Dr Julie Vallortigara obtained in 2007 a PhD in nutrition and neurosciences at the University of Bordeaux, France. She then carried some postdoctoral research on neurological disorders with studies on pain and dementia at King’s College London, UK. In 2013, Julie joined Ataxia UK as a research officer, where she gained skills and experience on best practice for the evaluation, ongoing monitoring, and support of research projects in the field of rare diseases. Since 2019, she has a position of research fellow at the ataxia specialist centre in the Institute of Neurology, based at University College London. Her main project is looking at the value of specialist ataxia centres for the diagnosis, treatment, and care of people with ataxia across Europe.