Through a ‘seeding grant’, short-term, exploratory research projects can be supported. The results will determine the potential and long-term feasibility of the research. A seeding grant allows young colleagues with ideas for new research initiatives, which may be high-risk projects, to start working on their research project.
Last year, the EAU Research Foundation (EAU RF) announced the availability of ‘seeding grants’ for short-term studies. A final selection from the 30 submissions was made during the first months of 2020. Following personal interviews with candidates, one was funded with € 25,000.
The EAU RF is pleased to announce another opportunity for seeding grants, with the aim of supporting highly innovative and original research by a junior investigator. The call for applications is currently open, with a deadline closing on Wednesday 31 March 2021.
Applicants are invited to submit one-year research projects with a total budget of up to €25,000. These projects should be designed to collect or strengthen preliminary data and to help the start of clinical trials or other clinical research projects with possible qualification for future external, competitive funding. Preliminary data is not required in the application. Seeding grants will be awarded only in clinical research.
Funding amounts to a maximum of € 50,000 in total for two projects. The applicant must be an academically active researcher/clinician, a member of the EAU, and be younger than 40 at the time of the submission deadline. The total project period is one year. Successful projects will start in June 2021 and will end in June 2022.
Budget
The maximum budget request is € 25,000. Funds can be spent on salaries (including that of the grant holder) and/or consumables/reagents/subcontracts. Payment of internal facilities/clinical costs is allowed up to € 5,000. The budget description must be accurate, and every item must be justified in the appropriate section of the application form.
These projects should be designed to collect or strengthen preliminary data and to help the start of clinical trials or other clinical research projects.
Ethical Issues
- Research involving human subjects and/or vertebrate animals must comply with the relevant European and national laws.
- All funded research must be conducted within the research ethics guidelines of the National Health and Medical Research Council.
- Institutional approval by the appropriate ethics committee(s) must be demonstrated prior to release of funds.
- Certification that approval has been given should be forwarded with the application or as soon as available.
The evaluation process
Applications that are incomplete or do not comply with the requirements stated in this Call for Applications will not be accepted.
Grants will be awarded on a competitive basis. All accepted applications will undergo a two-step selection process. The review panel will be composed of the members of the EAU Research Foundation Board and an external expert reviewer, if needed.
First step
Each application will be independently scored by three reviewers. The applications will be allotted to the reviewers in order to avoid potential bias (i.e., projects will not be reviewed by their own division/ centre/institute affiliates).
The evaluation criteria for the first step of the selection will be the following:
- Originality and innovation
- Feasibility of the proposed experiments
- Potential to be competitive for larger-scale funding
- Qualification and research experience of the applicant
Reviewers will discuss the scoring results of individual applications and will reach a consensus ranking list.
Second step
The top 2-3 applicants will be invited to a personal meeting with the review panel, consisting of a brief presentation of their proposal (ten minutes) and a question & answer session.
Reviewers will rank the candidates based on the following criteria:
- Ability of the applicant to analyse expected results in the context of a future larger proposal
- Balance between innovation and feasibility
How to apply
Candidates are expected to submit:
- A completed application form (.docx)
- Their CV and list of publications
- A copy of their passport
- A written project proposal specifying the background, aims and objectives, project description and a paragraph with future prospects, issemination, and impact (a written project proposal should not exceed two pages).
- Specification of the costs / budget using the following categories: laboratory costs, travel costs, personal hours, other expenses.
All details on the submission can be found on the application form via https://uroweb.org/research/seeding-grant-application/.
Necessary steps to be taken by the applicant for the seeding grant:
- The above-listed documents must be completed according to the specifications above (i.e. project proposal of two pages max.) and sent to the EAU RF according to the details on the form no later than Wednesday 31 March 2021 at 23.59 Central European Summer Time by email (e.spieker@uroweb.org). All applicants will receive a message of receipt.
If you miss this deadline, your application can unfortunately not be accepted for evaluation this time. - The top 2-3 applicants will be invited for a personal meeting with the review panel in April 2021.
Download the application form here.
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