About the program
The aim of the call is to facilitate multinational, collaborative research projects that will address important questions related to the synaptic dysfunction of the central nervous system. Defective synaptic communication is at the origin of numerous neurological and mental disorders synaptopathies - such as epilepsies, migraine, autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia, mood disorders and others. The synaptopathies are often characterized by common alterations of proteins and molecular pathways affecting either neurons or glia at synapses and altering pre- and/or post-synaptic function. The present call will accept proposals addressing the disease-related synaptic dysfunction with approaches ranging from understanding basic mechanisms of disease through proof-of-concept therapeutically-driven clinical studies in humans.
Research proposals should cover at least one of the following areas:
a) Fundamental research on the pathogenesis and/or aetiology of synaptopathies. This may include the development of innovative or shared resources and new technologies for prevention, diagnosis or therapy of disease.
b) Clinical research, including the exploitation of existing clinical data sets, to develop new strategies for prevention, diagnosis, and therapy for diseases in which synaptic dysfunction plays a key role.
The research proposals should focus on common neurological and mental disorders or cross-disease approaches. They may encompass the entire lifespan.
The individual components of joint applications should be complementary and contain novel, ambitious ideas to answer key questions or lead to a step-wise change in understanding. There should be a clear added value in funding the collaboration over the individual projects.
Clinical studies up to the point of proof of concept are eligible for funding.
Excluded from this call are research projects focused on:
1) Peripheral nervous system diseases,
2) Purely basic research projects focused on synaptic function without a clear objective of addressIng the synaptic dysfunction in the context of neurological and mental disorders,
3) Primarily neurodegenerative disorders, since they are addressed by the “EU Joint Programme - Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND)
Purpose
Maintenance, improvement and restoration of human health are of fundamental importance and worldwide priority. Biomedical and health research provide an important basis for the improvement of healthy living. Disorders of the brain are major causes of morbidity, mortality and impaired quality of life. Around one billion people suffer from disorders of the central nervous system. In Europe, disorders of the brain account for approximately one-third of the burden of all diseases. Therefore, neuroscience research and its translation into diagnostic and therapeutic outcomes are fundamental.
To address this, the 'Network of European Funding for Neuroscience Research' (NEURON) has been established under the ERA-NET scheme of the European Commission. The aim of the ERA-NET NEURON is to coordinate research efforts and funding programmes of its partner countries in the field of disease related neuroscience.
Under the umbrella of NEURON, a joint transnational call (JTC-2017) is now launched in the field of Synaptic dysfunction in disorders of the central nervous system. The following funding organizations have agreed to fund the joint call for multinational research projects in this scientific area. The call will be conducted simultaneously by the funding organizations in their respective countries and coordinated centrally by the Joint Call Secretariat.
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, 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 (see contact details below). 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 eligible for funding by organizations listed in this call text (see above). The eligible research groups must be from at least three different countries. The total number of research groups in a consortium is limited to five. No more than two research groups can be from the same country.
The ERA-NET NEURON strives to strengthen the European Research Area by including as many partner countries as possible in its funding scheme. Therefore, consortia including partners from countries that are to date underrepresented in this funding scheme (Latvia, Romania, Slovakia, and Turkey) may increase the total number of partners to six.
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. Such research groups are not considered in the minimum number of three research groups mentioned above. In any case, the total number of research groups in one consortium must not exceed five, or six if one of the underrepresented countries listed above is comprised.
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. the application procedure, the consortium agreement, reporting). The consortium coordinator must be eligible to be funded by one of the organizations listed in this call text.
Only projects that fulfil the legal and ethical international/EU and national and institutional standards will be funded. Funding for this kind of projects will be dependent on a positive vote from the responsible ethical and legal committee(s). All procedures involving human beings will conform to the Helsinki Declaration.
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.
Inclusion of a partner in a proposal who is not eligible for funding according to the specific regulations of their respective funding agency may result in the rejection of the entire proposal without further review.
Therefore, applicants are strongly advised to follow the instructions contained in the country-specific eligibility tables which are published on the NEURON website and to contact their national/regional funding organization to confirm eligibility before submitting an application.
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 organizations 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 determine 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.
Reporting Requirements
On behalf of the research consortium, the project coordinator will be required to submit a brief annual scientific progress report on the project and one final report in the end, to the Joint Call Secretariat. Group leaders may be required to submit reports separately to their national funding organization; reporting guidance will be forwarded by the relevant funding organization, as applicable.
Annual reports should be submitted by April, 30, the following year. Annual reports do not need to be submitted if the project ends in the first three months of the following year (e.g. between January and March). In this case, the submission of a final report will suffice. However, instead of submitting the final report within the usual six month period, the final report will be required within four months of project completion.
The deadline for submitting final reports is six months after the end of the project. It is the task of the coordinators to determine a formal end date for project completion. This is required, as partners may be granted extensions of different duration. Coordinators will be informed about this procedure by the Joint Call Secretariat and will receive the report template in due course.
The coordinators will be asked to present a progress report during an intermediate status symposium. The attendance is obligatory for all coordinators and Principal Investigators (PIs). Early-career scientists working on the projects are welcome to join the status symposium together with the PIs. Accordingly, travel expenses to attend the symposium should be encumbered in the proposal budget plans.
Funding recipients must ensure that all outcomes (publications, etc.) of transnational NEURON projects include a proper acknowledgement of ERA-NET NEURON and the respective funding partner organizations, and are in line with the relevant publication requirements.
For more information click "Further official information" below.
This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:
http://www.neuron-eranet.eu/en/698.php