Find below details on the call’s implementation:

Timeline

The timeline of the JTC 2019 “Translational Biomarkers in Brain Disorders" is shown below:

WhenWhat
09 January 2019Launch of the call
11 March 2019Deadline for pre-proposal submission (14:00 CET)
27 June 2019Deadline for full proposal submission (14:00 CET)
19 September 2019Peer review panel meeting, ranking list
October 2019Funding decision
First half 2020Start of projects

Proposal submission, peer review process, funding decision

Proposal submission

Research consortia had to consist of 3 - 5 research groups from at least three NEURON partner countries participating in this call. Consortia including partners from countries that are to date underrepresented in this funding scheme could increase the total number of partners to six. The two-step process required at first the submission of short pre-proposals describing the research idea. From these a shortlist was selected and the respective consortia were invited to submit full proposals (see also below).
Both pre- and full proposals had to be submitted electronically by the coordinator of the consortium. Proposal templates and guidelines were provided by the Joint Call Secretariat in order to support the applicants in terms of the proposal format. The Joint Call Secretariat is hosted by the DLR Project Management Agency (DLR-PT, Germany) and the Agence nationale de la recherché (ANR, France).

Peer Review

In order to properly cover all aspects of the broad topic, 36 scientific experts and 6 patient representatives were recruited from NEURON partner countries and beyond. Each pre-proposal was assessed in writing by three scientific evaluators and two patient representatives. The assessments were based on the criteria listed in the call text and consisted of a global score and additional comments. The projects were ranked according to the scientific reviewer’s scores. Fifteen scientific experts on the Peer Review Panel (PRP) and three patient representatives discussed these full proposals thoroughly in a face-to-face meeting and provided a funding recommendations and a ranking list. Based on this ranking list, the funding organisations selected 15 projects whose coordinators were invited by the Joint Call Secretariat to submit full proposals.

Funding decision and granting process

The funding decision was taken by the funding organisations participating in the joint call for proposals. Starting with the best proposal and following the ranking list, as many proposals as possible were selected for funding, taking into account the national budgets available.
As a result of this step, the top 15 projects could be funded. The projects comprise 60 research groups (Principal Investigators) from 13 countries. The total funding volume amounts to about 12.1 m€ for three years.

In a last step, the Principal Investigators had to fulfil legal and administrative requirements of their national / regional funding agencies, in order to receive the grant.

A detailed DMP has to be submitted by the consortium coordinator of each project selected for funding within 6 months after the project official start date. For more information consult the extended NEURON DMP format here
Most of the projects will start during the first half of 2020.

Funding organisations supporting this call

17 funding organisations from 15 countries participated in the JTC 2019 “Translational Biomarkers in Brain Disorders”.

Funding organisation Country
Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS) Belgium
Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO)Belgium
Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé (FRQS) (Québec)Canada
Canadian Institutes of Health Research – Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction (CIHR-INMHA)Canada
Academy of Finland (AKA)Finland
French National Research Agency (ANR)France
Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)Germany
General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT)Greece
Ministry of Health (MOH)Italy
State Education Development Agency (VIAA)Latvia
The Research Council of Norway (RCN)Norway
National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR)Poland
Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development & Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI)Romania
Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS)Slovakia
National Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII)Spain
Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)Switzerland
The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK)Turkey