In the year 2018, Dutch Brain Tumor Foundation / Hersentumorfonds will be funding and/or co-funding one or more research projects in the field of brain cancer related Immunology.

Dutch Brain Tumor Foundation grant program will open on February 12, 2018. From that date researchers – PI’s and Postdocs - in both Immunology and Neuro-oncology are invited to send in their applications - first in pre-proposal form. Deadline for pre-proposals is april 7, 2018.

Dutch Brain Tumor Foundation is a relatively new player in the landscape of brain cancer research funding. For 2018, about 95% of its budget of over € 295.000,= was brought together by the hundreds of people dedicated to  the Ventoux3 foundation: a successful yearly cycling event that aims to raise a part of the indispensable extra money for primary brain cancer research.

Call for proposals

This 2018 call is based on Hersentumorfonds / Dutch Brain Tumor Foundation‘s main goal (mission and vision): ‘to spend the available funding by focussing on one subject in particular:  the (future) role of immunotherapy within the treatment of glioma patients.
This has led to the following:
“Immunotherapy has gained an enormous momentum in the past decade, and has drastically altered the treatment of many solid cancers. To date, the promise of immunotherapy has not materialized for glioma. Promising immune-based clinical approaches unfortunately failed to improve patient outcome. The key question is ‘How to make immunotherapy successful in glioma?’. To answer this question, it is of utmost importance to get better insight in the immunological landscape in glioblastoma tumors/patients. Therefore the aim of the Dutch Brain Tumor Foundation is to grant project applications that

  • UNDERSTAND  THE IMMUNE STATE: focus on a better understanding of the immune state of glioma, or
  • UNDERSTAND THE CLINICAL TRIAL OUTCOME: lead to a better understanding of already performed immune-based clinical trials in glioblastoma patients, or
  • DEVELOP: develop an alternative strategy based on a better understanding of the immune state of glioblastoma.

H
ersentumorfonds / Dutch Brain Tumor Foundation Grants 2018
Procedure

Goals:

  • To invite skilled and enthusiastic researchers in the field of brain cancer and/or immuno-oncology to apply for a research grant
  • To attract proposals from excellent talents with ground breaking ideas that help improve research results in the combined field.

Guidelines:

  • To provide optimal research opportunities, candidates are either Principal Investigator or Postdoc.
  • Their current project should fit and strengthen the applicant’s research theme(s).
  • Applicants (PI’s or Postdocs) have an appointment of at least 0,5 FTE during the entire project. Part of their proposal can be the appointment of one or more PhD’s to take part in and benefit the project.
  • One project only is allowed per applicant (PI or Postdoc)
  • 2 types of grants are available for 2018, adding up to an amount of € 270.000,= this year.
    • <  € 50.000,= grant. Estimated funding period: up to 2 years max
    • >  € 50.00,= to 200.000,= grant. Estimated funding period: 2 – 4 years
  • Applicant should have full support from his/her institute to execute the project.
  • The selected candidates are supposed to start their research in this calendar year, preferably in September, 2018.


Selection procedure:

  • The Dutch Brain Tumor Foundation will advertise the call for proposals on their own website www.hersentumorfonds.nl, and on websites of partner organisations, like www.hersentumor.nl.
  • An invitation-letter will be sent to Dutch and Belgian Academic Medical Centres, Departments of Communication.
  • After it has been forwarded to the specific research areas, those interested are invited to write a pre-proposal.
  • Pre-proposals must be submitted in the correct format, containing details of applicant, CV, embedding, title of research idea and a summary of the research idea in max 300 words plus 5 key terms. Only pre-proposals sent in using the supplied official form are accepted.
  • The selection committee ranks the projects on scores for Project description, Originality and innovation-strength, Research work plan, Quality of researcher, Presentation and Argumentation.
  • The selection committee decides which projects are selected. Whether this selection will contain either one large or a few smaller grants, depends on the quality (promise) of the applications only.
  • Those selected are invited to write a full research proposal, based on the pre-proposal.


Schedule for the selection procedure in 2018:

  • February 12, 2018: Call for pre-proposals.
  • April 7, 2018: Deadline for pre-proposals
  • April 30, 2018: Decision by selection committee. Announcement of Projects selected to be elaborated into a full proposal
  • June 25, 2018: Deadline for full proposals
  • August 27, 2018: Interviews: One and only opportunity. Presentation of selected projects before the selection committee.
  • September, 2018: Final decision by the selection committee, communicated to all applicants.

 

Appendix 1

Pre-Proposal application form 2018


Main Investigator/
Applicant

Met ‘Main investigator/applicant ’ wordt bedoeld diegene de wetenschappelijke  verantwoordelijkheid voor het project draagt.

Name, title

 

Institution, department

 

Adress

 

Phone/Fax

 

E-Mail

 

Short CV, relevant work experience, max 5 relevant publications

 

Co-applicants/
Collaborators

Kan herhaald worden, indien meer co-applicants/collaborators

Name, title

 

Institution, department

 

Adress

 

Phone/Fax

 

E-Mail

 

Short CV, relevant work experience,  max 5 relevant publications

 

Title of the grant proposal

Hier zo kort mogelijk (een) specifieke titel

Category

Category I € < 50.000              Category II  € 50 .000- 200.000

Tekst voor donateur (NL)

Titel project (in lekentaal, aantrekkelijk en bondig)
Wat houdt het onderzoek in (in lekentaal)
Wat kan de bijdrage van een donateur betekenen (het ‘waarom’ en spin-off) en wat kan de donateur verwachten
max 300 woorden

 

 

Summary of the grant proposal + Keywords

Hier een korte en duidelijke samenvatting van het project; max 300 woorden, en  max 5 keywords       

Objectives  & Approach

Onderbouwing projectaanvraag; problem description en het belang;
Categorie I: max 300  woorden
Categorie II: max 700 woorden

Feasibility

Omschrijving van de haalbaarheid, maar ook de inbedding bij het instituut en experitse van de onderzoeksgroep (max 300 woorden)

Budget proposal

Hier graag het totale bedrag noemen waarvoor:

  • financiering wordt aangevraagd;
  • elders financiering is/wordt verkregen.

Personnel requested

Materials costs

Equipment(s)

Sevices

Signatures

Name, Initials, Date, Signature

Main Investigator/
Applicant

 

Co-applicant(s)/
Collaborator(s)

 

Intended supervisor

 

Intended Head of the department