Great to see MEFISTO successfully completed, a project which SCIPROM accompanied for more than 6 years, from the first idea to the final review. Congrats and a big thanks to all!

MEFISTO has just held its final review meeting with representatives of the European Commission. The project was congratulated by the EC representatives for its achievements. In the final phase, novel coating technologies were used to functionalise resorbable and non-resorbable meniscal implants. These implants were then tested in vivo in partial meniscectomy models.

The resorbable collagen scaffold produced by Geistlich and functionalised by Tissue Click was tested by the team at the University Hospital of Regensburg. Meanwhile, non-resorbable meniscus implants from Active Implants and ATRO Medical BV, functionalised by Tissue Click and the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, were tested by the Humanitas University team.

Analysis of joint tissues and explanted devices suggests that Tissue Click's biomimetic nanostructured coating may provide protection to articular cartilage following meniscectomy. In addition, this coating technology has been shown to be both easily applied to meniscal devices and sterilisable.

Read our publishable summary for more insight into our achievements and stay tuned for further updates and publications on the exciting results of this collaboration!

Moments from the MEFISTO project

The European Commission's DG CNECT is inviting experts in cutting-edge digital technologies to help shape future EU investment in research, innovation and deployment for the period 2028-2040. 

This is your opportunity to shed critical light on emerging areas such as AI, quantum technologies, cybersecurity, robotics, and more.

Deadline for submission of your expression of interest is 20 January 2025, 18:00 CET.

You can find more information and the application form here.  

Great news! The EC has fully activated the transitional arrangement as of 1 January 2025, which enables researchers and innovators in Switzerland to participate in almost all calls for proposals of Horizon Europe and the Euratom programme as beneficiaries, from the 2025 programme year onwards. This means also that they can submit project proposals in the role of coordinator. Switzerland's participation in calls for proposals in areas considered strategic by the EU (including quantum and space) are still subject of discussions with the EC.

Running applications or projects are not impacted by this.

The latest news and information can be found at the dedicated SERI page. 

The European Research Council (ERC) announced today that researchers in Switzerland can participate in the ERC Proof of Concept call 2025. The transitional arrangements allow Swiss legal entities to be treated as ‘entities established in associated countries’ for the call for Proof of Concept Grants under the ERC Work Programme 2025. SERI has updated their information accordingly.

The call is expected to open tomorrow, 13 November 2024.

IHI has a good habit of publishing drafts of future funding opportunities ahead of the call launch to give applicants extra time to start networking and preparing a proposal.

Now draft texts of IHI calls 9 and 10 have been published on the IHI website. Both calls are scheduled for launch in early 2025.

While call 9 is a single-stage, applicant driven call addressing the IHI Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda, call 10 is a standard two-stage call with topics on Per- and Poly-fluoroalkyl substance (PFAS), secondary use of health data and digital labelling. 

SCIPROM invites you to explore the different call topics and will be happy to support you from the project idea to the elaboration of the proposal and the implementation of the project in all aspects of management, communication and dissemination of the project.

The ERC has just opened its 2024 call for advanced grants with a proposal submission deadline of 29 Aug 2024. 

It's great to see that now also Swiss-based researchers are eligible to apply.

Researchers of all career stages who have a track-record of significant research achievements and are leaders in their field may apply for this 5-year grant with a budget of up to EUR 2.5 million.

SCIPROM will be happy to support you in your proposal preparation. 

Call 8 from the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) will cover heart disease in cities, osteoarthritis and big data, regulatory sandboxes for breakthrough innovation, and clinical study endpoints from digital health technologies.

The following topics are under consideration for inclusion in IHI call 8, a two-stage call which will be launched in the coming months:

- A city-based approach to reducing cardiovascular mortality in Europe
- Ovel endpoints for osteoarthritis (OA) by applying big data analytics
- Modelling regulatory sandbox mechanisms and enabling their deployment to support breakthrough innovation
- Patient-centred clinical-study endpoints derived using digital health technologies

Detailed information can be found here

The European Commission opened a feedback opportunity for the development of the 2025 Work Programme of Horizon Europe. 

The feedback opportunity is open for 3 weeks from 15 April and closes on 6 May 2024 midday, CET.

You can contribute for multiple Destinations and/or Missions within the following topics:
- 6 Horizon Europe clusters
- Research Infrastructure
- European Innovation Ecosystem
- 5 EU Missions and cross cutting activities
- New European Bauhaus facility

Our new project FirstTo6G started on 1 Jan 2024 and will develop Fourier-Domain TRx solutions enabling widespread realisation of 6G! For more information, visit our website and follow us on LinkedIn !

Would you like to learn more about resilient beekeeping? Watch our Better-B introductory video series “Inside the Better-B hive” which we have launched today with this first video. Stay tuned, there will be a new video twice a week. Enjoy!

If you are looking for funding opportunities for collaborative R&I projects in the area of Health, Biotech, Medtech and Healthcare Industry, this online event will inform about the upcoming calls, with topics ranging from immunotherapies and rare diseases to digital health.

Info Event: 7 November 2023, full online organised by Euresearch

The detailed agenda and registration link are available on the Euresearch website. 

Participation is free of charge but registration is mandatory.

Source: Euresearch

The closing dates of the ERC Starting and Synergy Grants calls have been postponed due to the situation in the Middle East:

• ERC Starting Grant call: from 24 October to 7 November 2023;
• ERC Synergy Grant call: from 8 to 15 November 2023.

More info on the ERC website.

Sources: ERC, Euresearch

The calls on Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment (Cluster 6) have just been launched today.

75 topics are proposed within the thematic areas of food, bioeconomy, natural resources, agriculture, and environment: explore the topics using this link.

Swiss entities are eligible for participation as Associated Partners and if succesful will be funded by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).

Sources: EC, Euresearch

Many thanks for 18 years of collaboration!

Endlich erwachsen, enfin adulte, finally grown up: SCIPROM turns 18!