Deadline: 15-Nov-22
The ”la Caixa” Foundation launches the sixth edition of the CaixaResearch Call for biomedical and health research projects. The aim of this call is to identify and support promising initiatives of scientific excellence with potential value and social impact, whether in basic, clinical or translational research.
Themes
Proposals may be submitted in the following thematic areas:
- Neuroscience.
- Infectious diseases.
- Oncology.
- Cardiovascular and associated metabolic diseases: proposals in cardiovascular diseases and metabolic diseases associated with cardiovascular risks or alterations.
- Enabling technologies: proposals focused on the creation and development of healthfacilitating technologies coming from fields such as micro- and nano-electronics, computational science, big data, photonics, nanotechnology, biotechnology, advanced materials or advanced manufacturing, among others. Proposals should also be focused to address topics of the four previous Thematic Areas.
Aims
The fundamental aim of this Call is to foster groundbreaking and relevant research projects that lead to the advancement of knowledge and offer solutions related to some of the most significant health problems of this century. The ”la Caixa” Foundation seeks research projects of scientific excellence in their field, with great potential value and a high social impact. The ”la Caixa” Foundation encourages applicants to present projects with an innovative focus that transcend the boundaries between different areas of research, aimed at new and emerging research fields and/or including unconventional approaches to health problems.
The Call aims to support basic, clinical and translational research Projects. However, the foundation understands the definition of the type of research is not a simple matter and can be controversial. As such, in order to improve the evaluation (matching of Projects and experts), please take into account the following definitions:
- Basic research provides knowledge to understand nature and its laws. Although it may be performed without thought of practical ends, this knowledge provides the essential means to answer a large number of important practical problems.
- Clinical research is research conducted with human subjects (or on material of human origin such as tissues, specimens and cognitive phenomena) for which the research team (or colleagues) directly interacts with human subjects. It includes clinical trials, epidemiological and behavioral studies, outcomes research and health services research. In vitro studies that utilize human tissues that cannot be linked to a living individual are excluded from this definition.
- Translational research fosters the bidirectional integration of basic research and clinical research, with the long-term aim of improving the health of the public. It accelerates the movement between basic research and clinical research that leads to:
- A robust scientific understanding of human health and disease.
- New or improved scientific understanding or standards of care, better patient outcomes, the implementation of best practices and improved health status in communities.
Funding & Duration Information
Proposals will have a duration of up to 3 years and may be submitted as:
- Individual projects: submitted by a single research organization (Host Organization, HO), requesting up to €500,000.
- Research consortium projects: submitted by at least two and no more than five research organizations and coordinated by the HO. Research consortium projects may request up to €1,000,000.
- Grants may be awarded up to €20,000,000 to support the selected projects. The intention is to distribute this amount approximately equitably among the different thematic areas, but the final distribution will always depend on the quality and specific characteristics of the submitted proposals.
- This amount is subject to final approval by ”la Caixa” Foundation.
Eligibility Criteria
- Host Organizations (HO). Projects submitted may be led by researchers from non-profit research organizations based in Spain or Portugal.
- Project Leader (PL). The principal investigator at the host organization must also be the project leader who submits the proposal and coordinates overall execution of the project.
- Research Performing Organizations (RPO). Any non-profit research organization, localized in any country around world, which carries out activities of the project. In individual projects the RPO is the host organization. In research consortia there must be a minimum of two and a maximum of five RPOs (including the host organization). Research organizations with the same NIF or VAT number will be considered one sole organization.
- Principal Investigators (PI). Each research performing organization must have a principal investigator responsible for performing the activities in the project carried out at their institution.
- Civil Society Organizations (CSO). Both individual projects and research consortia may also include up to three non-profit civil society organizations that are not engaged in research as part of their usual activity (e.g. patients’ associations).
- Companies. Established companies cannot be members of the project team, but may receive funds for subcontracted services.
- The sum of the budgets of all the organizations not located in Spain or Portugal may constitute no more than 30 % of the total project budget.
- Team members. All team members should form part of the host organization (HO), the civil society organizations (CSO) or the research consortia.
For more information, visit https://fundacionlacaixa.org/en/caixaresearch-health-call