Question 1

Who is eligible as a main applicant (and hence, if approved, as a Principal Investigator, PI)?"

Accepted Answer

The PI is the responsible researcher/clinician of the Pioneer Project. She/he needs, therefore, organizational, managerial and leadership skills to make the project a success in all respect. The PI can be employed at an institution of the ETH domain, a University, a hospital, etc. However, the consortium need at least one member that is employed at an ETH domain institution.

Question 2

What do you mean by ‘homogeneous’ samples?

Accepted Answer

It means that all samples is expected to be taken in a equal/similar manner, that samples are handled, treated and stored in a same manner. Hence, it is rather a technologic homogeneity.

Question 3

The call excludes FFPE samples. Would it be acceptable if the sample provider has established protocols for DNA and RNA extractions? Then we would not submit FFPE, but extracted DNA & RNA."

Accepted Answer

The reason why PHRT excluded FFPE samples is that there is no standardized method to extract DNA and RNA in a sufficient quality and homogeneity to do a matched WholeGenome-RNA and proteome sequencing (for protein sequencing, formalin do not cause problems).

Question 4

The call excludes blood plasma samples. Can blood samples be sequences?

Accepted Answer

No, actually, blood as well as blood plasma samples are not suited to do a matched sequencing.

Question 5

What is expected for the data management plan?

Accepted Answer

In case the proposal is funded, there will be in one way or another data generated. It is expected that applicants provide their anticipated planning concerning the data, which is for example: what kind of data in generated, how much and at which frequency? how are generated data processed, analyzed, forwarded, discussed, further exploited, distributed, shared, archived and retrieved?   what about data format and data standards? who will be data owner, how are data protected, saved? how will be responsible for the data, how long will these data have to be made available on which urgency level etc. how will be a real but also a potential end user of data or further products (which ones)?

Question 6

Where can I find regulations for research on humans, human embryonic stem cells or animals?"

Accepted Answer

Applicants need to submit the same forms as for an SNSF proposal/project. Please find respective instructions here and here.

Question 7

How to submit the PHRT proposal?

Accepted Answer

Compose one single PDF-file and send it to phrt-office@ethz.ch

Question 8

What to do if the proposal file is too large to be submitted by e-mail?

Accepted Answer

Please send an e-mail to phrt-office@ethz.ch and attache a PDF with "Part 1 General Information". Later, you will receive an e-mail invitation entitled e.g. "[CIFEX] Daniel Vonder Mühll has requested a temporary account for you". Read the instructions and upload your full proposal (less than 300 GB) via CIFEX.   NOTE: Your account will expire after 10 hours (i.e. May 28, 2019 @ 10:00)!

Question 9

Can an applicant take part at different calls with different projects (and roles)? (i.e.: project 1, Technology Translation Project, applicant as PI; project 2, education iDoc, applicant as mentor; project 3, education iPostdoc, applicant as co-PI)"

Accepted Answer

Yes, that is possible.

Question 10

Where can I find the forms 'Research on Humans', 'Research on Animals' and 'GMO and pathogens'? (ethics / regulatory forms for research)"

Accepted Answer

You’ll find these forms on the mySNF webpage. It is the easiest to download the needed documents from there (www.mysnf.ch).

Question 11

Can we have three applicants (me and two collaborators)? Is there any maximum number of applicants?

Accepted Answer

The main applicant should be from an ETH Domain institution, another one should be from a medical faculty, there can be a third co-applicant (even more…) from ETH Domain or medicine.

Question 12

Do we need an MD as a (co-)supervisor?

Accepted Answer

No.

Question 13

Ethics forms for the PHRT Projects: Is it sufficient when we send an attachment of approval by the ethic committee and study registration.

Accepted Answer

Yes.

Question 14

Can a postdoctoral researcher be a co-applicant for an iDoc proposal?

Accepted Answer

Yes, a postdoctoral researcher can be a co-applicant. The critical point is to have the thesis supervisor as PI or Co-PI.

Question 15

Is a data management plan part of the required submission documents for iDoc grants?

Accepted Answer

A data management plan is not requested for the iDoc submission but you can certainly mention how you will handle the data. This will show us that you take this aspect seriously.

Pioneer Projects: multi '-omics' data collection and interpretation of clinical sample cohorts

FAQ concerning the
7th Call for Proposals

Participating institutions of the ETH Domain

Pioneer Projects: multi '-omics' data collection and interpretation of clinical sample cohorts

FAQ concerning the 7th Call for Proposals

FAQ concerning the
7th Call for Proposals