Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic pain syndrome characterized by widespread pain, multiple tender points, fatigue, and impaired mental functioning. Best practice interventions for chronic pain typically include effortful exercise and long-term treatment – i.e., short-term costs (effort) with delayed benefit (improved pain and function). Problematically, adherence to these treatments is often low, suggesting that people with chronic pain may have altered decision-making related to delayed and effortful rewards. Understanding if long-term pain influences decision-making, what aspects of long-term pain contribute most to decision-making (e.g., emotional versus physical), and the neural underpinnings, are essential given clear relevance of altered decision-making to the adherence to evidence-based management strategies. The PAInful Decisions (PAID) project will address these critical aspects by evaluating delay and effort attitudes in those experiencing FM and in a group of matched pain-free controls. Additionally, I will investigate the unique role of emotions and bodily sensation perception as potential contributing factors to altered decision-making involving delayed and effortful gratification. PAID is a highly innovative and interdisciplinary project, integrating approaches from experimental psychology, behavioural economics, clinical practice, psychophysiology, and neuroimaging. This way, I will be able to comprehensively investigate the role of body-brain interactions in the context of chronic pain. Such a systematic, selective, and interdisciplinary approach to study decision-making in chronic pain is a considerable research challenge, yet the results have an essential meaning for patients’ life and clinical practice, offering to move basic and applied science forward.

PAS GRAS aims to prevent and reverse obesity and associated metabolic complications in four age groups: pre-pubertal children (3-9 yr), adolescents (10-18 yr), young adults (19-25 yr), and adults (25-55). PAS GRAS focuses on four main pillars. 1) Develop a personalized risk assessment tool (RAT): an algorithm that will anticipate obesity priming and development in the critical age groups, and identify risk factors for specific complications in subsequent years that will constitute new outcomes for interventional studies. 2) Develop and implement RAT-based personalized interventions by integrating non-pharmacological lifestyle modifications including Mediterranean Diet components alone or with rational pharmacological targeting metabolic and neuroendocrine mechanisms. 3) Inform and engage effectively target groups on obesity causes, risks and intervention by co-production of creative and interactive digital tools (including a simpler version of the RAT) and personalized diet and physical activity programs. 4) Expand and consolidate the PAS GRAS tailor-made campaign across Europe through developing joint programs for health and food/nutrition literacy and physical activity, with healthcare centres, schools, sports clubs, municipalities, and other relevant actors and public authorities. PAS GRAS outcomes will contribute to a long-term 15% decrease in overweight/obesity prevalence in adults and 30% in children/adolescents in the EU until 2050, contributing to a downstream reduction of obesity-associated complications, pharmaceutical and surgical interventions, and to promote Mediterranean Diet as tool for a more nutritious and sustainable future. PAS GRAS is a unique multi- and interdisciplinary research team from 8 countries, including 12 top-level Universities and Research Institutions. Non-academic partners include a civil organization, one company, one patient organization and one Pan-European research Society.