The Italian Ministry of Health, Innovation Department, is calling for scientific project proposals in the field of health sciences. The call is aimed at researchers under 40 who are willing to undertake and lead a three years research project. For its openly declared intention to foster the scientific independence of young researchers, this is probably the first initiative of this kind ever launched in Italy that is funded by public money, and it’s the funding call that I had anticipated in a former post.
Key aspect of proposals is that they should focus on research themes that have the potential of being readily transferred to the National Health Service (SSN).
Researchers who are aiming at becoming principal investigators must be under 40 and should indicate in their pre-proposal (to be submitted before January 15 online by 12pm) in which Italian health-oriented research institution are they willing to carry out their work.
The projects are going to be scored according to four criteria:
- Quality of the research proposal (max 35 pts)
- Suitability for transfer of results to the national clinical practice (max 25 pts)
- P.I.’s curriculum (max 20 pts)
- Group composition. Higher score will be given to prospected groups with each researcher under 40 years of age (max 20 pts)
Successful projects will be funded between 400,000 and 600,000 euros over the three years funding period.
The full call, in Italian, is available here as PDF file. The template form to be filled in for submission of pre-proposals is available here
Good luck, and Happy Christmas everyone.
Massimo