Call for grants for Basic Science-Oriented Biotechnology Research (pdf)
Applications are invited for up to five (5) research grants of 500 tkr/year for a period of two years (2020--2021) to be used for employment of doctoral students or post-docs within the field of "molecular-oriented basic research necessary for the development of biotechnology".
The grant shall be used to support biological and chemical research within biochemistry, eukaryotic and prokaryotic cell and molecular biology, immunology and microbiology. The applications will be peer-reviewed using the criteria of the Swedish Research Council (VR) for scientific quality and grants will be allocated on basis of this review. Decision regarding the allocations will be made by the Strategic Board for Research during spring 2020.
The application should be written in English (since the reviewers may be English speaking); must be signed by the applicant and the head of department.
The head of department will certify that the application has undergone an internal peer-review process at the department and will also describe the internal peer-review process. In the next call, an attestation regarding ongoing research funding from a governmental funding body, or regarding a filed application for such funding, will be required (2020, concerning the years 2021-2022.)
The applicant must be employed at the Faculty of Medicine, Umeå University, and his/her work should be placed at a department within Umeå University; and who has not obtained financial support of 500 tkr or more from the faculty/UmU during 2019. Example of support can be funding from the faculty/UmU, this includes all co-funding and support for salaries, resources and/or indirect support, for example support for KAW Fellows/Projects/Scholars and WCMM fellows. Other examples of financial support are co-funding of doctoral students, start-up grants, funding linked to promotion or recruitment and funding granted for research when employed as professor.
Note that each researcher can expect only ONE grant for doctoral student or post-doc salaries. Consequently, researchers with more than one research project can apply for one grant only. Only one project leader can apply, it is not allowed for teams of co-workers to apply for these grants. There must be a lapse of at least one year before a new application is made, i.e. applicants who received a Biotechnology grant during the period Jan 2018 - Dec 2019 are not eligible to apply at this time. In addition, grants will not be allocated to applicants who have not consumed previous Biotechnology grants. Researchers that have previously been granted financing from the Strategic grant by the Faculty of Medicine are not eligible to apply to this call.
Please attach a copy from Raindance to show how previous grants have been used.
The application should include the following:
I. A cover letter signed by the applicant including information about the affiliation i.e. department at UmU and position of the applicant, the title of the project, and statement of what a grant will be used for (doctoral student or postdoc). The application should be approved and signed by the head of the applicant's department.
II. Research program, max. six (6) A4 pages (font 12) including references, where only the most relevant references are included.
The research program should be presented as follows:
i) Specific aim. Concise. One or two sentences (maximum).
ii) Background. Short introduction to the research area. Only facts relevant to the research program should be described.
iii) Earlier results. Summary of own and other relevant results. Preliminary results can be presented here either in the form of data presented in Tables/Figures or by reference to preliminary manuscripts.
iv) Work plan. Clear description of planned work, including hypotheses and methods.
v) Significance and scientific novelty. Briefly describe how this project links to previous research within the field and its short and long term significance. Also describe how the project renews the current frontline for this research.
III. Motivation: A separate work plan for how to use the grant. This short report (not more than one half A4 page) should include:
*The project area in which the grant shall be used and a clear motivation that explains why the funding from this call is needed for the project.
IV. Short CV not exceeding one A4 page.
Va. Source and amount of other research grants received by the applicant.
A budget plan should be enclosed specifying your budget for the present financial year as well as for the forthcoming financial year. The composition and funding of the research group (group leader, postdoc, students, and technical staff) should be explained.
Vb. Applicants who have already received a grant from the Biotechnology Fund should present a report on how the latest grant was used.
VIa. List of the 10 most relevant publications
In the list of these publications a description of your contribution to this publication and its relevance for the current project (no more than four rows per publication).
Mark your name in bold in the list of authors.
VIb The list should be written with font size 12 and be laid out as follows:
• Original publications (published in international peer-review journals).
All co-authors should be included and the applicant's name should be marked in bold. Also, include the complete title, year of publication, volume, pages and when applicable doi. Include the Impact Factor of the year that the paper was published.
Example: Andersson A, Bertilsson B, Carlsson C, and Davidsson D (2017)
Insights into medical research (titel). J Med Res (tidskriftens förkortade namn),
100 (volym), 1001-1009 (sidor) (alt e20171005) IF= 6.8
• Reviews/symposium/book contributions
VII. 3 different manuscripts can be included digitally (if they are related to the project for the application).
VIII A scanned report from Raindance as of 31st of December, 2019, which states the remaining amount of all previous grants to the applicant for basic science-oriented biotechnology research
The project leader will be responsible for positions granted for the project. Applications can be made for a grant for postdoc or doctoral student positions without proposing a candidate by name.
The application should be sent as one complete pdf-file to medel@diarie.umu.se, no later than 2020-01-17.
Label the email as: BIOTEKNIK_your name – FS 2.1.6-1776-19