Competition and Funding / EXPLORE Competition

General Information

Scope of the program

The main goal of the CQDM Explore program is to support new unconventional and highly innovative research projects that could strongly impact the drug discovery process.

Projects funded by this program must have the potential for a breakthrough discovery that could lead to an important change in the current paradigm or conventional wisdom. While no preliminary data is necessary, the rationale behind the proposal must be very strong and the applicants must clearly demonstrate how the scientific approach will be validated.

This program is designed for researchers who are interested in establishing closer links with the pharmaceutical industry. In that respect, CQDM has developed a unique mentoring program where senior scientists from the six pharmaceutical sponsors of the Explore program provide support to the researchers in aligning their research towards the needs of the industry.

Duration and Amount of the Grant

Duration : maximum 2 years

Total amount : $150,000 - $300,000

See Call for proposals

Intellectual Property

Pre-existing intellectual property necessary for carrying out the proposed project must be free of all encumbrances.

Intellectual property generated under this funding program will belong to the inventors and their affiliated research entities. A non-exclusive license option will be granted to the CQDM industrial sponsors for the use of the results for R&D purposes only.

For more informations, see Call for proposals

Review and decision process

The review process will be performed in 2 steps:

Preliminary application (Letter of intent)

Applicants must submit a letter of intent describing the project before February 21^th, 2012. The selection of the letters of intent will be overseen by the CQDM’s Explore Advisory Committee. This committee, mainly composed of industry representatives, will select approximately 15 projects that will be subject to an external scientific evaluation. Only applicants whose letter of intent is selected will be invited to submit a full project proposal.

Full proposal

The full applications will be evaluated by an international committee under the responsibility of the FRQS (Fonds de la Recherche du Québec – Santé) and a risk analysis performed by the CQDM. The results of both assessments will be presented to the Explore Advisory Committee who will make recommendations to the CQDM’s Board of directors who, in turn, will make the final selection of the research projects to be funded.

For more informations, see Call for proposals