The Instituto de Salud Carlos III has made the Preliminary Announcement of the E-Rare-2 Call for Proposals 2012 for "European Research  Projects on Rare Diseases driven by Young Investigators"

About: The aim of this call  is to provide to young, independent investigators the opportunity of building transnational collaborations in the field of rare disease research

Topics of the call

Transnational research proposals must cover at least one of the following areas:

a) Collaborative research using patient databases and corresponding collections of biological material that would generally not be possible at a national scale. This research must have clear potential for clinical/public health or socio-economic application and well-defined scientific objectives e.g.:

- Definition of new nosological entities, epidemiological studies, genotype/phenotype correlations, natural history of diseases;

- Characterization of the genetic/molecular basis of specific diseases

b) Research on rare diseases including genetic, epigenetic, and pathophysiological studies, using innovative and shared resources, technologies (OMICS, new generation sequencing, etc.) and expertise. The clinical relevance of this research must be clearly demonstrated.

c) Research on development of applications for diagnosis and therapies for rare diseases. This may include identification, characterization and/or validation of (bio)-markers for diagnosis and prognosis, development of innovative screening systems and diagnostic tools, the generation of relevant cellular and/or animal models, and preclinical studies using pharmacological, gene or cell therapies.

d) Patient oriented research in the area of social and human sciences - e.g. psychological, psychosocial and behavioral research - as well as health services research and health economy research in the field of rare disorders.

Interventional clinical trials are excluded from the scope of the call.

General Conditions for application

The young investigator must have been awarded his/her first PhD/MD or equivalent doctoral degree, at least 2 and up to 10 years prior pre-proposal submission deadline of the E-Rare-2 JTC 2012. Extensions to this period may be allowed in case of eligible career breaks,

Only transnational projects will be funded. Each consortium must involve a minimum of three and a maximum of six research groups from at least three different countries participating to the call.

There must not be more than two research groups from one country in one project proposal

Funding agencies

The Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII), Spain

The Austrian Science Fund (FWF), Austria

The Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), Belgium, Flanders

The French National Research Agency (ANR), France

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany

The Chief Scientist Office of the Ministry of Health (CSO/MOH), Israel

The National Centre for Research and Development (NCBiR), Poland

The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw), The Netherlands

Timetable

There will be a two-stage submission procedure for joint applications: pre-proposals and full proposals. The call is scheduled to open at the start of December, 2011. The deadline for submitting the pre-proposals is scheduled for January 31st, 2012.  An independent international Scientific Evaluation Committee will carry out a scientific evaluation according to specific evaluation criteria. Based on this central evaluation, selected consortia will be invited to submit a full proposal at the start of April 2012 (deadline full proposals: May 24th, 2012)

Link to the call: E-Rare2 - Young Investigators

Further information on guidelines, instructions, VHIR deadlines and submission of proposals will be provided in brief. For any request or question, please contact the Unitat de Gestió de Projectes.