Closed call
13 February - 12 April 2018
Research project grant for international collaboration within Personalised Medicine (ERA PerMed)
The purpose of this grant is to fund international collaboration to support translational research projects in the field of personalised medicine. The call aims to encourage and enable interdisciplinary research and to combine pre-clinical and/or clinical research with bio-informatics components. Sweden, via the Swedish Research Council, is one of 22 countries participating in the first ERA PerMed call, which rewards research of the highest scientific quality in international competition.
Type of call
Project support
Subject area
Medicine and Health
Focus
ERA PerMed: support for translational research projects in the field of PersonalisedMedicine. The call aims to encourage and enable interdisciplinary research and tocombine pre-clinical and/or clinical research with bio-informatics components.
Applicant
Individual researcher
Participating researchers
Individual researcher included as one of no more than two Swedish project leaders in a consortium of partners from no less than three participating countries. Only researchers at an administrating organisation approved by the Swedish Research Council may apply.
Grant period
3 years
Grant amount
Maximum 600 000 EUR for all Swedish partners together.
Publication of grant award
October 2018
Start of grant period
January 2019
Call text in full
Application procedure
The application procedure for research project grants within ERA PerMed is a two-step process. The consortium application is first submitted in a pre-proposal format. After initial review, selected applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal. Both the pre-proposal and the full proposal are subject to a peer-review process and ranked in competition with the other proposals.
As a Swedish partner and project leader in an ERA PerMed consortium you shall in parallel register corresponding applications (pre-proposal/project outline and full proposal/full application) electronically in Prisma, which is the application system used by the Swedish Research Council. More information is available under the heading “How do I apply”, found below.
The content of the pre-proposal/project outline form in Prisma will be automatically transferred to the full proposal/full application form if your consortium is invited by the ERA PerMed to submit a full proposal. You will then need to update the content of your application so that it corresponds to the full consortium application submitted to ERA PerMed, and to amend the section “Ethical considerations”. More information is available under the heading “How do I apply”, found below.
The following criteria must be fulfilled in order for you to be eligible to apply for the grant. We carry out checks to ensure ineligible applications are rejected from further processing.
Applicant
The applicant for a research project grant must be a researcher/project leader representing a Swedish partner participating in an ERA PerMed consortium with three to maximum seven partners from no less than three participating countries. The full eligibility criteria for the design of the consortium are available in the call text on ERA PerMed’s website
External link.. You will be the project leader and have scientific responsibility for the Swedish part of the project, and your level of activity in the project must be no less than 20 per cent of a full-time equivalent. You must hold a Swedish doctoral degree or a corresponding foreign degree, awarded no later than the deadline for this call. The degree award date we use is the date when you fulfilled all the criteria for a doctoral degree, such as mandatory courses, oral defence and an approved doctoral thesis. For holders of Swedish doctoral degrees, the degree award date applicable is the date registered in Ladok.
Grants from the Swedish Research Council shall be administered by a Swedish university or HEI or another Swedish public organisation that fulfils our criteria for administrating organisations. To apply, your organisation must therefore be approved as an administrating organisation. Please note that as a consequence, Swedish researchers working for a company cannot be financed, and should therefore not submit an application to the Swedish Research Council.
If you are awarded a grant, you must be employed by the administrating organisation when the grant period starts, unless the Swedish Research Council grants an exception. The employment must cover no less than 20 per cent of a full-time equivalent. You do not have to be employed by the administrating organisation at the time of applying.
Number of applications and previous grants
The conditions described in this section only apply to applicants, i.e. researchers representing Swedish partners in an ERA PerMed consortium.
What grants may I apply for simultaneously from the Swedish Research Council?
You may only submit one application for this grant, and you may only be included as Swedish participant in one consortium within the call. Other restrictions relating to the grants you may apply for in the same year are shown in the table below. A grant awarded under this call counts as a “research project grant with focus”.
Table: Grants you may apply for simultaneously
What eligibility criteria apply if I already have a grant from the Swedish Research Council?
There are certain restrictions if you are the project leader of a previously awarded grant that is ongoing, that is to say where the grant period (disbursement period from the Swedish Research Council) overlaps the grant period of the grant the application covers. Please note that the period of availability, that is to say the time during which you can draw down the grant awarded, is normally longer than the grant period. Information about the criteria for your previous grant can be found in the “Approval of conditions” you received from the Swedish Research Council. If your ongoing grant has another focus, you are eligible to apply, however, provided your application is for another project concept.
Please see the table below for further information on what you may apply for if you have an ongoing grant. A grant awarded under this call counts as a “research project grant with focus”.
Table: Grants you may apply for if you have an ongoing grant
Note: If you have been the project leader for previous grants from the Swedish Research Council that have ended, a final financial statement for all of these must have been submitted within the permitted time frame in order for you to apply for a new grant. Please contact your administrating organisation if you are unsure whether all your final reports have been submitted.
What applies for applications to or grants from other funding bodies?
If your application to the Swedish Research Council relates to the same project concept as a grant you have already been awarded, or are applying for to another funding body, please account for this in your application to ERA PerMed.
Costs and grant amounts
Grants may be applied for to finance all types of project-related costs, such as salaries (including your own salary, however no more than corresponding to your activity level in the project), premises, running costs (such as consumables, travel including stays at research facilities, publication costs and minor equipment), plus depreciation. Grants may not be used for bursaries. If a doctoral student participates, project funds may not be paid out as salary for the period when the doctoral student is teaching.
For Swedish participation in a consortium, the total maximum amount that may be applied for is 600 000 EUR. The maximum amount for all Swedish participants together is therefore 600 000 EUR in total.
Grant period
You may apply for a grant to cover three years, starting from January 2019. The first payment will be made in December 2018 at the earliest.
The consortium shall make a joint application in ERA PerMed’s application system.
Link to ERA PerMed’s application system External link.
The project leader representing a Swedish partner in an ERA PerMed consortium shall register parallel applications (pre-proposal/project outline and full proposal/full application) electronically in Prisma, which is the application system used by the Swedish Research Council. Please note that, for practical reasons, the parallel call in Prisma for the Swedish partners closes a few days later than that in the ERA PerMed’s application system. This applies for both the pre-proposal/project outline and the full proposal/full application.
The application form in Prisma is available through this link External link.
You create your application in Prisma by filling in the text fields, uploading information from your personal account, and attaching the appendices requested.
To enable you to apply, your organisation must have been approved as an administrating organisation and have created an organisation account in Prisma.
For most items in Prisma, there is a user manual External link. describing all the steps, as well as answers to FAQ External link.. Please refer to these when filling in your application.
Please avoid stating your own or anybody else’s full personal identity number in the application except where specifically requested.
Creating a personal account in Prisma
Before you apply, you must create a personal account in Prisma External link., where you can save your personal and CV data. The information only needs to be entered once, and can thereafter be supplemented or changed as required. As most of the Swedish Research Council’s calls employ foreign reviewers, please use English when entering any descriptive text in you CV data. You can also input your publications for future use.
Please allow plenty of time to create your personal account. The applications you register in Prisma will be linked to your personal account.
Text
Some text fields can be formatted, which means that the font, alignment and font size can be changed, and that tables and symbols can be inserted. If you insert text written using a word processing program (such as Microsoft Word), you may need to use the tools in Prisma to adjust the formatting after insertion. Images cannot be included in the text fields, however. We recommend that you use the fonts Arial, Calibri or Verdana. All text fields have a limit on the number of characters, and this is illustrated by a character counter. If you use too many characters, the application cannot be registered.
Attached documents and appendices
You will need to attach an appendix to some fields as instructed. The appendix must consist of one file only, and you can only attach documents in PDF format. All appendices are limited as to file size and number of pages. You will not be able to attach an appendix that exceeds the stated maximum size.
Signature
Pre-proposal/Project outline: You as applicant shall sign the application electronically in Prisma. Please note that no signature by the administrating organisation is required.
Full proposal/Full application: The full application shall be signed electronically in Prisma by both you as applicant and an authorised representative of the administrating organisation.
Please see further information under “Register your application” below.
Please refer to ERA PerMed’s call text External link. and the application form in Prisma in parallel with reading the instructions below.
Language
Foreign experts are involved in the scientific evaluation of the applications. To ensure fair and equitable assessment and efficient processing, please complete your application in English.
Sections of the application
The application form in Prisma includes the following tabs (applicable to both the Project outline and the Full application):
- Descriptive data
- Research description
- Administrating organisation
- Participants (only administrators in this call, see below)
- CV
Descriptions of the information requested under each tab follow below. Mandatory information is marked with an asterisk (*) in Prisma.
Descriptive data
Under this tab, please fill in the Swedish and English project name and select SCB codes and key words. Please also fill in the abstract and popular science description as instructed below.
Abstract
The abstract shall include a brief description of:
- what is to be done: purpose and aim
- how the research is to be carried out: project organisation, time plan and the scientific methods to be used
- what is important about the planned research
The abstract shall provide a summary guide to the purpose and implementation of the research. Please use wording that ensures persons with another subject specialisation can understand the information.
The abstract may cover a maximum of 1 500 characters including blank spaces (approximately one third of an A4 page in Arial, font size 11, single line spacing).
Popular science description
Describe the project in such a way that a person who is not familiar with the subject can understand it. Describe what is to be done and why, and explain in what way the new knowledge may be important.
The popular science description is an important tool when we inform about the research financed by the Swedish Research Council. If we grant your application, we reserve the right to use the description for information purposes.
Note: The popular science description must be written in Swedish, unlike the rest of the application. In the Pre-proposal/Project outline, the popular science description may be very brief. In the Full proposal, the popular science description must be comprehensive and suitable for information purposes.
The description may cover a maximum of 4 500 characters, including blank spaces (approximately one A4 page in Arial, font size 11, single row spacing).
Research description
Under this tab, please describe any ethical considerations (applicable in the Full proposal only) and attach the consortium’s joint application.
Ethical considerations (applicable only for those invited to submit a full application)
Describe the ethical issues raised by the research and how they are managed in the research work. Explain also why the research questions and expected results justify the conduct of the research, in view of the ethical issues raised. Please also state whether the research involves any handling of personal data, or experiments on animals or human subjects. If no ethical issues are raised, please state this.
Full application in the international collaboration
Please attach the application submitted by the consortium to ERA PerMed in PDF format. Please note that the appendix may consist of one file only, with a maximum size of 20 MB.
Other appendices
No other appendices need to be attached to this field.
Administrating organisation
Under this tab, please state the administrating organisation and project site of the project. The administrating organisation is the organisation that administers the funds for a project awarded and is responsible for it according to the conditions set. The project site is the organisational unit where the project is carried out. Normally, the administrating organisation and project site correspond to the HEI and the department where the project leader is employed.
To allow you to link your application to an administrating organisation, the organisation must have an approved account in Prisma. Please contact your administrating organisation and ask it to apply for an organisation account External link. with the Swedish Research Council if it does not already have one.
If you cannot find your project site in Prisma, please contact the person responsible for the organisation account at your administrating organisation. You will not be able to finalise the registration of your application if the project site is missing.
Participants
Under this tab, you as applicant may invite other participating administrators to your application. A participating administrator is a person who is not necessarily involved in the project, but who can help you to input and edit information in the application. When inviting participants, please use the email address linked to the person’s Prisma account. You may invite participating administrators who do not already have an account in Prisma, but in order to participate in your application they must then register their own personal accounts in Prisma. All participants must accept their invitation before you can finalise the registration of the application.
Please note that you may not invite participating researchers to this application in Prisma, their participation need only be reported in the consortium application to ERA PerMed.
CV
Under this tab, please upload your relevant CV information from your personal account in Prisma.
Education: Third cycle higher education (doctoral degree).
Work: Current employment (including whether permanent position or not.)
Register application
The tab “Register application” shows a summary of the fields in your application that may require action in order to register it (such as mandatory fields not filled in, text fields with too many characters, discrepancies from limits on the possible project period or budget applied for). The registration of your application is not finalised until you click on the “Register” button.
Please make sure you use the preview function before registering your application.
Note: Any participating administrators you have invited in your application must accept the invitation before you can register the application. If an invitation is not accepted, it must be deleted.
The registered application can thereafter be found in your personal Prisma account in the tab “Applications and grants”, under the menu choice “Applications”. Until the deadline for the call, a registered application may be de-registered, amended and re-registered again as necessary.
It is your responsibility to ensure the application is complete and corresponds to the application in ERA PerMed’s application system, that is to say the application form is correctly filled in, the correct appendices are attached and the information requested has been provided according to the instructions. Please only submit material specifically requested. We do not accept any additional information after the deadline date, except when specifically requested.
Signing
Project outline: When you register the application, it is signed by you as project leader. No signature by the administrating organisation is required in this stage.
The applicant’s signature confirms that:
- the information in the application is correct and complies with the Swedish Research Council’s instructions
- secondary occupations and commercial ties have been reported to the administrating organisation and that nothing has emerged that breaches good research practice
- the applicant has not been found guilty of scientific misconduct during the last two years before the deadline of the call
- the permits and approvals required have been obtained before the research is started, such as permits from the Swedish Medical Products Agency or approval from an ethical review board or an ethical committee on animal experiments
- the applicant will comply with all other conditions applicable to the grant
Full application: To ensure that the full proposal/application is deemed complete and included in the review process, an authorised representative of the administrating organisation also has to sign the application. The representative is normally the head of the department where the research will be carried out, but this is dependent on your administrating organisation’s structure.
The signature of the administrating organisation confirms that:
- the research or research-supporting activity described can be given room at the administrating organisation during the period and to the extent stated in the application
- the applicant will be employed by the administrating organisation during the period covered by the application
- the administrating organisation approves of the budget in the application
- the applicant has not been found guilty of scientific misconduct by the administrating organisation signing during the last two years before the deadline of the call
- the administrating organisation will comply with all other conditions applicable to the grant
The above points shall have been discussed by the parties before the representative of the administrating organisation approves and signs the application.
Note: The authorised representative of the administrating organisation must sign the application in Prisma no later than one week (seven calendar days) after the deadline in order for the application to be considered further in the review process.
When you have registered your application and the call has closed (at 14.00/2 p.m. on the deadline date of the Prisma call), your application will automatically be registered as final in Prisma and allocated a registration number.
Full application: Your application is then automatically forwarded to the representative of the administrating organisation for signature in Prisma. The application must be signed by the administrating organisation no later than one week (seven calendar days) after the deadline date. You will receive an email when the application has been signed.
Thereafter you will find information about the status of the application, registration number and signature of the application in your account in Prisma, under the tab “Applications and grants”.
The ERA PerMed will decide on the pre-proposal applications in beginning of June 2018. The decision will be communicated to the consortium coordinator through a written statement.
You will find a notice of the decision in your personal account in Prisma. If your pre-proposal/project outline application is selected (to the second stage), you will be notified via email, with an invitation to submit a full proposal/full application. Relevant information from the project outline will automatically be transferred to the full application draft.
Those invited to submit a full application shall do so on the 5th of July at the latest. The exact dates will be announced to Swedish partners in consortia invited to submit full proposals to ERA PerMed.
Evaluation
The scientific evaluation of your application is carried out by ERA PerMed (see the evaluation process in ERA PerMed’s call text. External link.
Decision
ERA PerMed makes a decision on the consortiums to be recommended for financing by the respective national funding body. The decision is communicated to the consortium coordinator, with a statement in the form of a written comment. The Swedish Research Council makes a decision on Swedish participants. Shortly after the award decision has been made, a notice of the grant awards will be published on the Swedish Research Council’s website. You will thereafter find a notice of the decision and a final statement on your application in your personal account in Prisma, under the tab “Applications and grants”.
The EU ABS Regulation and due diligence declaration: As from 12 October 2015, users of genetic resources (genetic material of actual or potential value) and traditional knowledge relating to genetic resources, obtained after 12 October 2014, shall comply with the EU’s ABS Regulation (No 511/2014) by making a “due diligence declaration”. This applies only to grant recipients. Due diligence entails the user being able to show that the genetic resource was obtained according to applicable legislation in the country in question and that the possible benefit of the genetic resource will be allocated in a reasonable and equitable way.
Exceptions apply to research into: the human genome, plant genetic material included in Appendix 1 External link. to the international agreement on plant genetic resources, pandemic influenza virus and genetic material obtained from international waters. If you have any questions about the regulations and due diligence, please contact Naturvårdsverket. External link.