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INFRAFRONTIER2020 project
Trans-national Access call - October 2018

INFRAFRONTIER2020 project
Trans-national Access call - October 2018

Context and aim of the call

Main objective of this INFRAFRONTIER2020 Trans-national Access call is to facilitate access for the wider biomedical research community to the unique infrastructure and scientific expertise of the participating INFRAFRONTIER mouse clinics, where mouse mutant lines can be tested through specialised metabolic- and behavioural phenotyping pipelines. Disturbed energy balance regulation results in obesity and in numerous related metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes mellitus. We offer specialised phenotyping pipelines comprising state-of-the-art test assays monitoring disease related parameters. In-depth behavioural phenotyping supports the elucidation of the molecular and genetic basis of behavioural impairments that are relevant for human neuropsychiatric disorders such as anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, schizophrenia, autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Disease.

Access will be granted on the basis of scientific excellence and supports the development and in depth characterisation of mouse models for investigating gene function and human pathophysiology. INFRAFRONTIER will provide open access to all characterised disease models and phenotyping data

Access modalities

The EC Horizon 2020 funded INFRAFRONTIER2020 project (2017 – 2020) supports eligible customers with a free-of-charge mouse model phenotyping service implemented as a Trans-national Access activity supporting a total of 9 projects in this first call.

The access unit offered covers the specialised metabolic or behavioural phenotyping of a mouse mutant line, and the preparation of a comprehensive phenotyping report.

Participating mouse clinics are the German Mouse Clinic (GMC), the Czech Centre for Phenogenomics (CCP), and PHENOMIN-ICS.

Centre specific collaboration agreements will be established between applicants and the mouse clinics. Selected projects will be allocated to the mouse clinics based on scope of submitted project proposals.

Starting material for the phenotyping projects are either experimental cohorts (10-12 mutant and control mice, 10-15 weeks of age, acceptance depending on health certificates, GMC and PHENOMIN-ICS) or a breeding nucleus and then cohorts are bred by mouse clinics (CCP). Mouse mutants from various sources (transgenes, knockout mice, mutants from mutagenesis screens like ENU) and of different genetic backgrounds can be accepted.

The phenotyping pipelines to be used will be specialised metabolic- or behavioural phenotyping pipelines based on published IMPReSS SOPs (IMPReSS: http://www.mousephenotype.org/impress), or on local mouse clinic SOPs. Details of the specific mouse clinic specialised phenotyping pipelines are described on page 5 of the application form.

Support will be provided by the mouse clinics to analyse and interpret the phenotype data.

The analysed mouse models and the generated phenotype data will be made available to the scientific community. An optional grace period of up to 1 year for mouse resources and phenotype data may apply, with immediate release of mouse resources and data after expiry of the grace period. A phenotyping report with all phenotype data will be prepared, and data will also be uploaded onto a public phenotype database of the mouse clinics and / or onto the IMPC portal at http://www.mousephenotype.org. Mouse mutant lines will be deposited into the INFRAFRONTIER/EMMA repository for subsequent use by the scientific community, and will be distributed using the applicant’s institutional MTAs.

Costs

The access to the INFRAFRONTIER2020 phenotyping service is free of charge. However, the shipment cost of mouse mutant lines to the participating mouse clinics must be borne by the applicants.

Eligibility

The INFRAFRONTIER2020 Trans-national Access call is open and proposals can be submitted from applicants around the world. Seven projects must be allocated to applicants from EU Member States and Associated Countries, and two projects can be allocated to applicants from third countries.

Application

Service requests for the INFRAFRONTIER2020 specialised phenotyping service can be made via an application form. Applications for the Trans-national Access activity must include a short description of the research plans for utilising the phenotyped mouse model that is being characterised by the INFRAFRONTIER2020 TA service.

Selection procedure


Proposals from eligible customers for free of charge access to the INFRAFRONTIER2020 specialised phenotyping service will be subject to a review procedure. The review will be based on short descriptions of the projects involving the mouse mutants that will be phenotyped by the TA service. A mixed panel of members of INFRAFRONTIER and of an external Evaluation Committee will assess service requests supported by the TA activity. In addition to scientific merit of applicants, relevance and quality of preliminary data, soundness of the proposal and research plans, and the project objectives and prospects for exploitation of phenotype data will be assessed. In a further step experts of the mouse clinics will assess the technical feasibility of projects.

The technical evaluation of projects may require the provision of additional data such as:
- Information on the genetic modification of your mutant mouse line if applicable (e.g. affected gene, MGI ID of the gene, type of mutation, ES-cell line used, genetic background (e.g. number of backcross generations)
- Description of DNA modification (vector, remaining non-recipient DNA, donor organism)
- Mutant phenotype(s), special housing or care requirements
- Current sanitary status
- Intellectual property rights (who generated and who owns the mouse line

Applicants will be informed on the outcome of the evaluation within 6 weeks after the end of the call for which the TA application was submitted. All applications will be handled with strict confidentiality.

Acknowledgements: Please do acknowledge any support under this scheme in all resulting publications with ‘Part of this work has been funded by the European Union Research and Innovation programme Horizon 2020 (Grant Agreement Number 730879)’. The participating infrastructure, which provided the service, should be specifically mentioned in any publication resulting from the service.

Timeline: Closing of call on 15 November 2018 - Evaluation process until 15 December 2018
A researcher wearing purple latex gloves
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