[ SNSF - European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases - Call for research projects in the humanities and social sciences | Research funding ]

The European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases (EJP-RD) is launching a new call for research projects in the humanities and social sciences. The call is scheduled to open on early December 2020.

Rare diseases can cause far-reaching changes in all areas of life. Besides physical symptoms, patients also have to bear the psychological, social and economic consequences of the disease. This call focuses on research in the social sciences and humanities that aims to improve the implementation of health care provisions and the everyday life of people who suffer from such a disease.

Research proposals should cover at least one of the following areas

• Health & social care services research to improve patient and familial/household health outcomes;
• Economic Impact of Rare diseases;
• Psychological and Social Impact of Rare diseases;
• Studies addressing the impact/burden of the delay in diagnosis and of the lack of therapeutic intervention;
• e-Health in rare diseases: Use of innovative technology systems for care practices in health and social services;
• Development and enhancement of health outcomes research methods in rare diseases;
• Effects of pandemic crisis and the global outbreak alert and response on the rare disease field, and the emergence of innovative care pathways in this regard.

• Consortia must involve 3-6 eligible PIs from at least 3 different participating countries. All partners in a consortium are supported by the research funding organisations of their respective countries or regions and must follow the country-specific guidelines included in the call document to be published here in early December 2020.
• Applicants from Switzerland must be eligible for SNSF project funding. Please have a look at the EPFL Toolkit for Project Funding. The SNSF invites you to contact them ([email protected]) to verify your eligibility, unless you hold a Project Funding grant already.

• The proposals (pre-proposal and full proposal) have to be submitted to the EJP-RD and the mySNF platform (please select "ERA-NET + EJP: Pre-proposal" for pre-proposals).