Joint transnational Call 2011 for "Integrated Research on Genomics and Pathophysiology of the Metabolic Syndrome and the Diseases arising from it" (META)

Five funding organisations:

• Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Institute of Genetics (CIHR-IG), Canada
• Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec (FRSQ), Canada
• The French National Research Agency (ANR), France
• Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany
• Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII), Spain

are associated to open a Joint Transnational Call for funding multilateral integrated research projects focusing on the metabolic syndrome and the cardiovascular and metabolic diseases arising from it.

The aim of the call is to enable scientists in different countries to build an effective collaboration based on synergistic usage of existing data and resources from genomics and post-genomics to better understand the pathophysiology of the metabolic syndrome and the diseases arising from it. The results of these collaborative research projects are expected to provide the basis for translation into advances in the prevention, prediction, diagnostics and therapy of human diseases related to the metabolic syndrome.

Proposals must cover at least one of the following areas, which are equal in relevance for this call:

• Verification or refinement of results regarding susceptibility genes (e.g. necessary replications or other verifications of results of GWAS-studies in different cohorts or subphenotyping in larger cohorts). Please note that de-novo GWAS or -large-scale, systematic -omics data collection will not be supported due to limited funds
• Functional studies of genes and gene-products identified in previous GWAS-studies or other large-scale -omics approaches (in vitro or in animal models)
• Conduction of clinical research, i.e. research aiming at translating -omics results into clinically relevant applications. However, no clinical trials shall be funded through this call

Only transnational projects will be funded. Each consortium submitting a proposal must involve a minimum of three and a maximum of six research groups from at least three different countries participating to the call (Canada, France, Germany, and Spain).

There will be a two-stage submission procedure for joint applications: registration letters and full proposals. In both cases, one joint proposal document (in English) shall be prepared by the partners of a joint transnational proposal, and must be submitted to the JCS by one spokesperson, the coordinator (called principal investigator in Canada).