Funding Cycles XV and XVI – Letters of Intent Submission in October 2005 and April 2006
The Roche Organ Transplantation Research Foundation (ROTRF) is very pleased to announce that in Cycles XV and XVI, grants have been awarded to nineteen conventional and four clinical research applications, including three conventional grants in Cycle XVI for the joint ROTRF/JDRF grant award competition. In Cycle XV, 2.1 million Swiss francs (CHF) were allocated to twelve research projects; 2.2 million CHF were distributed to 11 projects in Cycle XVI. The quality of the applications received once again delighted the Board of Trustees and the Scientific Advisory Committee of the ROTRF.
The research funded in both cycles focuses on the understanding of clinical and scientific aspects of transplantation, such as processes involved in the induction of tolerance, sensitisation, graft rejection, development of chronic allograft nephropathy, graft vascular disease, ischaemia, hypoxia, migration of lymphocytes into inflammed allograft tissue, and elucidation of the cellular/molecular pathways of islet allograft destruction in diabetic hosts.
The ROTRF received 83 Letters of Intent in Cycle XV up to the submission deadline (October 2005) from scientists around the world. Of the applications, 45.8% were received from Europe, the major countries being Germany (14.5%), UK (9.6%), and France (4.8%). 48.2% applications were received from North America: United States (43.4%) and Canada (4.8%). Australia/New Zealand (3.6%), South America (1.2%), and Asia (1.2%) accounted for the remaining 6% of the applications. Based on the reviews of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), the Board of Trustees invited 22 applicants to prepare Full Paper Applications. After a thorough review of the Full Paper Applications, grants were awarded to the 12 projects.
In Cycle XVI, 144 applications were received up to the submission deadline (April 2006); 48.6% of the applications were received from Europe and 43.8% from North America. The European submissions were received mainly from the UK (16.7%), Italy (6.9%), Germany (6.3%) and Switzerland (6.3%). 38.9% of the applications came from the USA and 4.8% from Canada. The remaining applications were received from Australia/New Zealand (5.6%) and Asia (2.1%). Following review from the SAC, the Board of Trustees invited 28 applicants to prepare Full Paper Applications and grants were awarded to 11 research projects, including 3 from the ROTRF/JDRF Joint Initiative.
The abstracts of these newly awarded grants (Cycles XV and XVI) are published in the first pages of this Annual Report 2006 and on the ROTRF homepage.