PReS / PRINTO Research Grant - Call for Applications 2021

For the third consecutive year, PReS and PRINTO are happy to announce the annual call for projects in the context of the cooperation between the PReS Working Parties (WP2.0) and PRINTO, with the aim of fostering excellence in Paediatric Rheumatology from research and training to clinical care and clinical trials. In the first two calls (editions of 2019 and 2020) a total of 14 applications were received and the two winning projects are currently on going.

In this 2021 call, one project will be funded for a total of 3 years. PReS will grant a financial contribution to the winner of 10,000€/year (total 30,000€, covering primarily personnel, meetings and networking costs with volunteer participation from centres), and the equivalent in manpower (30,000€) will be provided by PRINTO. PRINTO will take care of the manpower time for technical assistance and all related infrastructure for implementation of international collaborative studies (feasibility, databases, ethics committees’ submission, data collection etc).

The requirements to participate in the call are the following:

• Applying PI and co-PI (one among the PI and co-PI under 40 years of age) must be members of a PReS WP2.0 and hold a valid PReS membership (please contact presmembership@mci-group.com for further information);
• Applying PI and co-PI must be members of PRINTO (please visit https://www.printo.it/contact/apply-membership or contact printo@gaslini.org for further information);
• The support requested to PRINTO must be described clearly in the proposal;
• Partners in the proposal must provide a formal commitment letter of support to the PI on their Institution letterhead with clear indication of their role in the project;
• The proposed project should not have already received additional sources of funding from other organizations/entities which cover the same activities of the present application;
• Patients associations must be involved in the definition of the research needs and in the design of the proposal.

The following features will be taken into account in the evaluation:

• Applying PI of the project and his/her Home institution should be based in a European Pediatric Rheumatology Center;
• Multicentric projects should heavily involve Pediatric Rheumatology Centers based in at least 3 different countries worldwide;

For your information, in the online submission process all applicants will be also required to confirm a general capability of their Home Institution of contracting and invoicing (only applicable for collaborative projects foreseeing compensation to participating centres).

The deadline for presentation of the projects is December 27th, 2021.

For submission inquiries, please contact PRINTO coordinating centre, and you can download here the Grant template to be used. Please consider that any proposal not presented through the official Grant template may be excluded from the evaluation.
Further details on how to submit will follow in due course via e-mail directly to all WP members.

The proposals will be then peer-reviewed by a selection committee including the Research PReS counselor (Chair), 1 PReS Council member, 2 PRINTO Council Members and 1 patient representative.

Any publication(s) arising from the projects will be followed after the byline of authors “for the PReS WP2.0 (name of the WP2.0) and PRINTO” as per the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJEs) criteria (http://icmje.org) and the PRINTO publication policy (https://www.printo.it/publications/authorship-policy). PI and co-PI will be first or last authors.

Nicola Ruperto and Alberto Martini on behalf of PRINTO
Fabrizio De Benedetti, Sylvia Kamphuis, PReS Research Committee
Angelo Ravelli, Michael Beresford, Jelena Vojinovic, PReS Executive

PReS / PRINTO Research Grant - Call for Applications 2020
Both the Pediatric Rheumatology European Society (PReS) and the Paediatric Rheumatology INternational Trials Organisation (PRINTO) work to foster excellence in Paediatric Rheumatology, from research and training to clinical care to clinical trials. In order to foster expansion of the research activities of PReS, the Council envisaged a novel format of projects based on a tight collaboration with PRINTO.

This PReS/PRINTO collaboration will consist in annual calls for projects in the context of the PReS Working Parties (WP2.0) and with the technical assistance from PRINTO. A call for grant was published in 2019 and resulted in 8 applications and one grant awarded to the project: “Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Localised Scleroderma Quality of Life Instrument (LoSQI) in juvenile localised scleroderma (JLS): a multicentre study of the PRES scleroderma working party in collaboration with members of the CARRA scleroderma working group” presented by Dr Clare Pain

In this 2020 call, one project will be funded for a total of 3 years. PReS will grant a financial contribution to the winner of 10,000€/year (total 30,000€, covering primarily personnel, meetings and networking costs with volunteer participation from centres), and the equivalent in manpower (30,000€) will be provided by PRINTO. PRINTO will take care of the manpower time for technical assistance and all related infrastructure for implementation of international collaborative studies (feasibility, databases, ethics committees submission, data collection etc).

The requirements to participate in the call are the following:

• - A PI and co-PI (one among the PI and co-PI under 40 years of age) who are members of a PReS WP2.0 and hold a valid PReS membership (please contact presmembership@mci-group.com for further information);
• - A PI and co-PI who are members of PRINTO (please visit https://www.printo.it/contact/apply-membership or contact printo@gaslini.org for further information);
• - The proposed project must not have other sources of funding from other organizations/entities;
• - The support requested to PRINTO must be clearly stated in the proposal.

The following features will be taken into account in the evaluation:

• - Leadership and a coordination of the project clearly based in a European Pediatric Rheumatology Center
• - Multicentric projects heavily involving, and heavily relying on, European Pediatric Rheumatology Centers. The involvement of at least 3 different countries is highly recommended
• - Partners in the proposal must provide a formal commitment letter of support to the PI on their Institution letterhead with clear indication of their role in the project
• - Patients involvement in the definition of the research needs and in the design of the proposal would be beneficial.

The deadline for presentation of the projects is December 15th, 2020. A personal invitation has been sent to all PReS WP2.0 members - for submission inquiries you can click here, and you can download here the template to be used.

Visit the PReS website

Both the Pediatric Rheumatology European Society (PReS) and the Paediatric Rheumatology INternational Trials Organisation (PRINTO) work to foster excellence in Paediatric Rheumatology, from training and clinical care to clinical trials.

Therefore, in 2018, in the context of expanding the research activities of PReS, the Council envisaged a novel format of projects based on a tight collaboration with PRINTO. This novel PReS/PRINTO collaboration will consist in annual calls for projects in the context of the PReS Working Parties (WP2.0) and with the technical assistance from PRINTO.

In the 2019 call, one project will be funded for a total of 3 years. PReS will grant a financial contribution to the winner of 10, 000€ /year (total 30, 000€ ), and the equivalent in manpower (30, 000€ ) will be provided by PRINTO. Funding will cover primarily personnel, meetings and networking costs with volunteer participation from centres. PRINTO will take care of the manpower time for technical assistance and all related infrastructure for implementation of international collaborative studies (feasibility, databases, ethics committees submission, data collection etc). It is foreseen that there will be annual calls, one already planned for 2020, with the number of projects granted varying according to  availability of funds.

At each Annual Meeting there will be a session of all WP2.0s, where the project winners will have the possibility to present their project, invite PReS/PRINTO members to participate and provide an annual update.

The requirements to participate in the call are the following:

• A PI and co-PI (co-PI under 40 years of age) who are members of a PReS WP2.0 and hold a valid PReS membership (please contact presmembership@mci-group.com for further information);
• A PI and co-PI who are members of PRINTO (please visit https://test.printo.it/contact/apply-membership or contact printo@gaslini.org for further information);
• The proposed project must not have other sources of funding from other organizations/entities;
• The involvement of at least 3 different countries is highly recommended;
• The support requested to PRINTO must be clearly stated in the proposal.

Multicentric projects heavily involving, and heavily relying on, European Pediatric Rheumatology Centers are strongly encouraged.

The deadline for presentation of the projects for year 2019 is December 15th, through a platform, provided by PRINTO, open to all PReS WP2.0 members. The proposals will be then peer-reviewed by a selection committee including the Research PReS counselor (Chair), 1 PreS Council member, 2 PRINTO Council Members and 1 patient representative.

If you wish to apply for the PRINTO/PReS grant please:

• if you have the credentials for the PRINTO website, click here
• if you do not have the credentials, please contact PRINTO.

A call for 2020 is foreseen.

Any publication(s) arising from the projects will be followed after the byline of authors “for the PReS WP2.0 (name of the WP2.0) and PRINTO” as per the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJEs) criteria (http://icmje.org/) and the PRINTO publication policy (https://test.printo.it/publications/authorship-policy). PI and co-PI will be first or last authors.

Nicola Ruperto and Alberto Martini on behalf of PRINTO
Rolando Cimaz, Fabrizio De Benedetti, Athimalaipet Ramanan
Angelo Ravelli, Michael Beresford, Berent Prakken on behalf of the PReS Council