Funding

Up to Euro 1.7 million has been made available from 2006 - 2009 for research grants which are in the framework of the Programme, to be performed in Europe and its associated countries.

   Mechanisms of Support and Review

Research will be supported through the award of fixed sum grants, each of Euro 300,000. The duration of each award may be up to three years, depending upon the needs of the project and as justified in the application, so long as the total budget does not exceed the fixed sum of Euro 300,000. The Programme Board, at the suggestion of the Review Committee, may at its discretion recommend an award in a lesser amount considered more appropriate for the proposed studies.

Applications for an EFSD Clinical Research Grant are invited from single non-profit institutions or groups of such institutions from Europe and associated countries. The principal investigator and any co-investigators must be normally employed at a non-profit institution and the study must be performed at such a place of work.

Applications will be subject to scientific review by a specialised ad hoc committee. Funding will require approval by an EFSD board convened for this purpose. It is anticipated that applications will be received by 1 December 2006 and approved for funding after review by March 2008.

   Research Grant Applications

Applications for research grants may be subjected to pre-review (or triage) procedures. In this event, any application rejected at pre-review will not be subject to a complete scientific review. The deadlines for receipt of research grant applications for funding is 05 December 2008.

For the purpose of this programme, the budget of the research grants is limited to Euro 300,000 over three years. All budgets are to be prepared in Euro. For countries in which the Euro is not yet the common currency, the exchange rate (between the Euro and the local currency in the country where the work is to be performed) used for calculating the Euro budget must be mentioned under "Budget Justification". EFSD reserves the right to increase or decrease approved funding in Euro amounts to compensate for any significant change in the exchange rate.

Application forms may be requested from: Foundation@easd.org

All applications must be prepared on the official forms and completed in strict accordance with the detailed instructions to be found on these forms. In particular, applicants are reminded that any pages in addition to the maximum of 10 allowed for the scientific section of the application will be deleted prior to review. Similarly, no applications using a font or line-spacing smaller than defined in the instructions will be considered for review. Additional material (in the form of an appendix, attachment, reprints, etc.) will not be accepted and will not be sent to reviewers.

Applications should be submitted by 05 December 2008 (date of receipt) to:

   Review Considerations

Completed applications will be evaluated in accordance with the criteria stated below for scientific/technical merit by an appropriate scientific committee convened by EFSD.

The review criteria are as follows:

• Significance: Does the study address an important problem? If the aims of the application are achieved, how will scientific knowledge be advanced? What will be the effect of the proposed studies on the concepts or methods that drive this field?
  
• Approach: Are the conceptual framework, design, methods and analyses adequately developed, well integrated, and appropriate to the aims of the project? Does the applicant acknowledge potential problem areas and consider alternative tactics?
  
• Innovation: Does the project employ novel concepts, approaches or methods? Are the aims original and innovative? Does the project challenge existing paradigms or develop new methodologies or technologies?
  
• Investigator: Is the investigator appropriately trained and well suited to carry out this work? Is the work proposed appropriate to the experience level of the principal investigator and other researchers (if any)?
  
• Environment: Does the scientific environment in which the work will be done contribute to the probability of success? Do the proposed experiments take advantage of unique features of the scientific environment or employ useful collaborative arrangements? Is there evidence of institutional support?
  
• Relevance: A brief statement of the impact of the proposed study on diabetes mellitus.

   Reporting Requirements

All investigators funded by this programme are required to submit a scientific report at the end of the funding period. Investigators must provide the EFSD with early notice of papers accepted for publication and must acknowledge the support of the programme in all written material by use of the phrase: "This work was supported by an EFSD research grant".

   Competitive Renewal

Applications for renewal of a research programme award will be accepted on a competitive basis, with the same review process as described in this announcement. Such applications will thus be considered in the same fashion as all other new applications received for review and without any special priority.

   Schedule