E-rare-3 Call for Proposal 2015 for “Transnational Research Project on Rare Diseases"

The ERA-Net “E-Rare” for research programmes on rare diseases has been extended to a third phase “E-Rare-3” (2014-2019) to further help in coordinating the research efforts of European countries in the field of rare diseases and implement the objectives of International Rare Disease Research Consortium (IRDiRC). 

The aim of the call is to enable scientists in different countries to build an effective collaboration on a common interdisciplinary research project based on complementarities and sharing of expertise, with a clear translational research approach.

Subject: a group of rare diseases or a single rare disease following the European definition i.e. a seriously debilitating and/or life-threatening disease affecting not more than five in 10.000 persons in the EU, EC associated states and Canada

Participating countries: Austria, Belgium (Flanders), Belgium (French speaking community), Canada (including Québec), France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, The Netherlands and Turkey.

Topics:

Transnational research proposals must cover at least one of the following areas, which are equal in relevance for this call:

• definition of new nosological entities, epidemiological studies, genotype/phenotype correlations, natural history of diseases;
  
• characterisation of genetic/molecular basis of specific diseases
  
• Research on rare diseases including genetic, epigenetic and pathophysiological studies, using innovative and shared resources, technologies (OMICS, new generation sequencing, etc.) and expertises
  
• Research on development of applications for diagnosis and therapies for rare diseases. This may include indentification and characterization of (bio)-markers for diagnosis and prognosis, development of innovative screening systems and diagonsitic tools, the generation of relevant cellular and/or animal models, and preclinical studies using pharmacological, gene or cell therapies.
  

Project proposals must clearly demonstrate the potential health impact as well as the added-value of transnational collaboration: gathering a critical mass of patients/biological material, sharing of resources (models, databases, diagnosis etc.), harmonization of data, sharing of specific know-how and/or innovative technologies, etc. 

Each transnational collaborative project should represent the critical mass to achieve ambitious scientific goals.

Consortia are encouraged to demonstrate engagement with industry for its active participation including areas of collaboration, sharing of resources, capabilities and expertise, in order to ensure an efficient transfer of pre-clinical results into clinical utility. Likewise, patient organizations are invited to participate where appropriate as their engagement has the potential to provide new insights that could lead to innovative discoveries, and ensures that research is relevant to patients' concerns.

Time table:

There will be a two-stage submission procedure for joint applications

• The call is scheduled to open on: December 15, 2014
• Indicative date of submission deadline for pre-proposals: February 18, 2015
• Communication of selection of pre-proposals: End April, 2015
• Indicative date of submission deadline for full proposals: June 2, 2015

More information on the ERA-Net website