Brains - programme Ireland, the Netherlands and UK: Rapid Response

The Hersenstichting Nederland has published the programme Rapid Response: Ireland, Netherlands, UK 2018 from the Weston Brain Institute. Deadline for submitting Letters of Intent is April 23, 2018. Goal of this call is to provide seed funding, without requirement for preliminary data, to support high-risk, high-reward, translational research on novel biomarkers detected in patient-derived fluids. The budget available is £ 540,000. Funding is up to £ 180,000. The duration is up to 18 months.

Principal Applicants must be at or above the level of Postdoctoral Researcher and at eligible institutions located in Ireland, the Netherlands, or the UK

Neurodegenerative diseases of ageing are among the most undertreated diseases today and require pioneering approaches to accelerate treatments. Early diagnosis remains a large challenge in the clinic, along with detection of subtypes of disease, predicting rate of progression of the disease, and using this information to enroll patients in clinical trials. Outcome measures for clinical trials are also needed to predict response to therapy, since these are diseases with many years of progression. Biomarkers for patient diagnosis, prognosis, stratification to clinical trials, and to predict response to therapy are crucial to enable new treatments to be developed for patients.

Biomarkers measured peripherally in patient-derived fluids (e.g., blood, CSF, saliva, stool) are relatively easy to access and generally low cost to collect and measure. The Rapid Response: Ireland, Netherlands, UK 2018 (Fluid Biomarkers) programme was launched to provide seed funding, without requirement for preliminary data, to support high-risk, high-reward, translational research on novel biomarkers detected in patient-derived fluids.

The Weston Brain Institute supports high-risk, high-reward translational research that accelerates the development of therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases of ageing. The Institute’s programmes in the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom are supported by the Selfridges Group Foundation. The Institute was founded by The W. Garfield Weston Foundation, which supports the Institute’s Canadian programmes. The Selfridges Group consists of Brown Thomas and Arnotts in Ireland, Holt Renfrew in Canada, de Bijenkorf in the Netherlands, and Selfridges in the UK.