Call for Proposals for research projects on Ethical, Legal, and Social Aspects (ELSA) of Neuroscience
The aim of the call is to facilitate multinational, collaborative research projects that will address important questions regarding ethical, philosophical, legal and socio-cultural aspects related to the neurosciences and their recent advances.
Subjects under this general heading include but are not limited to:
- a) the consequences of the development of neuroscientific diagnostic methods (e.g. handling of incidental findings; the “right not to know”; very early disease prediction before symptoms occur; diagnosis in absence of treatment options; interactions between socio-culturally diverse patients and health personnel; availability of novel expensive methods)
- b) abnormal behaviour reduced to deviant brain states (e.g. expansion of the concept of illness; seeing psychiatric symptoms merely as specific neurochemical imbalances); use of brain data and brain interventions in legal contexts (e.g. “brain reading” for the detection of deception; brain intervention of offenders; psychosurgery; insurance law)
- c) neuroenhancement such as alteration of mental states (cognitive, affective) and abilities (e.g. cognition, sleep, appetite, sexual behaviour) in healthy subjects by pharmacological or by electrical/magnetic brain stimulation
- d) intelligent technologies and close human-machine interaction (e.g. Ambient Assisted Living, Brain-Computer Interfaces)
- e) personality changes as side effects of neurological or psychiatric therapies (e.g. Deep Brain Stimulation; brain implants)
- f) the impact of modern neuroscience on traditional philosophical questions, concepts and theories regarding fundamental aspects of human nature (e.g. the relationship between mind and brain, the nature of consciousness, self- and personal identity, free will)
- g) biobanking of neural tissue (e.g. tissue donation, deceased donor, data protection, possible consequences for relatives)
- h) clinical research with patients suffering from neurological or psychiatric diseases (e.g. developing tools to improve the assessment of decision-making capacity of the patients, analysis of legal measures to protect those who do not have the capacity to consent)
- i) societal and cultural changes induced by neuroscientific knowledge and its application.
The individual components of joint applications should be complementary and should contain novel, ambitious ideas to answer key questions or lead to a step-wise change in understanding. There should be clear added value in funding the collaboration over the individual projects.
All scientific disciplines and stakeholders, which are relevant for the specific ELSA-research question, should be integrated. This could be for instance experts from the fields of neuroscience, psychology, medicine, informatics, engineering, philosophy, theology, law, social sciences, cultural studies or healthcare economy. Depending on the research question, it may also be necessary to integrate (pharmaceutical) industry, health insurances, patients, relatives, patient representatives or other groups of persons who are directly affected.
Projects should go beyond purely analytical or descriptive levels related to the past or present. Based on their analyses, the applicants should aim at giving prospects for the future and developing proposals for socio-compatible use of neuroscientific advances. Additionally, the applicants should develop and implement concepts for effective public communication of their results. Communication of the results on an international level is desirable.
No empirical neuroscientific or biomedical research can be funded in this call.
Eligibility
Joint transnational research proposals may be submitted by research teams working in universities (or other higher education institutions), non-university public research institutes, hospitals, non-profit organizations as well as in commercial companies, particularly small and medium-size enterprises. The eligibility of the afore-mentioned institutions, together with details of eligible costs (e.g., personnel, material, consumables, travel money, investments), are subject to the administrative requirements of individual funding organizations and will therefore differ. Please note that, for some funding organizations, commercial companies are not eligible or are only eligible under certain conditions (e.g., only in partnership with academic institutions in the consortium). Clarification should be obtained from the individual funding agencies. It is advised to read carefully all national annexes regarding eligibility and funding by the respective funding agencies.
Only transnational projects will be funded. Each consortium submitting a proposal must be comprised of a minimum of three research groups from three different countries eligible for funding by organizations listed in this call text. The total number of research groups in a consortium must not exceed five. Not more than two research groups can be from the same country. Therefore, the maximum number of countries involved in one consortium is five.
Research groups not eligible to their national funding organizations or from countries which are not involved in this call may participate in projects only if their participation clearly provides an added value to the consortium and if they present evidence on secured budget for their part in the project. In any case, the total number of research groups in one consortium must not exceed five.
Each consortium should have the critical mass to achieve ambitious scientific goals and should clearly demonstrate added value from working together. Each project must nominate a project coordinator who represents the consortium externally and is responsible for its internal management (e.g. application, Consortium Agreement, reporting, etc.). It is obligatory that the coordinator of a consortium is eligible to be funded by one of the organizations listed in this call text.
Although applications must be submitted jointly by groups from several countries, the individual research groups will be funded by the individual NEURON funding organization(s) of their respective countries. Eligibility criteria are the matter of individual partner funding organizations.
Therefore, applicants are strongly advised to follow the instructions contained in the country-specific eligibility tables which are published on the NEURON webpage and to contact their national/regional funding organization to confirm eligibility matters before submitting an application.
Submission of joint transnational proposals
There will be a one-stage procedure for joint applications. One joint proposal document (in English) shall be prepared by the partners of a joint transnational proposal, and must be submitted to the ELSA Joint Call Secretariat by one spokesperson, the coordinator.
Proposals must be submitted in electronic format no later than May 03, 2017 (14:00:00 CET) via the electronic submission system.
Funding procedure
Projects can be funded for a period of up to three years and according to funding organizations’ regulations. Funding is expected to start early in 2018.
Successful research groups will be funded directly by the respective funding organizations.
Funding will be administered according to the terms and conditions of the responsible funding organizations, taking into account all other applicable regulations and legal requirements.
Responsibilities
Within a joint proposal, each group leader will be the contact person for the relevant national/regional funding organization. The coordinators of funded projects together with the respective funding agencies shall make every effort to seek a common start date for all research groups in the consortium.
After the evaluation and selection procedures are completed, each consortium selected to be funded is required to draft and sign a Consortium Agreement (CA) suitable to their own team. The CA will agree a common project start date, manage the delivery of project activities, finances and intellectual property rights (IPR), and avoid disputes which might be detrimental to the completion of the project. All consortia are strongly encouraged to sign the CA before the official project start date. The CA must be signed within the first six months after the project start date.
For more information please click "Further Official Information" below the announcement.
This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:
http://www.neuron-eranet.eu/en/711.php