Biomedical Engineering Programme (BEP) 2011 Grant Call Announcement

The Biomedical Engineering Programme (BEP) is a competitive, multi-disciplinary grant programme aimed at engaging the local clinical community with engineers and scientists to develop cost-effective innovations through a needs-driven approach that will improve patient care. 

The BEP 2011 Grant Call is funded by the Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) and seeks to foster Clinician-Engineer/Scientist collaborations to develop medical devices and solutions to clinical problems. The BEP supports collaborative research projects with emphasis on devices, procedures, diagnosis, and clinical systems. 

Areas of Interest

Projects will have to be driven by needs identified by the Clinical Community that are matched to a potential technological solution from the A*STAR SERC or BMRC Research institutes (RIs), and/or Non-A*STAR Institutes (Universities, Polytechnics, Publicly-funded Institutes). 

All funded projects must demonstrate high potential for commercial outcome and show a high likelihood of rapid impact on patient care.

The applications for this grant call are not restricted to a particular clinical area.

There are 2 application categories: 

a) Proof-of-Concept (POC) Application
b) Proof-of-Value (POV) Application

Eligibility

Each proposal must involve a collaboration between a Clinical Lead Principal Investigator (PI) and a Technical Lead Principal Investigator. The Clinical Lead PI must be primarily employed by a publicly funded restructured hospital, national specialty centre or medical school and the Technical Lead PI must be employed by a local publicly funded institution. 

The two Lead PIs must fulfil the following conditions:

• The Clinical Lead PI should:
o Be a registered medical practitioner  or a registered nurse   in Singapore and have access to patients or an Allied Health staff;
o Be primarily employed by a local publicly funded restructured hospital, national specialty centre or medical school;
o Reside in Singapore for at least 9 months in a year;
o Part of the Clinical Lead PI’s personal manpower cost can be funded up to a certain cap, subject to the amount given under the POC and POV grants.

• The Technical Lead PI should:
o Possess a minimum academic qualification of a Masters Degree;
o Be an investigator from a A*STAR RI (SERC and BMRC) OR Non-A*STAR Publicly funded Institutes (Universities, Polytechnics and Publicly-funded Institutes);
o Reside in Singapore for at least 9 months in a year;
o If Technical Lead PI is not affiliated to a SERC RI, he/she has to ensure the inclusion of a SERC Co-Investigator on the team. The H&L office can provide the connections to the relevant SERC researchers. If the Technical Lead PI/Co-Investigator is from the universities, polytechnics or other public-funded institutes but holds an adjunct position at any of the A*STAR SERC RIs, he/she may be considered as a SERC team member. The adjunct appointment holders will need to obtain approval from their SERC RI ED to participate in the grant.

All other researchers from A*STAR (SERC and BMRC), publicly-funded hospitals and academic institutions can participate as Co-Investigators and can receive funding for manpower, equipment and other operating expenses as agreed by all parties in the grant.

Collaborators from Private Companies (Local/Overseas) and Overseas Institutes can participate in the grant by providing background technology or in-kind contributions in terms of manpower or time, and share in the proceeds if project is successful. However, collaborators will not receive any funding. Other Local Publicly Funded institutions can also be collaborators.

Application

Applicants are required to submit a four page pre-proposal in a soft and hard copy. An original application (hard copy) endorsed by the Host Institution must be submitted to A*STAR through the Host Institution’s research office.

Closing Date

The Call for Pre-Proposals will open on 11th Nov 2011 (Friday) and will close at 5:00pm (Singapore Standard Time (SST)) on 10th Jan 2012 (Tuesday).

Softcopy submission of the Pre-Proposal in both the Word Format (without signatures) and PDF format (with Lead-PIs’ signatures and Host Institutions’ signatures) must be made to Dr. Denise Teoh at teohdy@scei.a-star.edu.sg. The deadline for softcopy submission is 10th Jan 2012 (Tuesday) at 5pm, SST.

All hardcopy proposals with signatures must be submitted through either the Clinical Lead PI’s or Technical Lead PI’s respective Office Of Research / Principal’s or Directors’ Office / Agency Headquarters / RI ED’s Office or equivalent. The deadline for hardcopy submission to the Healthcare & Lifestyle Programme Office, attention to Dr Denise Teoh, is 16th Jan 2012 (Monday) at 5pm, SST.

Evaluation

Applications will be evaluated in two Phases: A solicitation for pre-proposals (Phase I), and a subsequent submission of full proposals (Phase II). Based upon a review and selection of the most promising projects in Phase I, invitations will be extended to a limited number of applicants to submit full proposals during Phase II.

Others

For further enquiries, please feel free to email:

Dr. Denise Teoh at: teohdy@scei.a-star.edu.sg.

Status of Grant Call:

S/No	Tasks	Deadlines	Status
1.	Submission of White Paper Proposals and Presentation Slides -Softcopy -Hardcopy	10 Jan 2012, 1700h 16 Jan 2012, 1700h	Closed Closed
2.	Internal Review & Selection of Pre-proposals for Full Proposal Submission	6 Feb 2012, 2359h	Completed
3.	Submission of Full Proposals - Softcopy - Hardcopy	5 Mar 2012, 1000h 9 Mar 2012, 1700h	Completed
4.	Review & Selection of Full Proposals for Grant Award	2 May 2012	Completed