| Call for proposals In March, ZonMw opens two calls for proposals. One of these calls focuses on multidisciplinary consortia, in which medical and biological researchers from different disciplines and academic institutions collaborate with alpha and gamma scientists. You can apply for a research grant on two subjects. In research line 1 you can submit a proposal for research into serious hereditary diseases (monogenetic disorders). This concerns research resulting in new insights into the disease mechanism of various serious hereditary diseases, which may lead to new treatments for patients. The research uses iPS cell lines, organoids or existing embryonic stem cell lines. Research line 2 focuses on the (further) development of human embryo-like structures that can ultimately serve as a model for human embryonic development. This includes blastoids, gastruloids or iPS gametes and non-viable embryos that result from this. The programme also stimulates the development of other human embryo-like structures. The programme also focuses on ethical, social and legal issues. Collaboration between various scientific and social disciplines provides the answers to these issues. This applies to the research in research line 2, which is still in a more fundamental phase. However, ethical or legal issues can also arise in research line 1, for example about ownership of organoids. For projects in both research lines, ethical, social and legal aspects (ELSI) of the project must be explored within the project. In addition, a call for proposals is published for ethical research into the moral acceptability of creating non-viable embryos for research. Kick-off meeting On Wednesday 1 April, ZonMw had planned to organise a kick-off meeting for this programme. Due to coronavirus, alternatives are being explored. The meeting was aimed to provide information on the outline and calls for proposals of the programme and matchmaking. Researchers who are interested are requested to sign up via this registration form. For further questions, please contact Karien de Rooij, programme manager via [email protected]. | 
