BeSARPP Research Grants

Application deadline: 1 October, 2024

RESEARCH GRANTS GUIDELINES

1. Each year, The Belgian Society of Anesthesiology, Resuscitation, Perioperative Medicine and Pain Management supports research by BeSARPP research grants.

2. The purpose is to support anesthesia research in Belgium with individual research grants derived from BeSARPP own financial assets, and from contributions made by philanthropists and industry to the Society for Anesthesia and Resuscitation of Belgium.

3. The applicant seeking such support must be a member in good standing of the Society for Anesthesia and Resuscitation of Belgium at the time of application and during the tenure of a research grant.

4. The research for which financial support is solicited must be relevant to the practice or theory of anesthesiology. The project must be carried out in Belgium. Multi-center trials involving other countries in addition to Belgium are only eligible if the leading investigator of the trial is a BeSARPP member in good standing and is primarily affiliated to a Belgian institution. All projects will be blindly reviewed by independent non-Belgian experts. When invited to review the submitted projects, reviewers must disclose any potential conflict of interest with regard to the review process upon accepting to review.

5. Each selected applicant will receive a research grant to a maximum amount that is determined each year by the BeSARPP. The number of attributed grants is also determined each year by the BeSARPP. Number and amount of grants, as well as deadline for application is announced by the BeSARPP upon launching the call for applications. Official call for applications occurs two times a year, once before June 1st, and once before September 1st, through announcement on the BeSARPP website and in the BeSARPP newsletter. Additional advertisement may also appear in the Acta Anaesthesiologica Belgica.

6. Deadline for submission of applications is October 1st, each year.

7. When a grant is attributed, half of the amount is paid at the beginning of the year that follows the Annual Meeting of the BeSARPP in November. The remaining half is paid when the following conditions are fulfilled: proof of acceptance for publication of the results of the research in an international peer-reviewed journal, or the publication of a review of at least 12,000 words on the subject in the Acta Anaesthesiologica Belgica. Additionally, the recipients of grants may be asked to present their project at the Graduation Day of the BeSARPP, or its equivalent, occurring each year in April, May or June.

8. The applicant is requested to follow the flow chart. The treasurer is responsible for the follow-up. This (financial) control of all grants is presented by the treasurer at the annual meeting (General Assembly) of the BeSARPP.

9. The research results related to a study supported by a BeSARPP grant can be published in any international peer-reviewed journal, preferably in a journal related to the field of anesthesiology.

10. Applications are invited from clinicians and researchers who may be at any stage of career development, working in any Belgian hospital or institution, and being BeSARPP members in good standing.

11. Each research grant is to be used to defray the costs of research up to its total value. Any commitments or expenditures incurred by a researcher in excess of the allocated research grant are the sole responsibility of the researcher and will not be afforded by the BeSARPP.

12. The employment of technicians and research assistants under such a research grant is required to conform to the institutional classification and requirements for such personnel. The BeSARPP cannot be held responsible for covering the salaries and insurance of such personnel.

13. The use of and care for animals in any project supported by a research grant has to be in accordance with the international guidelines on animal research.

14. The involvement and recruitment of human subjects has to conform to current guidelines on good research, such as the Code of Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans, the Declaration of Helsinki, or the CONSORT guidelines.

15. A document indicating institutional review and approval of animal and/or human experimentation should ideally be submitted prior to disbursement of any grant (the GCP guidelines). A proof of study registration in a public clinical trial database (such as EudraCT or Clinical Trial Center) should also ideally be available to the BeSARPP upon request for any submitted research project that receives a grant, should such a registration be needed to conform to quality of research guidelines. If those formalities are in progress at the time of candidacy for a BeSARPP grant, a proof of submission to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and to the clinical trial registry has to be provided upon submission of the research project to the BeSARPP. If no acceptance of IRB and/or study registration is obtained within 12 months after candidacy for a BeSARPP grant, the BeSARPP should be informed, and may eventually ask for refund of the already perceived amounts. The BeSARPP would like here to underline that IRB approval and eventually registration of the study in a public clinical trial database are necessary before the beginning of recruitment of subjects into the study.

16. The completed application form, and the completed application checklist, have to reach the BeSARPP secretariat by e-mail before the deadline for submission (October 1st). It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure that all sections of the application form are completed in a clear and concise manner, and that all requested information is provided in due time. Documentation of institutional approval for human and/or animal experimentation as well as proof of registration to a public clinical trial registry, where applicable, is ideally provided in the submission email or at least before the beginning of the study and subject recruitment. Any failure to provide such a document or delay in providing it must be duly justified. Applications that fail to fulfill these conditions will be asked once to submit missing documents by the BeSARPP secretariat, and missing information should be sent back to the secretariat within 1 week after receiving the request from the secretariat. If they are not supplied without valuable justification, the application will be withheld.

17. Receipt of the application will be acknowledged by e-mail.

18. The application for each grant will be judged by an international group that consists of 3-5 peer reviewers. Judgment is on the basis of relevance to the specialty and scientific merit, originality, study design, clearness and conciseness, financial plan, compliance with ethics (animal or human)/study registration, scientific reputation of the principal investigator or the person who applies for the BeSARPP Grant, time schedule and feasibility, and adequacy of references.

19. Of note, full financial support of scientific projects is seldom possible.

20. The research grants will be announced and presented during the BeSARPP Annual Meeting.

21. Financial statements and a flow chart will be requested from the investigator holder of the grant. Any uncommitted balance following the term of the grant will be reverted to the BeSARPP.

22. The recipient of a BeSARPP research grant will be required to notify the BeSARPP office if, for any reason, he/she is unable to complete the project for which the grant was awarded. Any uncommitted balance will have to be refunded to the BeSARPP.

23. It is a requirement of this research program that all papers and abstracts resulting from the research initiative include an acknowledgement of support from the Research Grant Program of The Belgian Society of Anesthesiology, Resuscitation, Perioperative Medicine and Pain Management. The following statement should be added to the adequate section of submitted manuscripts: ‘This study was supported by an unrestricted Research Grant awarded by The Belgian Society of Anesthesiology, Resuscitation, Perioperative Medicine and Pain Management’.

24. The awarded money can only be transferred to an institutional account and not to a personal account.

25. The completed application package should be e-mailed, before the deadline for submission, to the BeSARPP Secretariat at the following e-mail address: besarpp@medicongress.com