Pre-Announcement of a new Call on Personalised Medicine for Neurodegenerative Diseases

Fri, 11/23/2018 - 14:54

The EU Joint Programme – Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) will shortly launch a new cohesive action with the European Commission – a call for “Multinational research projects on Personalised Medicine for Neurodegenerative Diseases Neurodegenerative Diseases”. More than €30 million have already been earmarked by JPND member countries and the European Commission for this action.

The following neurodegenerative diseases are included in the call:

  • Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias
  • Parkinson’s disease and PD‐related disorders
  • Prion diseases
  • Motor neuron diseases
  • Huntington’s disease
  • Spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA)
  • Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA)

This will be a two-step call, expected to be launched in early January 2019, with a likely pre-proposal submission deadline in March 2019. Further details are provided at the programme website.

Please note that all information regarding future JPND call topics is subject to change.

Contact:

On 1 December 2018, the National Science Centre is changing its registered office

Fri, 11/23/2018 - 13:05

Please note that on 1 December 2018, the National Science Centre will change the address of its registered office to ul. Twardowskiego 16, 30-312 Kraków. The remaining contact details, including telephone numbers, will remain unchanged.

Please address any correspondence to be delivered after 1 December to our new address.

The December meetings of the Expert Team will be held at the old address, at ul. Królewska 57 in Krakow. The Expert Team members will receive an email with the exact time and place of their Expert Team meeting.

JPI AMR soon to announce the next Joint Transnational Call 2019 on Diagnostics and Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance

Thu, 11/22/2018 - 15:23

December 2018 will see the launch of the next call for transnational projects supported by the Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance (JPI AMR).

This call will fund joint transnational research projects addressing the development of diagnostic and surveillance tools, technologies and methods to detect antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Projects should address the diagnosis of AMR infections in clinical and veterinary settings, or the surveillance of AMR in humans, animals and the environment. The call promotes projects with impact in low and middle income countries (LMICs) in Asia and Africa.

AMR has become one of the major global health and development challenges of the 21st century. The threat of AMR is particularly high in resource-limited and high-risk settings. This is linked to issues such as weak human and animal health systems; diverse means of food production, processing and consumption; food safety and food security; water, hygiene and sanitation challenges; and the global movement of people and goods.

In response to these challenges, the JPIAMR is pleased to pre-announce this joint transnational call for proposals for innovative research projects on new or improved diagnostic and surveillance strategies, tools, technologies and methods. The call will support research projects that also have the potential for impact in areas where the risk and burden of AMR is greatest, such as in LMIC settings in Asia and Africa. Projects are encouraged to use a One Health approach where relevant.

The projected call budget is approx. 20 million Euro, including 0,5 Euro allocated by he NCN Council to fund Polish research teams participating in the call.

Scope of the call

Projects should aim to either:

  1. Develop strategies, tools, technologies, and methods for the detection, monitoring, profiling and/or surveillance of antimicrobial resistance and dynamics leading to resistance.
  2. Study ways to facilitate and implement the uptake and use of existing strategies, tools, technologies, and/or methods for the detection, monitoring, profiling and surveillance of antimicrobial resistance and dynamics leading to resistance.

Expected Outcomes

It is expected that this JPIAMR call will contribute to the urgent need to curb the burden associated with the most prioritised infections in different geographical settings. This topic area is also suitable to reinforce collaborations involving industry and social sciences. Regional LMIC led collaborations are welcomed. The results of the funded projects should contribute to improved understanding, monitoring and detection of AMR where efforts to curb AMR will have a global impact.

Suggested Focal Areas

  • Establish the validity of new or improved diagnostic tools, technologies and methods.
  • Evaluate how new or improved diagnostics can promote more prudent use of antibiotics (e.g. narrow spectrum antibiotics) in human and veterinary use
  • Rapid diagnostics (essential for optimal antimicrobial selection) and point-of-care techniques, to improve personalised or individual therapies
  • Development of new, or more efficient use and accessibility of already existing, tools, technologies and/or methods to detect AMR in multiple reservoirs, for example human, animal and environmental samples

Projects are encouraged to consider the global use of the tools, technologies and methods, including use in low and lower middle income settings (e.g. lack of laboratory facilities, affordable diagnostic tests, unreliable or unavailable electricity supplies or points-of-care-tests).

The following sub-topics are not within the scope of the call:

  • Investigations based on, or involving, clinical trials.
  • Investigations aiming to improve existing commercial technology or products (more details on this will be in the full call text and annexes)

Participating countries eligibility

  • Full eligibility criteria will be included in the Call launch.
  • Consortia of eligible scientists from participating JPIAMR member countries and eligible countries in Africa and Asia may apply to this call.
  • Applicants must adhere to the specific regulations of their national funding organisations.
  • Consortia must include a minimum of three and a maximum of six project partners from at least three eligible countries.
  • Participating JPIAMR member countries include Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain and Sweden.

The Netherlands and South Africa has the intention of joining the call but no funding is guaranteed yet.

Please note that the list of participating countries is provisional.

Expected timeline

The call has a two-step application process (pre-proposal, full proposal) with the following targeted timetable:

  • December 5 2018 – publication of the JPIAMR 2019 Call,
  • February 15 2019 (17:00 CET) – submission deadline for pre-proposals,
  • Mid April 2019 – full proposal invitations sent to project coordinators,
  • June 14 2019 (17:00 CET) – submission deadline for full proposals,
  • Late September 2019 – final funding decision taken by the funding organisations,
  • Mid October 2019 – final funding decision announced to applicants,
  • End of 2019/Early 2020 – start of funding.

News and updates

Updates to the call, including the participation of funding organisations, will be published on the call page on the JPIAMR website, in a JPIAMR newsletter, and on Twitter and Facebook.


Kontakt:


JPI AMR  has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 681055.

QuantERA Call 2019 is now open

Wed, 11/21/2018 - 14:55

QuantERA Network is pleased to announce that the 2nd  QuantERA Call 2019 for Transnational Research Proposals supporting the topic of quantum technologies is now open.

Thematic scope of the Call:

  • Quantum communication
  • Quantum simulation
  • Quantum computation
  • Quantum information sciences
  • Quantum metrology sensing and imaging

One stage application procedure (joint submission of short and full proposals) will be open for consortia composed of researchers from at least three countries participating in the Call: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom.

Applicants are obliged to comply with the national/regional eligibility criteria defined by each participating funding organization.

The deadline for submitting short and full proposals is February 18th, 2019, 17.00 Central European Time.

Call documents and further details are available on the website: www.quantera.eu.


Contact:

Dr inż. Ewelina Szymańska-Skolimowska, tel. +48 12 341 9155

Sylwia Kostka, tel. +48 12 341 9018

Marlena Wosiak, tel. +48 12 341 9018

QuantERA Call 2019: partner search tool and networking session

Tue, 11/13/2018 - 11:37

QuantERA has secured a dedicated networking space for researchers interested in applying for funding within the QuantERA Call 2019.  QuantERA Call 2019 Partner Search Tool gives applicants the opportunity to express interest either in joining an existing network or to search for new partner(s) in an already established network. To search for potential partners and share your project ideas you have to fill in the registration form.

Save the date December 5th, 2018 to join us for the QuantERA Call 2019 networking session that will be organized within the ICT 2018 Event in Vienna. The event will take place in the Austria Center Vienna (Bruno-Kreisky-Platz 1, 1220, Wien) in Room L8 from 14.30 until 16.00.

The meeting will allow researchers to hear about the upcoming QuantERA 2nd Call and exchange ideas in order to form or strengthen consortia for project proposals. Interested researchers and stakeholders are asked to:

  • register to the ICT 2018 Event (the registration closes on December 2nd);
  • confirm their participation in the QuantERA Call 2019 networking session here.

Contact:

 

NCN Council’s approach to the criteria of employing researchers at the post-doc posts in projects funded by the National Science Centre

Fri, 11/09/2018 - 16:19

One problem of science in Poland is the negligible mobility of the country’s research professionals, resulting in the ossification of Poland’s scientific map. This sets Poland apart from countries where scientific research is carried out at a higher level. A number of international initiatives are aimed at increasing researchers’ mobility, understood as the cornerstone of cooperation in research. Many universities and institutions throughout the world seek to attract young researchers from different countries, thus to boost their research potential through the intake of new research talents. At the same time, it is a standard approach throughout the world, and in in many places indeed a legal requirement that doctors who have newly secured their degree should – in embarking on their career – gather their experience in research projects and research teams from beyond their home university.

The NCN since its inception has set for itself the goal of increasing the mobility of Polish researchers, especially those on the threshold of independence in research. Our grant programmes feature many regulations favourable to mobility. The Council is of the opinion that young researchers’ contact with other environment than the one in which they have gathered their initial research experience is highly valuable and it contributes to their development. The sooner the process of establishing cooperation with other research centres begins, the greater the chance of forming large and diverse research teams in the future: and such teams are the mainstay of today’s science.

The intention of the NCN Council at the time of establishing the category of post-doc type post (previously unknown to the Polish system of employment in research) was to create favourable conditions for research institutions to offer temporary employment to excellent young researchers from outside those institutions as well as from outside Poland. An incentive for beginner-researchers to apply for such a post is, among other things, the attractive remuneration (the funding allotted for remuneration equals PLN 120,000 per annum, which may be increased if justified). The high pay is expected to encourage researchers within 7 years of receiving their doctorate, to apply for post-doc posts in open calls launched by research institutions other than their home ones.

A post-doc type post qualifies by its nature as temporary employment, which allows a young researcher to develop their skills under the supervision of an experienced leader of research team, and as such it prepares them to a future independent career in research. Because temporary, these posts do not replace permanent contracts of employment and should be considered as a type of work performed with a view to implement a specific research project. For that reason the funding allocated for the employment of researchers at post-doc type posts under the NCN calls are sufficiently competitive to induce a decision of moving to another city or to another research centre. It is a duty of the NCN to support the most promising researchers willing to take up the organisational and financial effort at that sensitive yet crucial moment of their career development.

The analysis of the structure of employment at this type of posts in the previous research projects funded by the NCN shows that Polish research institutions continue to be content with employing at post-doc type posts their former doctoral candidates or employees, thus perpetuating the situation of entire research careers being limited to one research centre. By introducing more rigorous terms of employment in the NCN grants, the Council hopes to stimulate the initiative of Polish research institutions and encourage them to hiring young talented researchers from other research centres in Poland and abroad by means of open and widely publicised calls. Throughout the world the requirement of mobility at this type of prestigious and well-paid post-doc type posts has been a standard development, and therefore we hope that in the long run the policy we implement will bring about positive effects in terms of the improved quality and competitiveness of the research carried out in Poland.

The argument prevailing among the opponents to the changes introduced by the NCN Council is that the continuity of research may be severed as a result of the requirement to hire persons who were not associated with the research team by employment relationship for a period of two years preceding the receipt of a grant, and as such have no experience of the research under way. Recognising research teams’ problems with acquiring young researches from outside their home environment, the NCN Council has decided to modify the moot criterion in the employment of researchers at a post-doc type of post. Therefore, the current version of the regulation reads:

Person at a post-doc type post may be paid salary from the pool allocated for full-time salaries pursuant to a full-time contract of employment at a research post as long as they meet all of the following conditions:

  1. have been selected by means of open competition procedure, carried out by three-person recruitment committee appointed by the head of the project’s host institution, composed of the project’s principal investigator as its chair and at least two other persons selected by him/her, who have necessary scientific or professional qualifications. The assessment of the candidates is carried out pursuant to the criteria outlined in the call announcement and the results are made public by posting on the webpage of the project’s host institution;
  2. the principal investigator in the project has not been research supervisor/auxiliary research supervisor of their doctorate;
  3. within two years preceding employment in the project they have not been employed on the basis of a contract of employment at the host institution of the research project; 
  4. at the time of receiving this remuneration, they are not receiving any other remuneration paid from the resources granted under NCN calls under the heading of direct costs; 
  5.  in the period of receiving the salary they are not employed pursuant to another contract of employment ;
  6. the sum of resources for their employment amounts to PLN 120,000 per annum. If justified by circumstances presented in the proposal, a larger amount for remuneration may be requested. The Expert Team evaluates the legitimacy of increasing the remuneration amount.

It is permitted to employ at the post-doc type post in the project, remuneration from the pool allocated for full-time salaries, one person who does not meet the criterion set forth in point b).

For applications for re-employment at a post-doc type post at the same entity the term laid down in point c) does not apply. One may apply for re-employment at a post-doc type post at the same entity only once.

The above position has been adopted pursuant to the NCN Council Resolution No 102/2018 of 8 November 2018.

JPI AMR soon to announce the next call for international research projects on antibiotic resistance

Fri, 11/02/2018 - 09:56

December 2018 will see the launch of the next call for transnational projects supported by the Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance (JPI AMR).

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become one of the major global health and development challenges of the 21st century. The threat of AMR is particularly high in resource-limited and high-risk settings. This is linked to weak human and animal health systems; diverse means of food production, processing and consumption; food safety and food security; water, hygiene and sanitation challenges; and the global movement of people and goods.

In response to these challenges, the JPI AMR will launch a joint transnational call for proposals for innovative research projects on new or improved diagnostics and surveillance strategies, tools, technologies and methods. These research projects should address diagnosis of AMR infections in clinical and veterinary settings, or the emergence, surveillance, and/or detection of AMR in humans, animals and the environment. This Call will support research projects that also have the potential for impact in areas where the risk and burden of AMR is greatest, e.g. in LMIC settings in Asia and Africa.

Projects are encouraged to use a One Health approach where relevant. The projected call budget is approx. 20 million Euro.

The call involves a two stage procedure: the deadline for submission of pre-proposal is February 2019, full proposals should be submitted in June 2019.

For more information about the call see JPI AMR https://www.jpiamr.eu/coming-soon-call-for-diagnostics-and-surveillance-africa-and-asia/

Polish research teams participating in the call will be funded by the National Science Centre (NCN), which allocated  € 0,5 M for the call.


Contact:

dr Jerzy Frączek, tel. +48 12 341 9165; e-mail: jerzy.fraczek@ncn.gov.pl

Jolanta Palowska tel. +48 12 341 9139; e-mail: jolanta.palowska@ncn.gov.pl

Ireviken event in the Polish Lowland

Principal Investigator :
Dr Justyna Smolarek-Łach
University of Silesia in Katowice

Panel: ST10

Funding scheme : PRELUDIUM 7
announced on 17 March 2014

The main purpose of the project was to reconstruct the conditions of rocks sedimentation (deposition) in the Lower Silurian (433-430 million years ago) in order to determine the causes of what is known as the Ireviken extinction, during which mainly deep-sea organisms, such as graptolites, conodonts, and trilobites became extinct. The causes are still widely debated in the scientific community. Funded within the framework of PRELUDIUM 7, the research project aimed to reconstruct the water column oxygenation levels that obtained before, during and after the Ireviken event. Its innovative character resided in the application of state-of-the-art methods of organic and inorganic geochemistry, such as gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS), total organic carbon concentration (TOC%) and measurements of microscopic framboidal pyrite diameters and trace elements content.

Three models of sedimentation conditions before – A, during – B and after – C the Ireviken eventThree models of sedimentation conditions before – A, during – B and after – C the Ireviken event The results obtained with the above methods served as a basis for developing a conceptual model of the sedimentation environment before, during and after the Ireviken extinction (Fig. 1). The period leading up to the event was characterized by an absence of framboidal pyrites, low concentrations of trace elements (such as molybdenum) and low TOC%, which suggests stable oxygen conditions in the water column (Fig.1A). In contrast, fluctuations in the diameter of framboidal pyrites, trace elements concentrations and TOC% pointed to rapid changes in oxygenation and strong chemistry gradients in the water column (chemoclines) during the Ireviken event. These changes were likely to contribute to the extinction of Silurian organisms (Fig.1B). In the aftermath of the event, large quantities of small framboidal pyrites typical of anoxic environments appeared and TOC% increased; trace elements concentrations were not significantly elevated, which suggests that the seabed was occasionally ventilated, probably in connection with upwellings (sea currents that push cold deep sea water toward the ocean surface) (Fig.1C).

A detailed geochemical analysis of the sedimentation conditions of the Ireviken event allowed us to confirm its similarity to the earlier great Ordovician-Silurian extinction. Based on the identification of biomarkers characteristic for green sulphur bacteria, the project was also able to document the presence of an anoxic photic zone (layer of the water column that is accessible to sunlight) in the Lowest Silurian. This discovery helped to connect the Ireviken extinction to other biotic crises of the Phanerozoic (Ordovician, Devonian, Permian and Triassic). The project findings shed new light on the structure of the water column and the possible causes and consequences not only of the Ireviken event, but also the Ordovician-Silurian extinction. The aims of the project were accomplished and its results were published in prestigious JCR-listed journals and presented at international academic conferences.

Project title: Depositional conditions of the Ireviken event from the Polish Lowland – the comprehensive geochemical characteristics

Dr Justyna Smolarek-Łach

Kierownik - dodatkowe informacje

Having graduated in geology from the Faculty of Earth Science of the University of Silesia in Katowice, she earned her PhD in 2017. She has authored numerous publications in journals such as Global and Planetary Changes, Organic Geochemistry and Geological Magazine. She won first prize in a competition for the best doctoral dissertation in mineralogical sciences organized by the Mineralogical Society of Poland (2017) and the scholarship for the best PhD student at the Faculty of Earth Sciences of the University of Silesia. Her research interests include organic geochemistry, sedimentology and paleoenvironmental reconstruction.

Dr Justyna Smolarek-Łach

Success of Polish researchers in the CHIST-ERA Call 2017

Mon, 10/29/2018 - 13:52

We are pleased to announce that two projects involving researchers from Poland have been awarded funding within the CHIST-ERA Call 2017. Within this funding opportunity over EUR 12 million have been granted to 14 research projects in the following topics:

  • Object recognition and manipulation by robots: Data sharing and experiment reproducibility
  • Big data and process modelling for smart industry

Polish researchers will be involved in the following 2 of 14 awarded projects:

  • PACMEL: Process-aware Analytics Support based on Conceptual Models for Event Logs, which will be coordinated by dr hab. inż. Grzegorz Jacek Nalepa (the leader of the international consortium) from the AGH University of Science and Technology. The project will involve research teams from Poland, Spain and Italy.
  • BIG-SMART-LOG: The Use of Big Data Analytics for Process Modelling in Smart Logistics Operations, which will involve a Polish research team led by dr Paweł Karczmarek from the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin in cooperation with partners from Greece, Romania and Turkey.

Complete list of the CHIST-ERA Call 2017 projects recommended for funding

We would also like to take this opportunity to invite all researchers to participate in the new CHIST-ERA Call 2018 targeting the following topics:

  • Analog Computing for Artificial Intelligence
  • Smart Distribution of Computing in Dynamic Networks

Deadline for submitting applications is scheduled for January 15th, 2019.

More information about the CHIST-ERA Call 2018.

Contact: