The Campagneteam Huntington (CTH) opens a call welcoming grant proposals for fundamental, innovative scientific research on Huntington's disease (HD). The primary goal of these applications is to further clarify the neurobiological causes and mechanisms of HD. Overarching goals should be to find, accelerate or develop therapies aimed to prevent,
delay or cure HD. Ideally, focus will be on strategies aimed towards lowering mutant protein levels, e.g. by reducing its synthesis or accelerating its degradation, but topics related to other relevant aspects of (aberrant) protein aggregation
will be considered too, provided its relevance for HD is made clear.

Applications are accepted from scientists working at Dutch scientific institutions, hospitals or universities. Applicants
must have proven expertise relevant for their planned studies and research experience with neurodegenerative diseases, such as HD. Researchers are encouraged to use novel, original and challenging approaches focusing on disease prevention and/or treatment. Also 'high risk, high gain' approaches are allowed as long as the expected benefits and feasibility can
be clarified.

Types of grants

Budget can be requested for salary and supplies. CTH awards 2 types of grants;

- Standard grant; a maximum of € 250.000.

This award is intended for a PhD (4 years) or postdoctoral (3 years) position, including bench fee.
Overhead will not be funded.

- Pilot grant; a maximum of € 50.000.

This award is intended for shorter, generally proof-of-concept or pilot studies aimed at addressing a more
challenging but potentially promising approach, or for an extension of a current project directly relevant for HD.

Procedure

For the 2018 round, CTH will work with a two-stage procedure; first, a brief Letter of Intent (LOI) is submitted, that will
be peer reviewed. A selected number of applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal, which will then be reviewed
by the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) and external experts. Based on these scores, proposals will be ranked and the
board of the CTH will then select the awardees.

The LOI consists of 2 pages;

• 1 page A4 with the applicant’s CV, highlighting experience with the proposal plans.
• 1 page A4 total with the grant proposal text. Here, applicants are asked to indicate; ‘standard grant’ or ‘pilot grant’,
  and provide;
  • Title
  • 1 paragraph on "Scientific Background and General Objective",
  • 1 paragraph on "Rationale/Specific Aims",
  • 1 paragraph on the Approach and Methods to be used,
  • 1 paragraph on "Expected Results and Relevance for HD Prevention or Treatment", highlighting the
    deliverables of the research, and explaining how the planned research will benefit our understanding
    of HD and in what way it will improve the options towards a cure for HD.
  • 1 short paragraph on "Budget details”.

When invited to submit a full proposal (max 6 pages including references), applicants are expected to expand on these topics and convince reviewers by describing in more detail their plans, highlighting the relevance and feasibility of the planned research to find a treatment for HD. The full proposal also includes a short Dutch public summary (half A4),
a proposed time-table and short budget description. The full proposal form will be sent to the selected applicants.

Grants will be evaluated by the SAB of CTH and by external reviewers. Selection criteria for eligibility include; the
scientific merit and promise of the research to help deliver a cure or treatment for HD, the CV of the applicant and the relevance and feasibility of the planned research towards a cure for HD.

Timeline

• Call for proposals opens mid April 2018
• Submission deadline LOI June 1^st, 2018
• Pre-selection of LOIs, invitations for full proposal July 1^st, 2018
• Deadline for full proposals 30 September 2018
• Final decision 18 November 2018
• Anticipated start of project January/February 2019

LOIs have to be submitted to: opencall@campagneteamhuntington.nl

LOI / letter of intent