Since its creation on September 30, 2019, the Autism and NDD GIS has made a number of achievements with priority to:
On February 25, 2020, the GIS issued an invitation to accredited teams carrying out research into neurodevelopmental disorders, regardless of discipline, to join its research network. More than 50 new accredited research teams have responded to this invitation, bringing the number of GIS teams up from 58 to over 100 in two years. Among the network's teams, half of them do research that applies to several neurodevelopmental disorders, from the pre-natal period to advanced age: autism, ADHD, intellectual disability, DYS disorders, etc.
In order to stimulate networking and collaboration between teams with complementary expertise, the GIS launched a call for expressions of interest between March 6 and June 2, 2020 to enable the emergence of initiatives driven by working groups organized around common research themes, methodologies, and resources. This led to the selection of 14 collaborative initiatives, each ongoing and federating several research teams, supported by the GIS.
One of the main levers of collaborative research consists of promoting international exchanges of young researchers between research laboratories, care and support services, and to facilitate short periods spent with partner teams. With this in mind, the Autism and NDD GIS wishes to support proposals for multilateral exchanges involving the research community, to or from research centers located abroad.
Through its work to extend and strengthen its community, the GIS intends to bring more visibility to neurodevelopmental disorders research. This requires reaching a variety of audiences through the organization of large-scale scientific events to communicate on progress made in research and promote the translation of that progress into practice.
In addition to including the representatives of the individuals concerned in the steering and deployment of its initiatives, the GIS suggested forming GRAPS (thinking GRoup of Lay Associations for Science) in January 2020. This committee gathers the representatives of the 12 non-profit organizations that sit on the ASD-NDD French National Council. The non-profit organizations representatives of GRAPS work in collaboration with researchers and clinicians to contribute to the development and performance of innovative research projects that are in line with the needs of the individuals and their families.
