Grant Application Procedure

Applications are made in 2 ways

Any application received without its lay counterpart will not be considered

  1. A scientific application is made online, via a portal kindly provided by one of our member organisations, AFM-Téléthon. To create an account and submit the scientific proposal, please click here.
  2. A lay application, made directly to SMA Europe via our Research Manager. Please click here to download the application form.
Application portalEligibility & procedureApplication form

Important dates

  1. Portal opens: 14th March 2024
  2. Portal closes: 17.00 CET on 13th May 2024
  3. External peer-review: June – August 2024
  4. Internal peer-review: September – October 2024
  5. Notifications: November - December 2024

For information on dates, eligibility and procedure, please download the Eligibility Document.

At a glance

Criteria

1. Relevance and significance

How is this research relevant to a better understanding of SMA, its causes, cure and/or prevention? Does this study address an important problem or a bottleneck in R&D? Is there a sufficient body of high quality fundamental, pre-clinical or clinical research that supports the rationale for the proposed study? What is the potential impact of the proposed intervention on health care and quality of life? 

2. Project quality/ scientific soundness:

Are the rationale and experimental design adapted to the study objectives? 

3. Innovation

Are the aims of the study original? Does the proposed study design represent advancement in the field? Does the project advance international cooperation in the field? 

4. Feasibility

Are the conceptual framework, design, methods, and analyses adequately developed, well integrated, and appropriate to the aims of the project? Does the applicant acknowledge potential problem areas and consider alternative strategies? Is the principal investigator well suited to carry out the proposed study? Is the scientific environment adequate? Is there evidence of institutional support? Have appropriate agreements with collaborators been established? 

5. Reasonableness of the budget

Is the budget reasonable in relation to the proposed research? 

In focus

Scoring & Selection

The written reviews of external referees are an important element in the decision-making process, but these are not the sole criteria for deciding the success or failure of an application.

In practice, only projects which attract the best scores are likely to be successful. We expect to provide feedback to both successful and unsuccessful applicants in the form of reviewers' comments plus any relevant points arising from the SAB’s discussions, but this may not always be practical. 

Whilst there are many inherent problems with the peer review process, we believe that this process constitutes the fairest and most consistent way to assess grant applications. We shall endeavor to ensure that the process is as open and transparent as possible and that we maintain the best possible communications with all our applicants. 

SMA Europe will hold contractual, financial and administrative responsibility for awarded projects.