News from N orway On 10th of April the Norwegian Research Council announced that they would be inviting mainly patients and family members but also healthcare practitioners to submit suggestions for research topics into ME. The deadline for these submissions was 3rd May. The Research Council acknowledges that there are different names being used such as CFS and ME and considers it a serious and fairly common condition with or without pain. The cause/s are unknown, biomarkers for the condition have not been found yet and there is disagreement on the symptom based criteria. As a consequence there are no effective treatments. The Norwegian Health Directorate estimates that there are between 10 000 and 20 000 patients with CFS/ME in Norway. Many experience considerable health problems over a long period of time and feel that they are badly served by the healthcare system. The research activity has increased over the last few years, both in amount and approaches, but the need for research and better understanding of CFS/ME is still extensive. Why this approach? There are many ways of identifying the knowledge requirement. The health programmes within the Norwegian Research Council now trial an approach which has been named ‘needs identified research’. It will be research that gathers knowledge that is particularly called for by healthcare users, and which can provide benefit in a relatively short time period. The Research Council therefore invited participation to identify research areas that can form a basis for new research projects.
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