Research Call 2019-2020

October 24th, 2019

Muscular Dystrophy Ireland (MDI) is pleased to announce a call for research proposals under the Health Research Charities Ireland (HRCI) and Health Research Board (HRB) Joint Research Fund. Projects funded under this call will begin in November 2020.

Opening Date: 24 October 2019

Closing date for pre-application form: 18 November 2019

Closing date for full applications (if shortlisted): 17 January 2020

Duration of Funding: 12 to 36 months

Level of funding: Up to €50,000 per year

About Muscular Dystrophy Ireland

Muscular Dystrophy Ireland aims to provide information and support to people with neuromuscular conditions and their families through a range of support services. Our objective is to promote through practical empowerment, independent living for people with the condition muscular dystrophy. Muscular Dystrophy Ireland supports advocating for services to enable people with neuromuscular conditions to fully participate in society and to live a life of their own choosing. Muscular Dystrophy Ireland is also committed to supporting and funding research into neuromuscular conditions.

Our Research Strategy and Priorities

Muscular Dystrophy Ireland is committed to supporting researchers and clinicians to carry out the best quality research into neuromuscular conditions.

We aim to:

• Gain a greater understanding of neuromuscular conditions in order to develop potential treatments and ensure a route for clinical trials
• Support more studies into ultra-rare conditions
• Facilitate quality of life research

Our research priorities are to:

• Optimise the potential of genetics in order to enhance our understanding of why people with the same condition are affected differently and, also, so that more people receive a confirmed genetic diagnosis, which will help us to better understand the conditions.
• Understand disease mechanisms
• Support treatment development
• Improve quality of life.

Areas of research

MDI encourages proposals for all types of research including basic, clinical, psychosocial and health services research. We seek proposals relating to any of the following neuromuscular conditions:

• Becker muscular dystrophy
• Bethlem myopathy
• Central core disease (congenital myopathy)
• Charcot-Marie-Tooth (and related hereditary motor and sensory neuropathies)
• Congenital muscular dystrophy
• Congenital myasthenic syndromes
• Congenital myotonic dystrophy
• Dermatomyositis
• Duchenne muscular dystrophy
• Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy
• Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy
• Fibre-type disproportion (congenital myopathy)
• Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP)
• Inclusion body myositis
• Juvenile dermatomyositis
• Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD1B, LGMD1C, LGMD2A, LGMD2B, LGMD2I)
• Manifesting carriers of Duchenne muscular dystrophy
• McArdle’s Disease
• Merosin-deficient congenital muscular dystrophy (MDC1A)
• Metabolic disorders
• Minicore (multicore) congenital myopathy
• Mitochondrial myopathies
• Myasthenia gravis
• Myopathy
• Myotonias
• Myotonic dystrophy
• Myotubular (centronuclear) congenital myopathy
• Nemaline congenital myopathy
• Oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy
• Periodic paralysis
• Polymyositis
• Pompe Disease
• Rigid spine syndrome
• Sarcoglycanopathies (LGMD2C, LGMD2D, LGMD2E, LGMD2F)
• Sarcoid myopathy
• Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA type 1, SMA type 2, SMA type 3, adult onset SMA or type 4 SMA)
• Spinal bulbar muscular atrophy (also known as Kennedy’s Disease)
• Ullrich congenital muscular dystrophy.

Application Process

In order to better streamline the application process for both Muscular Dystrophy Ireland and for applicants, we ask applicants to complete and submit the ‘Pre-application’ form (below) by 18 November 2019 at 5pm. Applicants should not complete the Full HRCI/HRB Application Form at this stage. However, both the full HRCI/HRB Application Form and HRCI/HRB Instructions to Applicants are available below for reference. We strongly recommend that applicants review the HRCI/HRB Instructions to Applicants (including the notes on exclusions) as well as the additional Muscular Dystrophy Ireland Guidance Notes prior to beginning an application.

Following an internal review of all ‘pre-applications’ received, applicants will be notified of the shortlisting outcome on 28 November. Shortlisted applicants will then be invited to submit the full application form by 17 January.  Please see the Muscular Dystrophy Ireland Guidance Notes below for more information.

Review Process

Stage 1:   
Internal review of pre-application submissions to develop shortlist for full applications

Stage 2: 
International peer review of full applications including applicants’ Right-to-Reply

Stage 3:        
Evaluation and ranking by Muscular Dystrophy Ireland Research Committee

Stage 4:        
Highest ranking proposals submitted for consideration under the HRCI /HRB Joint Funding Scheme.

The successful project(s) will be funded jointly by Muscular Dystrophy Ireland and the HRB, beginning in November 2020.

For application forms or more details on the HRCI/HRB Joint Funding Scheme, please see the links below.

For further information, please contact:

Maeve Healy,
Information Officer,

mdiinfo@mdi.ie  /  (01) 623 6414

Downloadable Resources:

Muscular Dystrophy Ireland Pre-Application Form

Muscular Dystrophy Ireland Guidance Notes

HRCI-HRB 2020 Instructions to Applicants (for full application)

HRCI-HRB 2020 Full Application Form (for reference only)

Categories: Studies