Professor José Ferro, Chief of the University Neurology Clinic, has recently been appointed as one of 27 experts sitting on a Scientific Panel for Health of the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (Directorate E – Health) of the European Commission.

Established at the recommendation of the European Parliament as part of the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, the Scientific Panel for Health has mandate to:

1. "Analyse bottlenecks preventing the achievement of better health and wellbeing for all, whether scientific, legislative, ethical, cultural, regulatory or other, and propose solutions related to science, research and innovation to address these bottlenecks in the medium and longer term
2. Identify long term trends influencing health and wellbeing through foresight and recommend research and innovation priorities to respond to them
3. Propose strategies to promote the effective exploitation of knowledge generated at national and EU levels by research and innovation programmes through the translation and implementation of results into practice".