How to apply on bio-medical calls

What NEURON funds

NEURON aims to support basic, clinical and translational research, directed at a better understanding of the brain and nervous system and related disorders to pave the way for new and improved means for diagnosis and therapy.
NEURON aims to promote intense and easy to manage top-level research pan-European collaborations. To this end, NEURON funds small, multidisciplinary research consortia consisting usually of 3-5 research groups originating from different NEURON partner countries.

Who can apply

Each year the constellation of NEURON’s partner organisations that participate in a given call may differ. Also, external funding organisations like e.g. charities may join a specific NEURON call. Each call text lists the participating funding organisations as well as the national/regional contact points (in the annex of each call text).
The actual grant for a single research group originates from national/regional research budgets. For applicants it is thus mandatory to check whether they are eligible for funding.

Procedure

The application procedure has usually two stages:

  • First, NEURON calls/invites for short pre-proposals outlining the main research idea and the consortium structure. An international peer review panel assesses and ranks these pre-proposals.
  • Second, the best consortia are invited to submit elaborate full proposals that are again peer-reviewed. Additionally, patients are usually involved in the evaluation process, as is an ethical review panel.

The funding decision is then based on the ranking of the consented short-list resulting from the review procedure. The NEURON funding organisations fund as many of the top consortia as possible, firstly considering scientific excellence and secondly their national or regional financial means.

Each Principal Investigator in a consortium selected for funding receives their grant from the respective national or regional funding agency. The ensuing granting/funding process follows the respective national/regional agencies’ procedures and regulations.

Call calendar

Check out the annual biomedical NEURON calls below and the typical call timeline here:

~ December: Call pre-announcement

~ January: Launch of the call

~ March: Stage 1: pre-proposal submission

~ May: Review + decision

~ June: Stage 2: full proposal submission

~ by Sept/Oct: Review + decision

~ Dec-May*: Start of funding

*depending on the schedule of the national funding organisation

Please note that timelines for future calls may vary.