European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases (EJP RD) Call for Proposals 2020

« PRE-CLINICAL RESEARCH TO DEVELOP EFFECTIVE THERAPIES FOR RARE DISEASES”

The ERA-Net E-Rare has successfully implemented ten Joint Transnational Calls for rare disease research projects since 2006. This effort continues in the framework of the European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases (EJP RD) that has been established to further help in coordinating the research efforts of European, Associated and non-European countries in the field of rare diseases and implement the objectives of the International Rare Disease Research Consortium (IRDiRC).

A number of national and regional funding organizations will participate in the EJP RD Joint Transnational Call (JTC) 2020 and will fund multilateral research projects on rare diseases together with the European Commission (EC) under the EJP-COFUND action.

The call opens simultaneously with the involvement of the following funding organizations in their respective countries/regions:

  • Austrian Science Fund (FWF), Austria
  • Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), Belgium, Flanders
  • Fund for Scientific Research – FNRS (F.R.S.-FNRS), Belgium, French-speaking community
  • Canadian Institutes of Health Research – Institute of Genetics (CIHR-IG), Canada:
    – The Ataxia Charlevoix-Saguenay Foundation (ARSACS), Canada in partnership with CIHR-IG
    – Muscular Dystrophy Canada (MDC), Canada in partnership with CIHR-IG
  • Fonds de recherche du Québec-Santé (FRQS), Québec (Canada)
  • Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS), Czech Republic
  • Academy of Finland (AKA), Finland
  • French National Research Agency (ANR), France
  • French Foundation for Rare Diseases (FFRD), France
  • INSERM, France (Patient Advocacy Organisations)
  • Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany
  • Decision Pending*: German Research Foundation (DFG), Germany
  • General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT), Greece
  • National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH), Hungary
  • Health Research Board, (HRB), Ireland
  • Chief Scientist Office of the Ministry of Health (CSO-MOH), Israel
  • Italian Ministry of Health (MoH-IT), Italy
  • Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR), Italy
  • Fondazione Regionale per la Ricerca Biomedica (FRRB) Lombardy, Italy
  • Tuscany Region (RT/TuscReg), Tuscany (Italy)
  • Research Council of Lithuania (RCL), Lithuania
  • National Research Fund (FNR), Luxembourg
  • National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR), Poland
  • The Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), Portugal
  • Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS), Slovakia
  • National Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII), Spain
  • Swedish Research Council (SRC), Sweden
  • Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), Switzerland
  • Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw), The Netherlands
  • The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), Turkey

* The signature of the Memorandum of Understanding is still in process.

AIM OF THE CALL

The aim of the call is to enable scientists in different countries to build an effective collaboration on a common interdisciplinary research project based on complementarities and sharing of expertise, with a clear future benefit for patients.

TOPIC

PRE-CLINICAL RESEARCH TO DEVELOP EFFECTIVE THERAPIES FOR RARE DISEASES

Research proposals must cover at least one of the following areas:

  1. Development of novel therapies in a preclinical setting (including small molecules, repurposing drugs, cell and gene advanced therapies) focusing on condition(s) with unmet medical needs
  2. Use of disease models suitable for medicinal product’s development according to EMA guidelines
  3. Development of predictive and pharmacodynamics (PD) biomarkers (with appropriate analytical methods e.g. OMICS) in a preclinical setting (e.g. in the validated model or in pre-collected human samples) for monitoring the efficiency of the therapy. The model chosen must mimic the human diseases and be transposable so that the biomarker identified in animals can be valid for humans
  4. Proof of principle studies fostering an early (pre-clinical) stage of drug development (excluding interventional clinical trials of phase 1-4).

The following approaches and topics are excluded from the scope of the call:

  1. Therapeutic approaches concerning rare infectious diseases, rare cancers and rare adverse drug events in treatments of common diseases
  2. Interventional clinical trials
  3. Surgery or radiation therapies
  4. Studies that focus on research to accelerate diagnosis or to set up new registry/cohort studies to explore disease progression and mechanisms as these were the focus of JTC 2019.
  5. Rare neurodegenerative diseases which are within the main focus of the Joint Programming Initiative on Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND). These are: Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias; Parkinson’s disease (PD) and PD-related disorders; Prion disease; Motor Neuron Diseases; Huntington’s disease; Spinal Muscular Atrophy and dominant forms of Spinocerebellar Ataxia.  Interested researchers should refer to the relevant JPND calls.       
    Childhood dementias/neurodegenerative diseases are not excluded.

CONSORTIUM MAKEUP

Projects shall involve a group of rare diseases or a single rare disease following the European definition i.e. a disease affecting not more than five in 10.000 persons in the European Community, EC associated states and Canada. Applicants are encouraged to assemble groups of rare diseases based on solid criteria and commonalities if this leverages added value in sharing resources or expertise and has the capacity to elucidate common disease mechanisms and therapeutic targets.

Partners belonging to one of the following categories may request funding under a joint research proposal (according to country/regional regulations):

  • academia (research teams working in universities, other higher education institutions or research institutes)
  • clinical/public health sector (research teams working in hospitals/public health and/or other health care settings and health organisations)
  • enterprises (all sizes of private companies). Participation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is encouraged when allowed by national/regional regulations
  • patient advocacy organisations (PAOs are eligible to obtain funding for their participation in research projects)

The maximum duration of the project is three years.

Only transnational projects will be funded. Each consortium submitting a proposal must involve four to six eligible principal investigator partners. No more than two eligible partners from the same country can be present in each consortium (further national limits may apply). This limit applies to Early Career Researchers and partners from underrepresented countries (see below). PAOs requesting funding do not count toward this total.

The number of partners can be increased to 8 in two cases:

  • The inclusion of partners from participating countries usually underrepresented in projects (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, and Turkey).
  • The inclusion of Early Career Researchers as full partners.

PRELIMINARY TIMETABLE

There will be a two-stage submission procedure for joint applications: pre-proposals and full proposals.

Registration deadline : 18th February 2020 at 14:00 CET.

Pre-proposal submission deadline: 18th February 2020.

Invitation to full proposal: end April 2020.

Full proposal submission deadline: 16th June 2020.

Deadline for rebuttals: 28th July 2020.

Notification of funding decision: November 2020.

An independent international Scientific Evaluation Committee will carry out a scientific evaluation according to specific evaluation criteria. Based on this central evaluation, selected consortia will be invited to submit a full proposal by late April 2020 (deadline for full proposals: June 16th , 2020).

CONTACTS

For general questions regarding the joint call please contact the  Joint Call Secretariat at the ANR, France:

E-Mail:

EJPRDcall(at)anr.fr

or individually:

Florence
Guillot

florence.guillot(at)agencerecherche.fr

+33
(0) 1 78 09 80
01

Kiri Couchman

kiri.couchman(at)agencerecherche.fr

+33 (0) 1 78 09 81 29

For questions regarding national eligibility criteria and requirements please contact the national contact person listed in the EJP RD JTC 2020 PDF document.

NATIONAL CONTACT POINTS

Country/
Region
Funding OrganisationContact Details
Austria Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
www.fwf.ac.at		Stephanie Resch
Phone: +43 (1) 505 67 40 82 01 mailto:stephanie.resch(at)fwf.ac.at

Anita Stürtz
Phone: +43 (1) 505 67 40 82 06
mailto:anita.stuertz(at)fwf.ac.at
Belgium: Flanders Research Foundation Flanders (FWO)
www.fwo.be 		Alain Deleener
Phone: +32 2 550 15 95
mailto:eranet(at)fwo.be

Toon Monbaliu
Phone: +32 2 550 15 70
mailto:eranet(at)fwo.be
Belgium: French-speaking communityFund for Scientific Research - FNRS (F.R.S.-FNRS)
www.frs-fnrs.be/		Florence Quist
Phone: +32 2 504 93 51
mailto:florence.quist(at)frs-fnrs.be

Joël Groeneveld
Phone: +32 2 504 92 70
mailto:joel.groeneveld(at)frs-fnrs.be
CanadaCanadian Institutes of Health Research – Institute of Genetics (CIHR-IG) www.cihr-irsc.gc.caJennifer Vineham
Phone: +1 613 941 07 96
mailto:jennifer.vineham(at)cihr-irsc.gc.ca
Canada: Québec Fonds de recherche du Québec-Santé (FRQS) www.frqs.gouv.qc.caMaxime Beaudoin
Phone: +1 514 873 21 14, ext 1369
mailto:maxime.beaudoin(at)frq.gouv.qc.ca
Czech Republic Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS)
www.msmt.cz		Judita Klosaková (MSMT)
Phone: +420 234 811 504
mailto:judita.klosakova(at)msmt.cz
FinlandAcademy of Finland (AKA) www.aka.fi Heikki Vilen
Phone: +358 29 53 35 135
mailto:heikki.vilen(at)aka.fi
FranceFrench National Research Agency (ANR)
https://anr.fr/en/		Florence Guillot
Phone: + 33 (0) 1 78 09 80 01

Kiri Couchman
Phone: + 33 (0) 1 78 09 81 29

mailto:EJPRDcall(at)anr.fr
FranceFrench Foundation for Rare Diseases (FFRD)
https://fondation-maladiesrares.org/eng/		Ingrid Zwaenepoel
Phone : + 33 (0) 1 58 14 22 85
Diana Désir-Parseille
Phone : + 33 (0) 1 58 14 22 81
mailto:aap-bio(at)fondation-maladiesrares.com
GermanyFederal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) / Project Management Agency of the German Aerospace Centre (BMBF/ PT-DLR)
https://www.gesundheitsforschung-bmbf.de/en/index.php		Dr. Katarzyna Saedler
Phone: +49 (0) 228 3821 19 47
mailto:Katarzyna.Saedler(at)dlr.de

Dr. Michaela Fersch
Phone: +49 (0) 228 3821 12 68
mailto:Michaela.Fersch(at)dlr.de

Dr. Ralph Schuster
Phone: +49 (0) 228 3821 12 33
mailto:Ralph.Schuster(at)dlr.de
GermanyGerman Research Foundation (DFG) www.dfg.deDr. Katja Großmann
Phone: +49 (0) 228 885 25 65
Fax: +49 (0) 228 885 27 77 mailto:katja.grossmann(at)dfg.de
GreeceGeneral Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT)
www.gsrt.gr 		Sofia DIMITROPOULOU
Phone: +30 213 130 01 87
mailto:s.dimitropoulou(at)gsrt.gr
Hungary National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH)
www.nkfih.gov.hu		Előd Nemerkényi
Phone: +36 1 896 39 87
mailto:elod.nemerkenyi(at)nkfih.gov.hu

Gábor Tóth
Phone: +36 1 896 17 27
mailto:gabor.toth(at)nkfih.gov.hu
IrelandHealth Research Board (HRB)
https://www.hrb.ie/		Louise Drudy
mailto:ldrudy(at)hrb.ie
IsraelChief Scientist Office of the Ministry of Health (CSO-MOH)
www.health.gov.il		Irit Allon
Phone: +972 2 508 21 67
mailto:Irit.allon(at)moh.health.gov.il
ItalyItalian Ministry of Health (MoH-IT)
www.salute.gov.it		Dr. Gaetano Guglielmi
Phone : + 39 06 59 94 21 97
mailto:g.guglielmi(at)sanita.it
mailto:research.EU.dgric(at)sanita.it

Dr. Monica Paganelli
Phone : +39 06 599 42 408
mailto:m.paganelli(at)sanita.it
ItalyMinistry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR)
http://www.ricercainternazionale.miur.it/		Aldo Covello
Phone: +39 06 977 264 65
mailto:aldo.covello(at)miur.it

Maria Bianco
Phone: +39 06 977 27 146
mailto:maria.bianco(at)miur.it
Italy:
Lombardy		Fondazione Regionale per la Ricerca Biomedica (FRRB)
www.frrb.it		Paola Bello
Carmen De Francesco
Dr. Paola Larghi, PhD
mailto:bandi(at)frrb.it
Italy:
Tuscany		Tuscany Region (RT/TuscReg)
www.regione.toscana.it		Donatella Tanini
Phone:+39 055 438 32 56

Teresa Vieri
Phone:+39 055 4383289

mailto:ejprare(at)regione.toscana.it
LithuaniaResearch Council of Lithuania (RCL)
www.lmt.lt		Dr. Živilé Ruželé
Phone: +370 676 143 83
mailto:zivile.ruzele(at)lmt.lt
LuxembourgNational Research Fund (FNR)
www.fnr.lu		Dr. Sean Sapcariu
Phone: +352 261 925 33
mailto:sean.sapcariu(at)fnr.lu
PolandNational Centre for Research and Development (NCBR)
www.ncbr.gov.pl/en/		Marcin Chmielewski
Phone: +48 22 39 07 109
mailto:marcin.chmielewski(at)ncbr.gov.pl
PortugalThe Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)
https://www.fct.pt/index.phtml.en		Anabela Isidro
Phone: +351 213 911 552 mailto:anabela.isidro(at)fct.pt

Rita Cavaleiro
Phone: +351 213 911 541
mailto:rita.cavaleiro(at)fct.pt
SlovakiaSlovak Academy of Sciences (SAS)
https://www.sav.sk/?&lang_change=en		Zuzana Cernakova, PhD.
Phone: +42 125 75 10 118
mailto:cernakova(at)up.upsav.sk
Spain National Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII)
www.isciii.es		María Druet
Phone: +34 91 82 225 30
E-mail: mdruet(at)isciii.es
SwedenSwedish Research Council (SRC)
www.vr.se		Sverker Lundin
Phone: +46 (0) 8 546 12 315
E-mail : sverker.lundin(at)vr.se
SwitzerlandSwiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
www.snf.ch		Christoph Meier
Phone: +41 31 308 23 62
mailto:christoph.meier(at)snf.ch
The Netherlands Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw)
www.zonmw.nl		Harald Moonen
Phone: +31 (0)70 349 53 49
mailto:moonen(at)zonmw.nl

Sonja van Weely
mailto:weely(at)zonmw.nl
TurkeyThe Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) www.tubitak.gov.trJale Sahin
Phone: +90 312 298 17 96
mailto:jale.sahin(at)tubitak.gov.tr
Multinational, for funding of PAO The French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM)
www.inserm.fr		Coordination EJP RD
mailto:pao(at)ejprarediseases.org

ADDITIONAL INFO

DOCUMENTS

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F.A.Q.