Call for proposals of research and development projects in medical engineering 2018

Aim
Barncancerfonden (The Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation) calls for proposals for research projects in the field of medical engineering for clinicians, scientists, and companies. The purpose is to highlight and solve research problems related to medical engineering with relevance for children oncology. Projects which aim at adjusting existing medical technology for children may also be considered.

Terms and conditions for the call
The research proposal should proceed from a clear medical research problem and contain a description of the project's relevance for children with cancer. A proposal for technical solution is also to be described. Barncancerfonden defines medical engineering as products associated with medicine with the exceptions pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. This includes, but is not limited to, irradiation technology, orthopedical implants, minimal invasive surgery, aids for people with disabilities, adjustment of analysis techniques, IT support, and disposable items. This also includes children-adapted design of existing products in order to facilitate medical treatment of children. Despite the definition of medical engineering, applications in the intersection between medical engineering and biotechnology may also be considered.

Barncancerfonden finances fundamental research projects, development projects, and projects for clinical adjustment for children. Clinical adjustment may also be a part of fundamental or development projects. The applicant should justify why the application is classified as research, development or clinical adjustment for children. Fundamental research projects and development projects should demonstrate how the proposed research may be applied within five years. Barncancerfonden is aware that fundamental research may have different application areas and fundamental research projects can therefore state one or several future applications. The interrelation between application(s) and children oncology should, however, be clearly specified.

Within the call, implementation grants may also be applied for. Such applications should aim to implement a new evidence-based health care or treatment method for children at the clinic. In the application system, implementation grants is classified according to the type of project that is most relevant (research, development or clinical adjustment for children). It should be clearly stated in the application that the project is an implementation project. Implementation projects should also state a clinical application area.

Applications in different categories will be evaluated separately.

Eligibility to apply
Research projects is applied for by a constellation of at least one clinician and at least one researcher within technology. At least one of the partners must hold a Swedish doctoral degree or an equivalent foreign degree. One of the partners is main applicant and the other partner is co-applicant. Applicants for the other project categories do not need a PhD degree. The main applicant has the scientific responsibility for the project. Companies may be co-applicants to the proposal but not grant recipient. Companies may in exceptional cases be the technology part of the constellation, especially for applications for development projects and projects for clinical adjustment for children.

The main applicant should have his main activity in one of the Nordic countries. Funding for international projects may be granted under the prerequisite that the main applicant is situated in Sweden and that the research results are relevant for Swedish children with cancer. The project should have active participation from a scientist based in Sweden (main or co-applicant).

About the grant
The grant is a block grant unless otherwise stated in the decision letter.

Evaluation criteria
All submitted applications are subjected to peer review evaluation by active researchers. The scientific evaluation of the application is conducted in competition with other applications on the basis of the evaluation criteria of Barncancerfonden: research problem, methodology, merits of the applicants/feasibility, relevance for children with cancer, and, when applicable, the scientific report. If needed, applications with clinical connection will be prioritized.

Administration
The grant is to be administered by a Nordic university, hospital, institute, or another Nordic organization with research as its main purpose in collaboration with a university, hospital, or institute. The grant can not be transferred to another host without written approval from Barncancerfonden. Remaining funding at the end of the period of disposal is reimbursed to Barncancerfonden.

Application period
Refer to the web page of Barncancerfonden. Incomplete or late applications will not be evaluated.

Application documents
A complete application is submitted via the application system which opens two months prior to the end of the application period. The last day for application is found on the web page of Barncancerfonden. A complete application includes a filled-in form and a project description uploaded as an attachment in PDF file format (maximum 2 MB). Incomplete or late applications will not be evaluated.

The project description should have an overall aim and a number of specific goals. The aim may be visionary but the goals should be written as specific as possible. The project goals should be directly comparable to the final report where the progress and results from the project will be described. 

The project description should be maximum 6 A4 pages including references (12 ppt Times New Roman, single space, automatic line break) and contain the following headings:

• Aim and goals; present the overall aim and the specific goals of the research project.

• Background; a summary of your own and others’ research, as well as previous findings in the research field. 

• Preliminary result; describe your own experiments and pre-studies in the research area

• Work plan; summarize the project and present a timetable. Describe theories, methods and implementation. 

• International and national collaboration: short description of collaboration with foreign and Swedish researchers and research groups or clinical partners.  

• Five own publications that are most relevant to the project

• Literature references of importance

• If the main or co-applicant has allocated grants or other applications under review at Barncancerfonden that are similar to the present application, the differences between these and the present application should be described under a certain heading.


Note that the application may not be submitted electronically if mandatory information is missing. After submission, the first page of the application must be printed, signed, and sent to Barncancerfonden no later than one week after the last day of the application period. Revisions to submitted applications are not allowed.

The signed first page is to be sent to:
forskning@barncancerfonden.se

Organization of the application
Instructions on how to fill in the application form is found in the top right corner on each tab.

The application may be written either in English or in Swedish with the following exceptions:
• The popular science title should be written in Swedish.
• The project title should be written in English.
• The popular science summary should be written in Swedish.
• The summary must be written in English.

Special terms


General terms
Refer to the separate document ”Generella villkor” (in Swedish) in the application system.

Retrieval of grants
Refer to the separate document ”Så här får du dina beviljade medel” (in Swedish) in the application system.

Contact
Anders Höglund, Research coordinator
Tel: 08-584 209 31 (00)
anders.hoglund@barncancerfonden.se

or

Emeli Lundström, Research coordinator
Tel: 08-584 209 03 (00)
emeli.lundstrom@barncancerfonden.se

or

Abraham Mellkvist Roos, Research coordinator
abraham.mellkvist.roos@barncancerfonden.se
08-584 209 22 (00)