In August 2022 the first round of the ad-hoc Booster Grant was organized by BIH Center for Regenerative Therapies (BCRT). Aim of the call was to provide scientists in the BIH-Charité network with a rapid funding opportunity that meets the needs of translational research projects.
The funding allows scientists to realise key steps towards the clinical evaluation of their research concept including ideas they always wanted to put into practice but never had the means to.
More than 100 applications for translational projects from scientists and clinicians from the Charité and BIH were submitted. In terms of content, their proposals range from regeneration, medicine to medtech.
The teams pitched their medical innovation in the form of a video and short written abstract to a jury of internal and external experts, who selected the most promising projects for funding through the Booster Call with up to 50.000€ each.
Among the winning projects, the highest rated idea aimed to translate existing manufacturing processes for antiviral T-cells into a fully automated system that ultimately reduces the risk for contamination and decreases manual work and variation.
Due to the high response rate, chances are good that there will be similar promotional activities next year.