The R2D2-MH Project
R2D2-MH is a 5-year project co-funded by the European Commission that aims to identify risk and resilience factors associated with neurodevelopmental diversity, including Autism, ADHD or Intellectual Disability. The consortium is coordinated by Prof. Thomas Bourgeron (Institut Pasteur, France) and brings together 26 partners with complementary expertise distributed worldwide. The strength of R2D2-MH lies in cocreation: adolescent and adult neurodivergent people are involved in the project to co-develop with the researchers new methods and digital tools that will be later used by the end-users (neurodivergent people and their families, healthcare givers, research community, policy makers).
The importance of resilience in mental health and neurodevelopmental diversities
Neurodevelopmental diversities (NDDs) include autism, attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), intellectual disabilities (ID) and have a high prevalence of up to 15% of the population. So far, researches have focused on risk factors, i.e. events that increase the likelihood of being neurodivergent, like preterm birth or particular genetic mutations. R2D2-MH proposes to extend the understanding of neurodiversity by studying resilience factors, i.e. factors contributing to the wellbeing and functioning of neurodivergent individuals even in the presence of risk factors. Willing to go further, R2D2-MH will integrate these resilience factors to new digital tools and apps that will be developed in the project. R2D2-MH hopes to contribute to the redefinition of wellbeing and functioning in a the context of neurodevelopmental diversity.
%
of the population are neurodivergent
The R2D2-MH Executive Board

Thomas Bourgeron
Coordinator, Institut Pasteur

Sophie Dauzet
Project Manager, Institut Pasteur

Louise Gallagher
Trinity College Dublin

Beate St-Pourcain
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics

Christine Eckert
University Hospital Frankfurt

Emily Jones
Birkbeck, University of London

Kristien Hens
University of Antwerp

Sven Bölte
Karolinska Institutet

Marie Schaer
University of Geneva

Yair Sadaka
KI Institute

Christian Beckmann
Radboud University Medical Center

Claudia Speiser
ARTTIC Innovation GmbH
What will R2D2-MH deliver ?
- For researchers: new in-vitro and in-silico models, as well as new axes of research in the field of NDDs and mental health
- For healthcare givers: predictive models and a digital platform to provide clinical guidance
- For clinicians: new sets of clinical guidelines (called ICF, for International classification of functioning)
- For neurodivergent people and their families: a positive psychology app to support them in their everyday life
Co-creation is at the core of R2D2-MH and these outcomes will be co-developed by researchers and neurodivergent people.
Co-creation
The strength of R2D2-MH lies in the involvement from start to end of young and adults neurodivergent people and their families, as well as scientists, healthcare givers and industry partners. This is called co-creation and will allow to concretely address the needs of the end-users and develop tools with real-life purposes.
Co-creation is also about involving you in the development of the website. If you would like to suggest improvement for accessibility, design, or content, contact us!
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