Conditions for The3Brain - Massimo Grattarola Award

1. Description

The 3Brain - Massimo Grattarola Award program is intended to support the activities of young researchers from academic, government or non-profit institutions.

2. Eligibility

• Who may submit an application
  Applications can be submitted by researchers that hold a doctorate and at least a 50% position at an academic institution, government institution or non-profit organization in any part of the world. The applicant's position must be guaranteed for at least 1 year, starting from the contest deadline date. Additionally, only applicants with a Ph.D., under 40 years of age at the date of the contest deadline, and who authored/co-authored at least one peer-reviewed publication in a relevant field. Relevant fields of inquiry include: Cell Biology, Neuroscience, Computational Neuroscience, Statistics, Developmental Biology, Microphysiological Systems, Electrophysiology, In Vitro and Ex Vivo Modeling of the Brain, Drug Discovery, Toxicology and related research fields. An extension of 1 year can be applied to those who went through maternity leave.
• What may be funded by the award
  Money from The 3Brain - Massimo Grattarola Award must be used primarily to fund research projects planned, executed and authored by the award winner (or winners). All funded research involving animal breeding and/or experiments must be approved by the appropriate authorities and/or following the guidelines for the welfare of experimental animals of the respective country.  
  
  Budgeted items can include:
  •   supplies, consumables, and small pieces of equipment,
  •   costs for publication in peer-reviewed journals
  •   costs for attendance of national and international conferences   
  

3. Application and evaluation procedure

• General
  All applications must be written in English. The application must concern a project idea measuring neuronal activity or functional phenotypic screening in 2D or 3D model systems of the brain, including co-cultures, organoids, spheroids or acute tissue slices. Submitted projects will be reviewed in two rounds of evaluation according to the following criteria:
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  •   Novelty, creativity and originality of the project
  •   Impact of the anticipated results for the field of research
  •   Long-term impact in improving relevant aspects of our society
  •   Clarityand quality of the project description
  
• Evaluation round 1
  For the first round of evaluation, applicants have to fill the application form and send it to awards@3brain.com by 17:00 CET on 11th of Aug, 2023. Besides general information, the applicants have to submit a project abstract (2000 characters max) stating the main purpose and the significance of the expected results, following criteria of section a). The submission of a graphical abstract is optional. The submitted projects will be reviewed by neuroscientists from 3Brain, and the 5 most inspiring projects will be accepted for the second round of evaluation.
  
• Evaluation round 2
  Applicants with projects accepted for the second round of evaluation will be asked to give a 15 minutes live talk in mid-September, to introduce their project idea in more detail. The talks will be evaluated by a reviewing committee, consisting of notable neuroscientists who are not involved in 3Brain AG.
  
• Post-application procedure & Award Ceremony
  3Brain reserves the right to decline applications without evaluation in case any of the above stated rules are not considered. €15,000 will be awarded to the winner (or their team) once the final winner has been decided in the 2nd evaluation. Papers regarding the donation or funding to the winner will need to be signed by both 3Brain and the institution or organization, before the funds will be processed to the winner (or their team).
  

4. Regulation for provided information

Applicants must not submit information that is considered proprietary and that violates or infringes other’s rights. By submitting the application and checking the conditions read agreement on the application, the applicant agrees with all Conditions for The 3Brain - Massimo Grattarola Award stated here and grants 3Brain AG a non-exclusive, world-wide, free of charge and irrevocable right to save, use and publish the provided information.