No more caffeine or short sleep nights for me, please. At least for a little bit. I just submitted my grant proposal, last night at 1:52AM. Yay!
This was for the Italian Ministry of Health, which has been calling for scientific proposals from young scientists who are seeking to achieve their scientific independence. What a big word. I spoke about this Belpease funding call here
Some figures:

• Money: 15M Euros (will be 81M Euros at the next call)
• Funding target: about 30 projects at 0.5M Euros each
• Applicants: about 1,700
• Therefore=> Go take a hike.

However low the chances to get funded may be, this was a competition that you just had to be in. In the BelPaese, opportunities like this have so far been very, very rare. One nice aspect of this funding call is that hosting institutions will have to accept 5% overhead costs. That is ridiculously low, of course, and no institution may survive if those were the normal rates. But that only applies to PIs below 40 y.o., and just for this funding call.

As I sat and wrote, I do have received my Nature Network Stickers from the London Headquarters of NN. Here is me by my NN-sponsored laptop PC and Moleskine

Thank you Matt!

I know a number of researchers who took part to this call. One of them, Maurizio, is just a few doors away from me. This morning, I entered his office, we looked at each other, and raised our arms in a scream as if our team had scored the greatest goal ever. “It’s done”!!!

For those who are interested in the outcome of this funding call, you may find updates on the website of Senator Ignazio Marino, the man behind this initiative. From his website, one may fill in a form and send a question. He answers personally to each message. I just could not believe it when I got a reply from him. As my dear friend Davide puts it: “Here is someone who finally represents the people in our parliament”. At this rate, he may not afford dropping his caffeine intake levels, though.

Thank you very much to all of you who have actively criticized my drafts and spent your time on the phone, on Skype, via email, or by a cup of coffee with me over the last few weeks, helping my research proposal shape up.
You know who you are.

And now it’s time to load up on this blog all the new funding opportunities which I have discovered lately.

Ciao!