Proposal Guidelines

EU-OPENSCREEN Med Chem user guidelines v2.0 - 250121 

EU-OPENSCREEN Medicinal Chemistry Application Guidelines  

Access  

EU-OPENSCREEN offers access to medicinal chemistry support for hit-to-lead, fragment-to-lead and lead optimization phases of drug discovery. In addition, researchers can access services for the design and synthesis of target degraders (PROTACs, RIBOTACs). 

Detailed list of EU-OPENSCREEN chemistry groups is available on https://www.eu-openscreen.eu/services/medicinal-chemistry.html.  

For information and support in the application process please contact us at scientific-projects@eu-openscreen.eu. 

Who can apply? 

• Researchers from academia, non-profit organisations and industry (including SMEs) can request access to EU-OPENSCREEN screening services.  
• Within the frame of EU funded transnational access (TNA) calls (e.g. CanSERV, etc) user access is transnational only. Users are not allowed to access facility(ies) in their home country.  

General criteria for application 

• Applicants commit to having obtained legal and ethical consent regarding their research, their samples and/ or their data prior to submitting their application. 
• Applicants must agree to comply with the access, IP and dissemination policies described in the statutes of EU-OPENSCREEN ERIC (available at https://www.eu-openscreen.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/newsroom_and_downloads/201210_Statutes_V3_FINAL.pdf).  
• Applicants must agree to comply with the EU-OPENSCREEN privacy policy and terms of submission (available at https://drive.eu-openscreen.eu/index.php?id=137).  

Publication 

Open access (gold or green, more details here:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access#Colour_naming_system) is required for any publication of access results. In case your proposal is funded by an EU grant (e.g. CanSERV, etc) funding must be clearly acknowledged by: “This project has received funding from the European Union´s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No XXXXX.” 

How to submit a proposal:  

1. Applicants submit their project idea to the EU-OPENSCREEN project management team via a dedicated Contact Form at https://www.eu-openscreen.eu/screening-project-submission.html. 

1. Applicants will then be contacted to arrange a short call to discuss the projects feasibility and potential partner sites.  

1. Suitable applicants will be asked to complete a full application form by connecting to the ARIA online submission platform (at https://apply.eu-openscreen.eu/submit-proposal/)(full application guidelines can be downloaded from https://www.eu-openscreen.eu/services/medicinal-chemistry.html., please refer to “Application step by step (via ARIA)”. 

Applications for access can be submitted at any time and will be evaluated on a rolling basis. 

Proposal evaluation 

The review process of applications consists of two steps of evaluation (1. scientific and 2. technical). The application will remain strictly confidential throughout the review process. Reviewers will be bound by a non-disclosure agreement.  

Two independent external experts in the field of chemical biology will evaluate the scientific excellence of the proposal. Innovation potential and gender aspects of the project-specific research questions and method will also be considered.  

Technical feasibility will be assessed by the EU-OPENSCREEN ERIC chemistry partner of interest. Herein, technical reviewers will assess whether appropriate resources for the technical implementation of the projects are available at the partner sites.  

The complete evaluation is carried out online in ARIA, and evaluation results are visible on the applicant’s dashboard (at https://apply.eu-openscreen.eu/dashboard/).  

Incomplete proposals and those that haven’t passed the minimum threshold/ criteria for acceptance, will be returned to applicants for amendments according to the reviewer’s comments. Users will be able to re-submit their revised proposals which will be re-evaluated.  

Costs and funding 

EU-OPENSCREEN does not provide funding for the services offered by the partners sites. These costs (e.g. personnel, machine time, consumables, labware etc) are discussed with the relevant partner site and depend on the complexity and duration of the project.  

If you apply for an open call funded by an EU grant, costs of successful projects for instrumentation time, consumables, reagents, and personnel required at the facilities are funded. 

Please get in touch with us at scientific-projects@eu-openscreen.eu for grant writing support and/ or help with funding opportunities.​