Call for Study Projects in Pediatric Health Services Research
Background – Facilitating pediatric clinical research
The ssp/sgp and SwissPedNet have decided to collaborate to promote clinical research in pediatrics in Switzerland. Clinical research includes all investigations with relation to patients seen either in private practices or clinics or both. ssp/sgp and SwissPedNet launch their collaboration by issuing a call for a study project in pediatric health services research to be funded with CHF 120’000.–.
The Swiss Association of Paediatrics (ssp/sgp) is the official national association of specialized physicians aiming at supporting health in and medical care of children and adolescents. SwissPedNet – the Swiss Research Network of Clinical Pediatric Hubs – is a research infrastructure of national relevance that, therefore, receives federal funding in the framework of the roadmap 2017-2020 (
www.swisspednet.ch). The network promotes, facilitates, coordinates, and conducts clinical trials devoted to healthy and sick children ranging from newborns to adolescents, in all pediatric disciplines. SwissPedNet is closely linked to the Swiss Clinical Trial Organisation SCTO and its network of CTUs (
www.scto.ch).
Study project in pediatric health services research – Details
The topic of the proposed investigation must be relevant for outpatient care with a wide-ranging scope, must focus on patient-oriented research and may include healthy individuals as controls. No laboratory, early phase or proof of concept studies will be funded as well as no studies conducted for directly commercial purposes.
Study proposals with budgets higher than CHF 120’000.- must document that the costs not covered by this call are covered by other sources.
Submission requirements
Applicant
The applying researcher or pediatric practitioner must be affiliated with or linked to a SwissPedNet member institution (
www.swisspednet.ch). The applicant may be a young researcher if at least one member of his/her research group has a scientific track record and the ability to lead a clinical or epidemiological study in a multi-centric setting.
Member of the research group / project partners
The applicant assembles a research group with project partners. Project partners are researchers who make a partial contribution to the project. They are generally responsible for individual phases or aspects of the study. They do not lead the study and are not responsible for implementing the study as a whole, like e.g. investigators contributing to the inclusion of patients in the different study sites. All project partners must be mentioned in the application.
Study project
The study proposal involves a clinical or epidemiological research project that will reveal results for direct pediatric medical care. The study must be multi-centric and be conducted within the SwissPedNet research infrastructure in preferably all nine clinical pediatric hubs. If applicable, private pediatric practices may also be included as study sites but have to be linked to a SwissPedNet hub.
Submission of proposals
The following must apply in order for your submission to be considered complete:
– Give a short introduction why your topic matches the requirements of this call
– State your hypothesis and list your aims and the methods to achieve them and enable proving or disproving your hypothesis
– Explain the potential benefit of your study result(s) for the pediatric community
– The use of the specific proposal form, available on
www.swisspednet.ch, is mandatory
– Give a detailed description of the budget and – if applicable
– of your various funders
– Provide your application in English
The submission deadline for the call is February 28, 2018.
Please submit your application to: info@swisspednet.ch, subject line: ssp/sgp SwissPedNet call/ Name of applicant
Evaluation process
A judging panel consisting of senior pediatricians from ssp/sgp and SwissPedNet will evaluate the applications, and conflicts of interest will be considered.
One project may be funded.
Funding decision will be communicated on 24 May 2018 during the SwissPedNet Translational and Clinical Research Session at the Annual Meeting of the ssp/sgp in Lausanne.
