1st Call

Aim and Scope

Today more than ever, the healthcare sector needs new solutions to take advantage of the increasing digitalisation and personalisation of medicine for the benefit of patients. As the Canton of Aargau does not have its own university hospital, it is essential for the promotion of innovative solutions in prevention and therapy that the hospitals in the Canton have the means and freedom to collaborate with cutting-edge research. To this end, the cantonal hospitals of Aarau and Baden, together with Hirslandenklinik Aarau and the ETH Domain institutions ETH Zürich, Empa and PSI, and with the support of the Canton of Aargau, founded the “Verein für medizinische Forschung und Innovation im Kanton Aargau”. 

The aim of the funding programme ForME is to enable the co-design of excellent research ideas between research groups in the ETH Domain and clinical practitioners to speed up the implementation time from bench to bedside.

Practicing physicians or medical specialists with relevant expertise employed by a partner hospital in the Canton of Aargau are invited to apply for Protected Research Time to work on a scientific project with collaborators at ETH Zürich, Empa and/or PSI. For the temporary absence of the successful applicant from clinical operations, the employing partner hospital will receive financial compensation.

Eligible Applicants

Eligible Applicants are physicians in postgraduate or continuing education, with or without a doctorate/PhD, or academic medical staff with relevant expertise employed at a Partner Hospital in the Canton of Aargau. Centres and attending physicians accredited at a Partner Hospital are assigned to the corresponding Partner Hospital. The Partner Hospital must confirm their support for the application and guarantee the amount of Protected Research Time in a letter of commitment (see section Application). 

Physicians in a senior managerial role or with a completed habilitation are not eligible to submit a proposal as an Applicant. They may be involved in a project in a supervisory capacity or as a mentor.

In addition to the Applicant, the Project Team must involve at least one scientist employed by a Research Partner. If the involved scientist from the Research Partner is not a lab/group/unit leader, the scientist must ensure full support of their line management for the project in accordance with the respective institutional regulations. This support must be explicitly confirmed in the commitment letter from the Research Partner. (see section Application). If the involved scientist from the Research Partner has a fixed-term contract (e.g. post-doc, tenure track professors/scientists), the commitment letter from the Research Partner must confirm that they will remain employed for the entire duration of the project. The expenses of the Research Partner for the project will not be recompensed by forME.

It is possible to include additional project partners in the research project. However, their expenses for the project will not be recompensed by forME.

Eligible Projects

Eligible are research projects that correspond to the aim of forME to enable the co-design of excellent research ideas between research groups in the ETH Domain and clinical practitioners to speed up the implementation time from bench to bedside.

Eligible research projects must involve the following Project Partner Institutions:

• At least one of the following Partner Hospitals or one of their affiliated centres/attending physicians as employer of the Applicant: Cantonal Hospital Aarau (KSA), Cantonal Hospital Baden (KSB), Hirslandenklinik Aarau (HKA)
• At least one of the following institutions as Research Partner: ETH Zürich, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI).

At least part of the project must be performed on the premises of the Research Partner.

The funding of research with direct commercial benefit is excluded. Approved projects are examined by the Cantonal Department of Education, Culture and Sport for compliance with the regulations of the Swiss Lottery Fund before the project start. Accordingly, all projects must fulfil the criteria of application-oriented basic research as defined by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

The evaluation panel will not consider applications that violate the ethical principles of medical research, the rules of scientific integrity or good scientific practice. Any approved ethics committee or animal experimentation decisions relevant to the project must be described in the application (see section Application) and submitted to the ForME Management Office upon request.

Budget and eligible costs

Only financial compensation for the Partner Hospital amounting to a maximum of 20% of the Applicant's salary in accordance with the usual rules of the Partner Hospital employing the Applicant is eligible for funding. The maximum annual limit per payment is CHF 25,000 for assistant physicians and CHF 35,000 for senior physicians. It is expected that 5-8 salary compensations can be supported through this call.

Project costs (material resources, equipment, additional personnel, access fees, publication costs, etc.) are not eligible for funding and must be covered by the Project Partner Institutions. The application must convincingly describe how the project costs will be covered over the full duration of the project.

Only Partner Hospitals are eligible to receive salary compensations. The Partner Hospital is responsible for passing on any financial compensation to its accredited centres and attending physicians.

Duration

The duration of a project can be between 6 and 24 months. The Partner Hospital employing the Applicant must guarantee the Protected Research Time in writing (see section Application). While the exact percentage of Protected Research Time can vary depending on the project and the role of the Applicant in it, it is expected that the Applicant will be able to spend an average of approximately one day per week working on the project for the entire project duration. At least part of the Protected Research Time must be spent on the premises of the Research Partner. The breakdown of the approximate percentage of attendance time must be agreed in writing between the Project Partner Institutions before the start of the project.

Application

Applications must be submitted, using the online application form until 28 October 2024 at midnight.

Applications must include the following documents:

• Completed application form
• Lay summary for publication (as part of the application form)
• Attachment as single pdf:
  • Research proposal (max. 5 pages, min. font: 11pt)
  • CVs of the applicant and all senior members of the Project Team (template)
  • Completed and signed letter of commitment template from the Partner Hospital employing the applicant (template)
  • Completed and signed letter of commitment template from the Research Partner (template)
  • if applicable: Commitment letters from further project partners describing their commitment (financial, mentoring, laboratory space, technical support, etc.) to the project

The official templates for this call must be used for the proposal and the commitment letters (except for commitment letters from further project partners). Only complete applications submitted before the submission deadline will be evaluated.

Evaluation

The eligibility of the project proposals will be checked internally by the Management Office of ForME. Eligible projects will be evaluated by at least three members of the evaluation committee At least one expert each comes from a Partner Hospital and a Research Partner and every application is also reviewed by an independent expert. The evaluation committee pays attention to good practice to avoid conflicts of interest in scientific research (see separate conflict of interest regulations).

The evaluation committee decides on the merit for funding of each application according to the following evaluation criteria and the availability of resources:

a) Scientific quality of the proposed research project: scientific importance of the research question, topicality and originality, suitability of the proposed methods

b) Quality and potential of the Applicant: Expertise and ambition of the applicant. Fit of the project to the applicant’s career aims.

c) Expertise of the project team: Expertise of the Project Team, support of the institutions involved, academic/medical supervision/mentoring as necessary 

d) Promotion of synergies between clinic and research, to support cooperation between Partner Hospitals and Research Partners.

e) Chances of success: feasibility of the project and chances for successful completion of the aims and objectives. 

Follow Up

The Applicant and the administrative contact point of the Partner Hospital at which the applicant is employed will be informed of the decision in writing. The Partner Hospital must inform its accredited centres or attending physicians accordingly.

Approved projects must start within 6 months and be completed within a maximum of 24 months from the start of the project. 

By accepting the funding, the Project Partner Institutions accept the terms and conditions of the grant as stated in the funding letter. This involves the submission of a final scientific and financial report within 60 days after the end of the project. Projects with a duration longer that 12 months are required to submit an interim scientific report. Sufficient progress must be shown for the release of funds beyond 12 months.

The rights to the research results stemming from the funded project are set out in a separate agreement between the institutions involved.

By accepting the funding, the project team agrees to making the research results obtained in the project available to the public in an appropriate manner. The data sets on which the published research results are based must be made accessible in a suitable form via a recognised scientific data collection that operates according to FAIR  principles. The principle of "as open as possible, as closed as necessary" applies.

Financial support provided by the “Verein für medizinische Forschung und Innovation im Kanton Aargau” must be acknowledged in publications and other public presentations of the project results.

Applicable regulations

• ForME funding regulations
• ForME conflict of interest regulations