What's new in the year 2010 research grant applications?
Applications will be made via the new HFSP extranet website which will be operational from mid-January 2009 onwards. Activation of the site will be announced on this page. The length and content of the scientific sections are unchanged from previous years, but the order and their management during the construction of the Letter of Intent may involve changes (for example changes in the Principal Applicant or the order of team members should be more flexible). Instructions and tips will be posted on the relevant pages and may be refined following feedback to facilitate the use of the forms. There are no changes in scientific content and team structure from the 2008 & 2009 cycles. The last major change was in the 2008 cycle and concerned the finance levels for groups from the same country. This is an international research program. Despite repeated encouragement that teams should not have more than one member from any one country ‘unless more members are absolutely necessary for the interdisciplinary nature of the project’ this has been largely ignored by applicants who have often pleaded minor differences in research skills as being fundamental to the interdisciplinary content of the project. The Board of Trustees decided to amend the instructions so that if 2 or more team members are from the same country they must clearly form an interdisciplinary collaboration. For budgetary purposes they will be considered as 1.5 team members in both Young Investigators' grants and Program Grants. If the expertise of the two scientists is closely related they will be considered as only 1 team member and they are advised to present as a single team member throughout the application procedure. This is maintained for the 2010 applications