Aim of fund – purpose of funding allocation
The aim of the Translation Fund is to fund projects which have commercial/clinical innovation potential but still lacking documents in support of their economic exploitation and require the appropriate validation. The Translation Fund is characterized by a straightforward application process with a high degree of flexibility in the allocation of funds. The funds are limited to a short period of use. They are to be used explicitly for the validation of the commercial potential. The fund therefore includes the possibility of awarding contracts for industrial-standard services to third parties whereas personnel costs shall be funded in exceptional cases only. In addition to financial support, the Translation Fund offers the possibility of professional advice as part of the expert assessment process. The external experts will contact all the applicants in person to discuss the project application in any given case and to comment on the submitted project plan. The applicants will therefore have the opportunity to discuss their projects in detail with the experts. This individual contact between applicants and assessors is a special and important element of the BIH Translation Fund. The fund offers the applicants in-depth professional advice regardless of whether the applications were selected for funding. Applicants who are not granted funding are specifically asked to submit their revised project proposals when the next call for applications is published.Requirements and selection criteria
All MDC and Charité employees are invited to hand in a project application. Any scientists without laboratory and office space of their own must have their project description co-signed by the host research group leader. Proposals can be submitted for projects aimed at the development of new medical devices (medical technology, health IT, health services). The main criteria influencing the decision when selecting the projects for funding include the scientific quality, medical need and the marketing potential of the target product. The market readiness of the project is explicitly of secondary importance. Instead, the quality of a project is judged by the extent to which as decisive a step as possible can be made towards development and validation with the requested funds and the intended project work. In the case of ideas at an early stage with insufficient scientific grounding and still lacking certainty in terms of the data situation, funding can also be made available for validation, consolidation and enlargement of the data records if these measures will further the commercial viability.Type, scope and amount of funding
- The selected projects will be allocated up to € 50.000 of funding.
- As a general rule, the project term should not exceed 9 months.
- Follow-up applications can be submitted. They will be competing for funding with newly submitted applications.
- Costs directly related to the project are eligible for funding: material costs, costs for third-party contracts and, in exceptional cases, personnel costs.
Procedure
The applications must be addressed to the BIH Board of Directors and submitted via the BIH website (link tp application portal on the right hand side) by 2015/04/30. The project description (in German or English) should not exceed five pages and should include the following points:- Summary of subject and aim of project
- Description of planned product or service
- Medical demand and commercial potential
- State of research and state of own preliminary work (bibliography may be attached)
- Explanation of superiority and advantages over current medical science standards
- Brief outline of IP situation
- Description of the advance in development to be attained with the help of the funding and the resulting conclusions as to potential usage
- Work schedule and milestone plan
- Financial plan
- Name of a contact person for the assessors
The next call for the BIH Technology Transfer Fund regarding “Pharma” is expected at the end of this year.