Allergan Innovation Award - €8,500

Allergan Press Release here (MS Word 482 Kb)

The Trinity Translation Medicine Institute (TTMI) Allergan Innovation Awards provide seed funding of up to €5,000 to enable and develop new and existing research, innovation and outreach activities with high potential impact in the therapeutic space as well as an opportunity to participate in the postgraduate certificate in Innovation & Entrepreneurship in the Innovation Academy (value of €3,500).

The programme is designed to support short-duration activities with high potential derived impact and specifically to:

• encourage excellent new exploratory and developmental research, innovation and outreach projects; and/or
• to encourage researchers and students to better position themselves to apply for external funding especially leading to larger scale endeavours; and/or
• to add significant value to external grants already secured.

Scope:
Given the objectives as outlined above, a variety of different types of projects might be funded under the programme.  For example, a proposed project might be to fund a new research activity that is challenging, ambitious, and of short duration but which would open up future opportunities with high potential impact.  A project might propose to undertake a feasibility study that might underpin a future application for external funding in a disruptive research area, or indeed to develop the infrastructure needed to support a new research direction that would have high impact. The project may for example put the groundwork in place to allow a researcher to apply for external funding (although this is not a pre-requisite of the scheme).
Application types are not limited to these examples and applicants are encouraged to be innovative in their submissions.

Eligible applicants:
The applicant must be:

• a PhD or an MD student,
• a member of the academic/administrative (research support, innovation support or outreach) staff (permanent or with a contract that covers the period of the award), or
• a contract researcher with a contract that covers the period of the award, who is recognised by the Research Body as an independent investigator.

The proposed award will be coordinated by the  must be spent on research in an area related to Dermatology & Aesthetics, Central Nervous System, Eye Car, Women’s Health & Urology, Gastroenterology, Cardiovascular disease & Infectious disease or an area of Science and Engineering associated with Allergan’s manufacturing technologies

Duration of the award: up to one year from the start date of the award.

Budget eligible costs include:
Eligible costs include relevant research expenses, including equipment, consumables and travel and access to necessary special facilities, which are not available in the University. Other eligible costs include contributions to salaries/stipends for staff hired specifically to carry out the proposed work programme.  There are no overheads associated with this scheme.

Evaluation process:
The evaluation panel are proposed Dean of Research and a representative from schools encompassing medicine, immunology, neuroscience, genetics, chemistry and pharmaceutics.

Marking system:

• Innovative nature of the proposal – 40 marks
• Robust implementation plans and realistic timelines Successful delivery < 12 months – 30 marks
• Extent of unmet clinical need/potential market – 30 marks

Reporting:
It is a condition of this award that each successful applicant provides a final report detailing the output, impacts and future plans for project within six weeks of the end-date of the award. The awardee also accepts that any unspent balances will be recouped upon project completion.

Promotion:
It is a condition of this award that each successful applicant acknowledges the Allergan as sponsor in any project documentation, publications, or communications. The awardee also agrees to participate in any scheme events used to promote these awards.