What makes us unique

Diversity and Sample Size

• GEoPD includes 60 sites from 30 countries and six continents

• We share research questions, knowledge and insight

• We share expertise, reagents and resources, including DNA and data for 41,988 PD cases and 41,505 control subjects

• We share opportunities for collaborative research and funding

Organization and Communication

• A democratic, elected structure ensures continuity with succession. There is a past president, president and president elect and a steering committee nominated from core members. Five cores are maintained, their membership elected at annual meetings, and based on based on expertise and need. Each core has a specific mandate about one of the following areas: bioinformatics, biology, clinical, communications, epidemiology and statistics. Projects approved by the steering committee are promoted, supported by the cores and participating global site investigators.

Projects

• Broadened Scope

• Projects can be can be relatively small, driven by investigator interests at one site, or can be very large in scope

• Projects can be for discovery or for replication

• Projects can be proposed on-line or more formally at the annual meeting

Ownership

• GEoPD belongs to the global site investigators, and to the communities we serve. GEoPD does not belong to a company. GEoPD does not belong to a Big Government or to a Big Foundation. For the people, by the people. All Data generated within and by Consortium projects is accessible, rather than collectively maintained by one Principle Investigator. Data access requires steering committee review and approval. We do not charge Consortium members or study subjects a fee for participation in research. We do not bypass clinician investigators by going “direct to consumer”. We serve our patients gratis and recognize their clinical care providers (including through authorships).

Membership Benefits

• Membership in the longest running worldwide Consortium for Parkinson’s disease

• Largest international Consortium with expanding membership

• Unfettered access to multi-disiplinary expertise, whether to specialty neurologists, geneticists, biologists, epidemiologists or statisticians

• Resource and reagent sharing from clinical information, whole genome or exome data, inducible pluripotent stem cell lines or other genetic models

• Opportunities to get involved and drive cutting-edge research without needing to build and/or support the entire research enterprise. All it takes is a good idea. The expertise, energy and enthusiasm of the consortium facilitate the effort.

• Sharing of unpublished data and a forum for discussion, discovery and when needed, replication

• Open, honest collaboration; transparency without politics and control

• The GEoPD World Tour: Annual meetings - CME accredited - to learn the latest in the field of Parkinson’s disease research

Membership Requirements

• GEoPD Membership includes Site PIs and General Membership. The former requires the Investigator to be able to contribute clinical data and biospecimens (blood/DNA) from at least 100 patients with Parkinson's disease and 100 controls* to specific, collaborative projects. The latter can be all members of the same Institution, affiliated with the same group/Site PI. All new Members are to apply to join through the GEoPD website, and must nominate somebody from the Steering Committee to activate their account privileges**. All Members from a site (at least) are encouraged to join, see and contribute to on-line content and discussions.

  Site PIs can nominate and direct Projects (see https://geopd.lcsb.uni.lu/projects/ ). New Projects can be nominated at any time. They are first vetted by the Steering Committee, then put to the Membership to take part. Most Projects have come through discussions at annual meetings, but may also be suggested by writing to the Steering Committee at any time during the year (via the GEOPD website or by direct email). Site PIs can also request short surveys of the membership e.g. which sites have expertise in sleep disorders, or might want to contribute to such research?

  * Caution is exercised if the PI is from a rare/isolated population, as it may be challenging but all the more necessary to obtain sufficient controls. The number of controls may be relaxed for some Australasian, Asian, US and European sites, given so many are in the public domain.

  ** An email is automatically sent to all Steering Committee members...to log on, look in the Members area, toggle to find the name(s) of the requesting Investigator(s) (pending), and then vouch for their credentials (or not!)