Opportunity profile: Getting on top of growth disorders

The Grant for Growth Innovation offers up to €400,000 each year for research into growth disorders. The scheme, funded by pharmaceutical company Merck, has a translational focus but researchers looking at fundamental questions can also apply, as Eleni Courea finds out.

Proposals to the Grant for Growth Innovation scheme can request any amount within the €400,000 (£340,500) upper limit, but in the three previous annual competitions the prize has been divided between two or three winners. Research projects should run for a maximum of three years. The application deadline for 2017 is 31 January.

Steven Hildemann, global chief medical officer at Merck, explains what his company hopes the scheme can achieve, and Christian Strasburger, professor of medicine at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin, who chairs the independent scientific committee that reviews applications, has some guidance for applicants.