Pilot funding: Institutional Strategic Support Fund 2015-2017
Applicant eligibility: PIs, research fellows and PhD students within the School of Life Sciences
Deadlines: 2nd March 2015; 2nd November 2015; 7th March 2016; 7th November 2016. Decisions will
be made (and funding can start) 1 month after the deadline.
Background: the ISSF from the Wellcome Trust aims to translate the excellent biomedical discovery
science underpinning our world recognised research strengths in Genome Stability to:
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understand the links between biological mechanisms and human disease.
identify and develop biomarkers for disease stratification.
identify novel lead compounds for discovery science and clinical development.
influence future clinical practices.
Purpose of pilot fund: as part of this we are able to provide an opportunistic pilot fund to support
exploratory studies to enable new targets arising from discovery science projects, to enable access
to key resources that are required to bridge from discovery to translational science. We aim to
enable both strong clinical target validation and entry into the drug discovery pipeline.
£200,000 is available over 2 years. We envisage these may be used to pilot new projects, establish
new methodologies, develop cross disciplinary facilities, establish links between discovery scientists
and translational drug discovery and/or clinical colleagues.
Eligible costs: short-term funding to allow, as examples: current staff to concentrate on extending
discovery science findings into a translational setting; specific consumables or equipment required to
pursue relevant projects; It is not expected that individual projects will exceed £30,000.
Instructions for application:
Please fill out the application form. This requires:
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applicants names and contact details.
a 250 word summary of the application (including scientific background, work to be
performed, a justification based on the aims and vision of the Wellcome trust award (see:
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/issf/index); details of plans regarding how the work will be taken
forward post-award).
An expansion of the summary to a 1 page application giving further details, justification and
indicators of successful progress against which the award can be judged. An additional page
of figures can be added if necessary.
A detailed financial request (accurate personnel costs must be obtained from the pre-awards
office, equipment costs should be based on quotes).
Please Note: it is important that there is a clear onward opportunity for accessing potential follow-on
funding upon completion of the proposed work.
Outcomes:
The applications will be considered within 1 month of the deadline by the ISSF leadership team.
Successful applicants must adhere to Wellcome Trust policies and will be expected to provide at the
end of the award a brief summary relating project progress to the initial indicators detailed in the
application.