Rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases are a group of over 200 conditions that affect the joints, but also the bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments and internal organs. They affect around 20% of the population, at every age. They can begin in childhood or early adulthood, which means patients often live with them for decades, with pain, loss of mobility, fatigue and the social isolation that follows.

They are among the leading causes of disability worldwide. In research funding terms, they remain chronically overlooked.

The Fondation Arthritis was created in 1989 and recognised as a public-interest foundation by French State decree in 2006. We do not pursue an agenda of our own: we identify the most promising research being done in France, we fund it, and we measure what it changes for patients.

Our particular focus is translational research, the work that turns a laboratory finding into clinical evidence, and clinical evidence into a treatment. It is the slowest, least visible and least funded part of the chain. It is also where a foundation of our size makes the most difference.

“The Fondation Arthritis is devoted to ambitions that have always motivated me. My career as an orthopaedic surgeon and my fascination with science take concrete form in the Foundation’s initiatives. My ambitions are clear: helping to heal chronic inflammatory rheumatism, working to promote the osteoarticular field as a whole, creating lasting links between different fields within rheumatology to boost innovation, and raising awareness of the reality of these terribly disabling diseases, which affect patients of all ages, and even the very young.”

Dr Olivier Courtin-Clarins, Chairman of the Fondation Arthritis

Every project we fund is selected through an open call and assessed by an independent Scientific Council of twelve members, eight non-clinician researchers and four clinicians, none of whom can fund their own work. We support four programmes:

Arthritis R&D, created in 2014, is the Foundation’s own research structure: it hosts and supervises around ten young researchers a year, bridging academic laboratories and clinical teams.

Thanks to the Courtin family and the in-kind sponsorship of the Clarins group, the Foundation’s running costs (premises, IT, postage and the salaries of the permanent team) are covered independently of public donations. Every euro given by an individual donor goes to the Foundation’s missions.

• Cure rheumatoid arthritis.
• Significantly reduce joint pain across all rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases.
• Become the French reference for scientific information on RMDs, for patients, researchers and the public.

Corporate patrons fund named research programmes, support young researchers and involve their teams in a public-health cause. We work with partners in France and internationally, from long-standing founding patrons to event sponsors. Our partnerships team answers in English.

The Fondation Arthritis publishes in French: research news, patient stories, plain-language explanations of what living with a rheumatic disease involves, and calls for proposals for researchers.

• Read the full site in French
• Subscribe to our newsletter (published in French)
• Press and institutional enquiries: communication@fondation-arthritis.org
• Fondation Arthritis, 10-12 rue de Chartres, 92200 Neuilly-sur-Seine, France