Purpose and areas of support
The purpose of the Inter-SUSTAIN call is to advance science by stimulating high-quality international databases to make their data attractive, accessible and usable for the research community, specifically for research within cardiometabolic diseases (CMD), infectious diseases, and regenerative medicine. This will be achieved through a dual funding mechanism, whereby both database custodians and researchers utilising the data will receive funding. The call aims at strengthening the databases’ infrastructure and foster researcher collaborations with users external to the database. Any new data generated by the research will be added to the database, enhancing its content and attractiveness.
Given its dual funding mechanism of supporting both databases and researchers, the call will be implemented in two parts:
Part 1: High-quality databases will be screened and shortlisted by the Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF). Databases do not need to focus on CMD, infectious disease, and regenerative medicine but must contain data which may be used for research within these themes. No funding will be granted in Part 1, but in Part 2 shortlisted databases may be selected by a researcher for her/his research project and thus receive funding.
Part 2: By means of an open competition call, high-quality research projects that focus on CMD, infectious disease and regenerative medicine and make use of existing data from one of shortlisted databases will submit their research proposal and be evaluated and selected for funding by the Committee on Clinical and Translational Medicine. Databases selected by the awarded researchers will also receive funding. As part of the application process, researchers must consult the database custodian of the selected database to ensure that their research proposal is feasible to execute their projects
Important information:
- A table of the shortlisted databases, including their contact information, is enclosed in the guidelines.
- For questions regarding the databases, please contact them directly.
- A letter of commitment, signed by the custodian of the database, must be included in the application (please refer to the guidelines for further information).
- The collaboration between the database and the researcher is the sole responsibility of these two parties.
Eligibility:
- Principal investigators (main applicant) must be independent researchers, already established, or in the process of establishing their own research group.
- The research activities and main applicant must be anchored at a university, hospital or other non-profit research institution in the Nordics (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden), or the United Kingdom.
- The main applicant must be guaranteed their own salary for the entire applied project period (i.e., salary for the main applicant cannot be covered in this grant).
- Students (incl. MSc. and Ph.D.) and Postdocs are not eligible to apply as main applicant.
- Applicants who are shortlisted as database custodians cannot submit an application as a main applicant for a research proposal relating to their own database in Inter-SUSTAIN Part 2.
- Database custodians or researchers already funded by the NNF Sustain Programme are not eligible.
- One proposal permitted per main applicant per call.
Application process:
After the call deadline, all applications will be screened by the NNF for general eligibility as described in section 1.3 in the guidelines, before being sent to the Committee on Clinical and Translational Medicine for evaluation.
The Committee will assess the research proposals comprehensively based on the Assessment Criteria described in section 1.7 in the guidelines.
When all applications have been assessed, applicants will be notified about whether they have been awarded a grant. The notification e-mail will be sent from [email protected] to the e-mail address used when creating a profile in NORMA.
PLEASE NOTE: The Foundation does not provide feedback in case an application is declined
Please read the application guidelines thoroughly before applying.
Funding
A total of up to DKK 75 million is available for Part 1 and Part 2 of the NNF Inter-SUSTAIN call, awarded in up to three calls over a period of up to three years.
Researchers in Part 2 can apply for grants between DKK 1 million and DKK 5 million for projects lasting between one to three years.
