Scientists from Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic will conduct a joint Life Sciences project. The Polish team will receive nearly PLN 900,000 in funding. We are pleased to present the 7th ranking list of the Weave-UNISONO call (2022).
Funding was awarded to a project entitled "Targeting a unique mRNA decapping enzyme for trypanosomatid infectious disease drug discovery, chemical biology and biotechnology applications". The Polish PI is Dr Maria Górna from the Biological and Chemical Research Center of the University of Warsaw, who will work in partnership with Dr Susanne Kramer from Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg in Germany and Dr Martin Zoltner from the Charles University in Prague (Biocev, Czech Republic Center for Research of Pathogenicity and Virulence of Parasites).
Trypanosomes are unicellular parasites that cause infectious tropical diseases and pose an important threat, especially to people living in rural areas with high poverty rates. The vast majority of currently used treatments have serious limitations, such as adverse toxicity or emerging resistance; moreover, their mode of action is often not well understood, which means they cannot be improved or adapted when necessary. Scientists from Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic will work together to explore new possibilities of target-based drug design, focusing their attention on ALPH1, an mRNA decapping enzyme found in trypanosomes.
The project was selected following an evaluation by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft in its capacity as the lead agency under the Weave program. The National Science Centre and the Czech Science Foundation (GACR) accepted the results and awarded grants to the Polish and Czech partner teams.
Weave-UNISONO
The Weave-UNISONO call is the result of multilateral cooperation between research-funding agencies that make up the Science Europe association. It aims to simplify submission and selection procedures for research proposals that bring together researchers from two or three different European countries in any academic discipline.
The selection process is based on the Lead Agency Procedure (LAP), under which only one partner institution is responsible for merit-based evaluation and the others simply accept the result.
Under Weave, partner research teams apply in parallel to the lead agency and their relevant domestic institutions. Their joint proposal must include coherent research plans and clearly spell out the added value of international cooperation.
The Weave-UNISONO call accepts proposals on a rolling basis. Polish teams wishing to partner up with colleagues from Austria, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium-Flanders are encouraged to carefully read the call text and submit their funding proposals.