Introduction

Over the past years, Alzheimer Europe has developed close working relations with a number of commercial companies which supported some of the activities of Alzheimer Europe. In order to provide greater transparency to the sponsoring agreements and to provide greater choice and flexibility to potential sponsors, Alzheimer Europe has developed the present document outlining the different sponsorship opportunities available to commercial companies.

Since Alzheimer Europe is committed to full transparency in all its dealings with commercial entities, all sponsorship will be duly acknowledged in the sponsor section of the Alzheimer Europe website (www.alzheimer-europe.org) and the financial section of the Annual Report of the organisation. Also, in line with the criteria for transparency developed by the European Medicines Agency, Alzheimer Europe will publish the full amounts received by commercial companies, as well as the percentage which those amounts constitute in relation to the total income of the organisation.

All sponsors will receive monthly updates on the various activities and projects of the organisation.

Alzheimer Europe welcomes contributions to the core-funding of the organisation, as well as to specific projects of Alzheimer Europe. While the following presents a list of the different sponsorship opportunities available to companies from Alzheimer Europe, the organisation will also happily discuss other projects and actions not mentioned in this document, but directly proposed by potential sponsors. For all its dealings with companies, Alzheimer Europe refers to its guidelines for working with commercial sponsors contained in an annex to this document.

This document highlights the actions which Alzheimer Europe is planning on carrying out in 2009 and provides a financial break down of these actions.

Core-financing levels

In order to continue the tradition of some companies to support the entirety of the activities of Alzheimer Europe through core-funding, Alzheimer Europe will provide a number of sponsorship packages to companies. Contrary to previous core-funding arrangements, the sponsors will receive a detailed list of benefits they will be able to count on.

For 2009, Alzheimer Europe would like to propose four levels of sponsorship.

Ideally, Alzheimer Europe would like to receive commitments for a two or three year period in order to allow the organisation improved budgetary planning and the financial viability of its programmes. For that reason, Alzheimer Europe will offer a 2.5% reduction to companies willing to commit for two years and a 5 % reduction to companies willing to commit for three years.

According to the chosen level, Alzheimer Europe will provide a number of benefits to the sponsor. These benefits are outlined in the table below.

Sponsorship opportunities included in core-financing

Dementia in Europe Magazine

Alzheimer Europe will continue publishing its special magazine entitled “Dementia in Europe” with a clear focus on policy developments in different European countries. This magazine will also update readers on the state of signatures of the Paris Declaration and will highlight any initiatives on a national or European level that are in line with the political priorities of the declaration.

The magazine will be published twice a year and will be distributed free of charge to Members of the European Parliament and the European Commission, as well as through the member organisations of Alzheimer Europe to national policy makers. Furthermore, the magazine will be distributed to other European stakeholders who currently receive the e-mail newsletter of the organisation. Special attention will also be paid to disseminating the AE magazine to the media contacts of the organisation.

The printed magazine will not be called upon to replace the e-mail newsletter of the organisation which will continue to focus on the activities of Alzheimer Europe and on scientific breakthroughs in the dementia field. The printed magazine will not cover these aspects, but will be focused solely on policy initiatives.

It is envisaged to also include interviews with European and national policy makers in the newsletter and to give the possibility to researchers interested in the public health aspects of dementia to publish articles in the Alzheimer Europe newsletter.

European Alzheimer’s Alliance

The European Alzheimer’s Alliance set up by Alzheimer Europe brings together 27 Members of the European Parliament from different political parties and countries. The Alliance will meet twice a year to discuss the implementation of the Paris Declaration and the Parliament Resolution on Alzheimer’s disease.

Throughout the year, Members of the European Parliament will be regularly updated on this through direct contacts via the Public Affairs Officer of Alzheimer Europe, as well as through regular e-mail updates and the magazine.

Dementia Research Observatory

As outlined in the 2008 Work Plan, Alzheimer Europe has started with the development of an inventory of all clinical trials and other research activities on Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia carried out in Europe. This inventory will be made accessible on the reviewed website of the organisation.

On that website, the organisation will also include a question and answers document with the main issues people need to know regarding the conduct of clinical trials. This document will also describe the development of new medicines for people with dementia.

In September 2009, Alzheimer Europe will organise a meeting with all interested companies in order to discuss common issues with regard to the research and regulatory environment. Alzheimer Europe will associate, if possible, representatives from the European Medicines Agency in this work. At the same moment, time will be allocated for those companies interested in sharing their research activities and discussing issues such as design of clinical trial protocols or patient recruitment with representatives of the members of Alzheimer Europe. This section of the meeting will be closed to invited representatives only and AE participants will be required to sign confidentiality agreements to cover the discussions on issues not in the public domain.

Individual sponsorship opportunities

19th Alzheimer Europe Conference in Brussels

From 2009 onwards, Alzheimer Europe will be taking over the financial responsibility for its conferences. A professional conference organiser has been appointed for the 2009, 2010 and 2011 to guarantee a better uniformity in the presentation of the conferences, as well as a greater input by Alzheimer Europe on the priority subjects for conferences.

The following conference themes have been chosen for the 2009 Conference which will take place from 28 to 30 May 2009:

• Quality of life
  • Education and training for volunteers and professionals
  • Innovative living arrangements for people with dementia
  • New technologies – security and autonomy
  • Assistance and support for people with dementia and their carers
  • Dementia care in rural areas
  • Dementia in a multicultural society
• Ethical and legal issues
  • The ethics of dementia research
  • Guardianship systems and proxy decision making
  • The legal rights of people with dementia
  • End-of-life, paaliative care and advance directives
• Political and financial issues
  • Lobbying for change – The experience of Alzheimer associations
  • Meeting the cost of dementia (long-term care insurance and other solutions)
  • The cost of dementia for people with dementia and their carers
  • Policy initiatives in favour of people with dementia and their carers

The following sponsorship packages will be available. Silver sponsors of Alzheimer Europe will receive a discount of 25% on these packages and gold sponsors of 50%.

Publication “Alzheimer’s disease – After the diagnosis. What next?”

In its business plan (2002-2006), Alzheimer Europe set itself the goal to improve the support and counselling of people with dementia and their carers at the onset of the disease. Over the course of two years, experts from different national Alzheimer associations assisted Dianne Gove, the information officer of Alzheimer Europe in listing the main questions that diagnosed people and their carers face after receiving a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia.

The work resulted in the writing of a Manual for both people with dementia and their carers which provides:

• General information on Alzheimer’s disease and its diagnosis,
• Practical information on:
  • Taking care of oneself
  • Organising home care and support within the family
  • Dealing with practical issues
  • Contact and communication
  • Coping with changing behaviour
  • Keeping one’s mind and body active
  • Services.

A copy of the English version of the publication is available on request. A number of Alzheimer associations have expressed an interest in the translation and publication of the manual and have asked the support of Alzheimer Europe in finding potential sponsors. The logo of the sponsor will be included on the front page of the publication and an acknowledgement with logo will be included on the inner front page (third page).

[1] Silver sponsors may choose whether they would like to be involved in the European Alzheimer’s Alliance OR the Dementia Research Observatory, whereas gold sponsors will be involved in both the European Alzheimer’s Alliance AND the Dementia Research Observatory