Funding Cycle VI – Letter of Intent Submission in April 2001

In the sixth ROTRF funding cycle, 103 letters of intent were received from scientists around the world. More than half of the applications came from the United States (51%), while 36% came from Europe, the major countries being the UK (12%) and Germany (8%). In total, North America accounted for 54% of the applicants, and Asia, Australia and South America accounted for the remaining 10% of the applicants.

The Scientific Advisory Committee of the ROTRF evaluated all the applications, which were submitted electronically via the ROTRF homepage (www.ROTRF.org), on the basis of originality and scientific excellence. The authors of the 21 most highly ranked applications were invited to submit full paper applications, and the 18 applications received subsequently underwent a thorough review by the Scientific Advisory Committee and the Board of Trustees.

ROTRF Grants were awarded to 10 applicants: six from the USA, and one each from Austria, Belgium, Germany, and the UK.

The abstracts of the novel and promising research projects that received funding in cycle VI are presented on the following pages. Their research interests focus mainly on the following: improvement of long-term graft survival and prevention of chronic organ dysfunction; induction of tolerance; relevant immune recognition; regulation, and effector mechanisms; inflammation; and the development of new immunosuppressive agents.

In this sixth cycle of ROTRF Grant Awards, a total of two million Swiss francs was allocated.