HDH x TERA : call for a binational research grant

Context

The French Health Data Hub, representing the French Medical AI ecosystem, and the Technion-Rambam Initiative in Medical AI, “TERA”, Israel, are opening a call to fund a collaborative research project in the wide field of medical AI.

Objectives and key features of the binational grant

This binational grant seeks to establish a robust scientific partnership in the field of medical AI between the Technion-IIT, Israel, and the French medical AI ecosystem, represented by the French Health Data Hub. The objective of this partnership is to fund a concrete French-Israeli research project in the field of AI and medicine, while raising visibility of HDH services, promote the use of French data, raise visibility of Israeli data curated by TERA and encourage broader French-Israeli research collaborations. Through this collaboration and possible future collaborations and projects, the partners Israel and France aim to foster groundbreaking research, promote knowledge exchange and drive innovation in medical AI.

Thematic scope

This call for a binational grant aims to identify and support a research project in relevant sectors where advances in AI create added value for the development of products, tools, interventions or applications in health. Research proposals should therefore be based on the secondary use of health data, mobilize AI approaches in the field of health, and relate to one of the following themes :

theme n°1 : development of AI-based applications for health organizations, professionals or patients ;
theme n°2 : development of population models for prevention ;
theme n°3 : therapy based on innovative data analysis techniques ;
theme n°4 : development of solutions demonstrating benefits for treatment care.

Eligibility criteria

Research proposals must meet the following eligibility criteria :

Application form

Fulfilling the application form, in compliance with the required format (see section 8 of the specifications document). In particular, all paragraphs, tables and tabs must be filled in, and margins and font sizes respected.
Timely electronic submission of the application form and required documents, to the dedicated e-mail address.

Project

Processing of medical data from Israel and/or France must occur. If only medical data from one of the two countries is involved, the research proposal should demonstrate specific added value of this international collaboration.
Budget of the project must be aligned with the funding proposed as part of this call for a binational grant (as per sections 1.3 and 6 of the specifications document).
Activities to be financed through the grant :
- must not be initiated before signature of the partnership agreement ;
- must not be benefiting or have benefited from public funding outside the framework of this call for a binational grant : by the State, local authorities, the European Union or their agencies ;
Duration of the project must not exceed 18 months from the date of signature of the partnership agreement.
Where applicable, additional support required from the HDH must be aligned with the information listed in section 5 of the specifications document.
In line with “FAIR” principles and with the European Union's policy on open science, research proposals should contribute to making scientific research more easily accessible and valuable. Applicants for this call for projects are encouraged to specify how part or all of the results of their project (e.g., documentation, algorithms, programs and results) will be made available in open access and open source.

Project owners

At least one French staff and one Technion staff as PIs.
Each PI can apply once.
A faculty member who is on sabbatical, on unpaid vacation or retired is not eligible to receive the grant at this time.

Projects that fail to meet one of the eligibility criteria will be excluded from the selection process, with no right of appeal.

Selection criteria

Research proposals will be reviewed by a jury, based primarily on the following criteria :

Expected benefits

justification of the project rationale and of its output (research gap addressed, relevance of underlying social and/or health and/or environmental issues, explicit forecast of medical/economic benefits) ;
relevance of the project to the thematic scope ;
clear research question : definition of pathology and target population.

Innovativeness

positioning and added value in relation to the state of the art ;
where applicable, relevance of data matching to be carried out.

Feasibility

clear and milestone-based project planning ;
detailed description of algorithmic and methodological approach ;
relevance of data required ;
realism of budget and alignment with milestones ;
primary expense items clearly detailed ;
risk assessment and associated mitigations.

Expertise of project teams and project maturity

experience and commitment of members of the project team ;
alignment between project team composition and project’s vision ;
understanding and progress in regulatory procedures ;
availability of preliminary results attesting to the project's credibility is a plus.

Open science

reusability of shared open source items under a permissive license

Appropriateness of budget and support requested

relevance of the request for funding and, where applicable, for support from the HDH.

Selection process

This call for a binational research grant is a venture jointly operated by the HDH and TERA. Upon closure of the application period, each submitted research proposal will be reviewed for eligibility against criteria listed in sections 2 and 8 of the specifications document.

Eligible projects will then be reviewed by a jury as per selection criteria listed in section 3 of the specifications document. Members of the jury will convene a selection committee to rank eligible projects per merit, explaining any reservations.

This list will be submitted to the management of both the HDH and TERA for final decision, particularly with regard to requests for financial support.

Timeframe

Opening of applications : 20/02/2025
Closing of applications : 31/03/2025 at 11:59 PM (Paris time)

Budget and support

A binational research grant will be awarded to one research proposal, consisting in:

funding from the HDH up to 100,000 € ;
funding from TERA up to $70,000 (amount after overhead) ;
support from the HDH at each stage of the project, in the form of technical and/or human resources, for a maximum duration of 18 months upon signature of the partnership agreement.

Application process

In order to be dully reviewed for eligibility, each research proposal must include the following items :

the application form, fully completed. Information must be documented in English ;
a 1-pager short CV for each PI, including 3-5 selected references pertaining to the research topic ;

for French investigators only :

the completed “budget form”, as an Excel spreadsheet, detailing the types of expenditures and associated amounts (in €) for each main step of the project for which HDH funding will be used (“annexe financière”) ;
where applicable, the rationale (“expression de besoin”) for requesting access to the French National Health Data System (“base principale du SNDS”).

for Israeli investigators only :

the completed budget form, as an Excel spreadsheet, detailing the types of expenditures and the amounts (in Israeli currency) required for each step of the project.

Further information

Binational research grant specifications
Terms and conditions pertaining to the selection process for the HDH x TERA binational research grant (to be uploaded by end of February)
HDH terms for funding (in French)
HDH partnership agreement template (to be uploaded by end of February)

Please submit your application files (application form, budget Form, one page CVs) to tera.grant@health-data-hub.fr

[where applicable] Request form to access the French National Health Data System