FRESCO4NoPain · Frontier RESearch COmpetences for Neuro-modulation and Oscillations in Pain

Chronic pain is a major societal and economic European burden, affects one in five adults, and its inadequate relief indicates a major unmet need for effective and mechanism-based non-pharmacological treatments. In FRESCO4NoPain, we propose that maladaptive brain oscillatory activity is associated with persistent pain, and that non-invasive brain neuromodulation may provide a novel treatment strategy. For this, mechanistic insight is needed. We see this as the perfect opportunity to unite world-leading experts in pain neuroscience to train 17 uniquely skilled Doctoral Candidates (DCs) who will become the future generation of pain scientists, fully equipped to address unmet challenges within chronic pain. The DCs will be integrated in a one-of-a-kind network-wide training infrastructure conducting frontline research on non-invasive brain stimulation that targets persistent pain based on i) preclinical studies of the relevant brain circuitries, ii) human studies of the involved mechanisms, and iii) clinical studies. Through FRESCO4NoPain, DCs will access a unique set of basic, experimental, and clinical disciplines in both academic and non-academic settings, tied together by synergistic collaborations across the network. An application-based and patient-oriented mindset will permeate the consortium via the active involvement of cutting-edge MedTech companies, knowledge actors and end-users. Only such a truly interdisciplinary and intersectoral approach can provide the necessary ecosystem to go beyond the state-of-the-art, promote disruptive thinking while developing new methods that overcome current technological barriers in the complex field of interdisciplinary pain neuroscience. FRESCO4NoPain will deliver on urgently needed non-pharmacological therapeutic concepts for chronic pain and build on fundamental scientific insights regarding the role of neuronal oscillations in the brain processing of pain, thereby potentially helping millions of people with chronic pain.