERS (Belgium)

• Imaging grey and white matter pathology in central post-stroke pain with MRI.

Till SPRENGER (Germany)

• "Pain engrams": psychophysiologic investigations of memory traces of nociceptive information.

Elia VALENTINI (Italy)

• Defining peripheral and central pathophysiology and heritable susceptibility factors of ciguatera-associated cold allodynia

Katharina ZIMMERMANN (Germany)

"We are proud to announce the winners of the E-G-G 2012. This year, due to the vast number of applications, the EFIC® Committee on Scientific Research mastered a difficult task in finding the winners. Out of 80 applications - most of a very high standard - from various European countries we chose seven fantastic and interesting projects. The aspiration of the grant scheme is to kick-start research that will be sustainable through future competitive funding from other sources. Therefore, we are curious about the realization and findings of these seven projects and pleased to support them."  Prof Martin Koltzenburg (Chair of EFIC® Committee on Scientific Research) proudly reveals.

Awarding in Florence

The winners of the E-G-G 2012 will be presented with their awards on the occasion of the Opening Ceremony of the 8^th EFIC® Congress "PAIN IN EUROPE VIII" (9^th-12^th October 2013, Florence, Italy).

Moreover, former winners of the E-G-G 2010 will give insights into their awarded projects presenting the progress and results at the EFIC® Symposium "New Findings in Clinical Pain Research - Results of the EFIC®-GRÜNENTHAL Grants 2010" at the EFIC® Congress in Florence on October 10^th 17:45 - 19:15 h.

For further information please visit http://www.e-g-g.info.

About EFIC®

With headquarters in Diegem/Brussels, the European Federation of IASP® Chapters (EFIC®) is a multidisciplinary professional organization in the field of pain research and medicine, consisting of the 36 European chapters of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP®), which are the IASP® accredited official National Pain Societies in each country. EFIC's constituent chapters represent 36 European countries and close to 20,000 physicians, basic researchers, nurses, physiotherapists, psychologists and other healthcare professionals across Europe, who are involved in pain management and pain research. For more information, please visit http://www.efic.org.

About Grünenthal

The Grünenthal Group is an independent, family-owned, international research-based pharmaceutical company headquartered in Aachen, Germany. Building on its unique position in pain treatment, its objective is to become the most patient-centric company and thus to be a leader in therapy innovation. Grünenthal is one of the last five remaining research-oriented pharmaceutical companies with headquaters in Germany which sustainably invests in research and development. Research and development costs amounted to about 26 percent of revenues in 2012. Grünenthal's research and development strategy concentrates on selected fields of therapy and state-of-the-art technologies. We are intensely focused on discovering new ways to treat pain better and more effectively, with fewer side-effects than current therapies. Altogether, the Grünenthal Group has affiliates in 26 countries worldwide. Grünenthal products are sold in more than 155 countries. Today, approx. 4,400 employees are working for the Grünenthal Group worldwide. In 2012, Grünenthal achieved revenues of €973 mn. For more information: http://www.grunenthal.com.

Contacts:

Grünenthal Group
Frank Schönrock
Phone: +49 241 569-1568
Email: frank.schoenrock@grunenthal.com

EFIC®
Christel Geevels
European Federation of IASP® Chapters
Phone: +32-2-251-55-10
Fax:   +32-2-251-48-10
Email: secretary@efic.org
http://www.efic.org

Media Contact:
Project management by Annika Erbe
Annika Erbe
Phone: +49-172-8616163
Email: annika.erbe@hotmail.de

Current press materials are available on request.

SOURCE Grünenthal GmbH