Novartis FreeNovation 2025

The FreeNovation program, sponsored by the Novartis Research Foundation, provides funding for innovative and unconventional biomedical research projects. It aims to support bold ideas that are unlikely to secure funding from conventional sources.


2025 Focus Areas:

1. Glycobiology: Understanding glycan structure, biosynthesis, and their link to diseases such as autoimmune disorders, cancer, and neurodegeneration.
2. Therapeutic Epigenetics: Developing targeted epigenetic therapies and addressing resistance mechanisms and long-term effects.
3. In Vivo Biology: Exploring physiological responses and interactions at the whole-organism level to understand disease mechanisms and therapeutic impacts.


Funding Details:

- Up to 12 projects funded, each receiving a maximum of CHF 220,000.
- Duration: 18 months.


Eligibility:

- Researchers with a doctorate or equivalent, employed by a Swiss institution (university, hospital, or healthcare-related organization).
- The project must be unrelated to any commercial interests or affiliations with Novartis.


Key Features:

- Anonymized Selection: Focuses solely on the originality and potential of the proposal.
- Non-commercial: Research outputs must be published freely, without patent restrictions.
- Risk-taking Encouraged: Preliminary results are not required; unorthodox ideas are prioritized.


Application Requirements:

  - Project summary (200 words).
  - Background, hypotheses, aims, and proposed experiments (400 words each).
  - One-slide visual summary.
Selection Criteria:
- Originality: Potential to pioneer new research directions.
- Feasibility: Plausibility of hypotheses and clarity of the proposed experiments.
- Impact: Capacity to advance biomedical innovation.


Application Process:

- Deadline: 16th March 2025 (23:59 CET).
Institutional support letter is required: Please contact the EPFL Research Office for an institutional support letter before 8 March 2023.
- Apply online at Novartis Grants Portal (https://novartisgrants.smapply.io/).
- Results Announcement: Mid-July 2025.
- Final Presentation: At the FreeNovation Science Forum upon project completion.


Further information:

-    Call webpage
-    Contact person at Novartis: Myriam Duckely


For further questions contact [email protected]