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Consortium Projects for Clinical Translation

Aim of the program 

Create the desired impact of sustainably improving quality of life and life expectancy for patients by investing in multidisciplinary teams who can best generate scientific innovation and translate this into clinical, practice-changing outcomes.

Areas of the program

  • The Foundation focuses its grant making on areas of unmet medical needs, where scientific and/or clinical evidence with the potential for groundbreaking advances for patients exist 
  • This year, two calls are open: Within each category, the Foundation aims to fund one project:

1) A “Brain Health Call” – here we specifically focus on Mental Health, Psychiatry and Neurology
2) An “Open Call” – for all Medical Disciplines 

Duration, volume and location of funding

  • Duration of funding: 3 years
  • Volume of funding: maximum CHF 1 million per annum
  • In specifically justified cases, a 4th year of funding of CHF 1 million might be granted
  • The clinical translation must be predominantly pursued in Switzerland

Eligibility criteria

  • The consortium must be composed of a minimum of two and a maximum of five applicants.
  • Applicants’ fields of expertise must be complementary and collectively cover the whole breadth of project activities.
  • The lead applicant must be an independent group leader at a Swiss university, research institute or hospital.
  • The lead applicant shall produce documentation about their ability to lead a multi-investigator consortium.
  • At least one applicant must be a physician scientist with clinical responsibility.
  • The majority of applicants must be active in Switzerland.
  • The application must comply with the Foundation's purpose as well as with international standards for medical ethics. 

Evaluation process 

Criteria
Projects are evaluated and compared on the basis of excellence along the following dimensions:

  • Unmet medical need
  • Clinical translation 
  • Scientific originality
  • Interdisciplinarity / team coherence
  • Investigators‘ track record 
  • Feasibility
  • Budget justification and coherence

Process 
The evaluation is conducted in a three-step evaluation by the Foundation and a committee of selected international evaluators. The three steps are:

1) Short Proposal
2) Full proposal (selected from submitted short proposals)
3) Hearing (selected from submitted full proposals)

Deadline and decisions

Submission of Short Proposals by Sunday April 7th, 2024 (end of day).

  • Rejection or invitation to submit Full Proposal during the week commencing May 13th, 2024.

Submission of Full Proposals selected from short proposals by Sunday July 14th, 2024 (end of day).

  • Rejection or invitation for hearing during the week commencing September 9th, 2024.

Hearing of selected Full Proposals in October (date to be communicated in May 2024).

  • Foundation funding decision during the 1st week of December 2024. 

The Foundation does not provide feedback on its decisions. 

Structure of applications

Short Proposal
1) One page project outline (font 12pt) with:

  • Project title
  • Summary of medical problem to be addressed
  • Key hypothesis of the project
  • Project aims / objectives
  • Project delivery in best-case scenario
  • Project lead and co-applicants, incl. information on complementarity of expertise
  • Project duration and budget

2) CVs of all applicants condensed to two pages per co-applicant
3) Publication list of lead applicant

Full Proposal
Template to be shared with selected applicants in May 2024

Consortium Projects for Clinical Translation

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