Call for grants for Basic Science-Oriented Biotechnology Research (pdf)
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 2021.
General information
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. Eligible to apply
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 2020. 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. A researcher who currently holds a Strategic research grant from the Faculty of Medicine is not eligible to apply for a grant in this call.
New information for this year's call
In accordance with information in last year's call, an attestation regarding ongoing research funding from a governmental funding body (VR, FORTE, FORMAS, VINNOVA) or an attestation regarding a filed application for such funding, will be required for an application for Bio-technology grant. Include a copy of a page proving an approved grant or a copy of the receipt of a filed application (only applications filed as main applicant).
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 2019 - Dec 2020 are not eligible to apply at this time. In addition, grants will not be allocated to applicants who have not consumed previous Biotechnology grants.
Please attach an excerpt from Raindance to show how previous grants have been used.
The application should include the following attachments and be sent in as one coherent pdf-file:
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 where the connection to "molecular-oriented basic research necessary for the development of biotechnology" is clearly described.
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. Motivate in what way a grant from the faculty's call biotechnology funds would complement any current funding in the project. The justification must not exceed half an A4 page.
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.
VI Publications
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 List of publications for 2013-2020
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. Up to 3 different manuscripts can be included (if they are related to the project for the application).
VIII An excerpt from Raindance as of 31st of December, 2020, which states the remaining amount of all previous grants to the applicant for basic science-oriented biotechnology research.
IX A copy of a page proving an ongoing/approved grant from a governmental funding body (VR, FORTE, FORMAS, VINNOVA) or a copy of the receipt of a filed application to one such body during 2020 (only considering applications filed as main applicant).
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 2021-01-28.
Label the email as: BIOTEKNIK_your name – FS 2.1.6-2026-20.