FWO - Call Applied Biomedical Research with a Primary Social finality (TBM) 2024

Research

Funding organisation:

Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek - Vlaanderen

What?

The TBM call 2024 has been opened.

In the long term, the TBM programme aims at contributing to the implementation of (new) therapies, diagnostic techniques and preventive methods, which, without this government funding, would not make it to the patient due to a lack of industrial interest.

A TBM project meets the following criteria: 

1. A TBM project aims at the development of a new therapy, diagnosis and/or specific prevention of a particular human disease or medical issue or a comparison of existing therapies, diagnostics or preventive methods in order to find out their relative efficacy and cost-effectiveness.

2. A TBM project is directed at research that is positioned late in the path from discovery to a specific application (i.e. there is a clinically relevant proof-of-concept) and aims at translating and developing scientific findings into clinical applications rather than creating knowledge from scratch. On the other hand, it is not positioned too late in the path from discovery to application: it does not consist of implementation activities that no longer require any research.

3. A TBM project offers a clear applicability with an added value for the Flemish health situation, including at least a positive medical impact for a particular group of patients or a cost reduction for the Flemish healthcare system.

4. At the time of submitting the application (or in the near future), the industry is not interested in the TBM project for commercial reasons.

Features

• Project period: 2- 4 years
• Acceptable costs:

•  staffing, operation, equipment, subcontracting contracts (in accordance with cost model rules)

• min. 215 000 EUR (excl. overhead) - max. 850 000 EUR (excl. overhead) (for large or multicentric trials, exceptionally budgets up to 1 275 000 EUR are allowed)

• Funding percentage: 100%

The results will be announced 29 November 2024. Projects start on 1 January 2025.

Who?

Any Flemish research centre can submit a TBM proposal. Based on their mission, this includes e.g., Flemish universities and their university hospitals, Flemish university colleges, and the Flemish strategic research centres. Otherwise, all other organizations that meet the definition of a research centre (see TBM manual) and that are located in the Flemish region may act as applicants of a TBM project. For-profit actors (e.g., companies) cannot act as applicant or co-applicant of a TBM
proposal. Non-Flemish research centres can also be included in the consortium as co-applicants. A condition is, however, that the total budget for non-Flemish research centres does not exceed 20% of the total budget.

A consortium of applicants (with one main applicant and one or more co-applicants) or a single (main) applicant can submit an application. Given the clinical focus of the programme, however, at least one Flemish hospital (or ITM) must be included in the consortium of applicants for at least 10% of the total budget.

In a project, the implementation of specific operational subtasks can also be entrusted to subcontractors, including companies. These will always be routine tasks, without any creative input. The cumulated contribution of subcontractors must however remain below 50% of the total budget.

Application?

Presubmission: Since it will be assessed even more strictly than before whether the project proposal meets the conditions of the TBM programme, it is strongly recommended to check the "fit" of the project idea with the FWO administration. You can make a presubmission inquiry well in advance (up to one week before the deadline) via tbm@fwo.be.

Internal submission deadline: The supervisor of the project submits the proposal via the FWO E-loket to the host institution (= main applicant of the proposal) by 15 April 2024 (5 PM).
Submission deadline: The host institution submits the proposal to FWO via the e-portal by 22 April 2024 (5 PM).

Evaluation procedure: The evaluation is performed by permanent panels consisting of scientific evaluators with diverse expertise in the biomedical sector and extensive experience in clinical trials. In addition, external (written) evaluators with expertise in the specific discipline of the project proposal are called upon.

Rebuttal: The interview has been replaced by a written rebuttal from 9-20 September 2024

More information?

More information (slides info session, call related documents, handbook and templates for the submission) can be found on the FWO website.

All researchers who wish to propose a new project idea are strongly advised to send a presubmission inquiry in the form of a short abstract (see template) via e-mail to tbm@fwo.be. It is also possible to request preliminary discussion (online/phone); please attach a short abstract, as well as any questions that you would like to see answered. The presubmission inquiry must reach the FWO at the latest one week before the submission deadline.

Deadline intern

15.04.2024, 22.04.2024

Contact Hasselt University?

E-mail sarah.szyr@uhasselt.be

Tel. +3211269052