About the Program

Who We Are

The Bayer Group is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, nutrition and high-tech materials. Bayer HealthCare, a subgroup of Bayer AG, with annual sales of EUR 16,913 million (2010), is one of the world’s leading, innovative companies in the health care and medical products industry and is based in Leverkusen, Germany. The company combines the global activities of the Animal Health, Consumer Care, Medical Care and Pharmaceuticals divisions. Bayer HealthCare’s aim is to discover and manufacture products that will improve human and animal health worldwide. Bayer HealthCare has a global workforce of 53,400 employees and is represented in more than 100 countries. Find more information at www.bayerhealthcare.com.

Bayer envisions the Hemophilia Awards Program as a step toward making the dream of hemophilia cures and improved treatments a reality.

The Bayer Hemophilia Awards Program demonstrates our commitment to the global bleeding disorders community and to advancing the state of the art of hemophilia care.

Research Priorities

Currently, the Program’s Research Priorities are focused on hemophilia. The program’s research priorities for the 2010/2011 cycle are as follows:

• Research into prophylaxis regimens for hemophilia patients, including the generation of outcomes data and measures of adherence.
• Research into the impact of advancing age on hemophilia patients, including the effect of co-morbidities previously unseen in the hemophilia patient population.
• Projects evaluating how to prevent inhibitor development.
• Clinical studies focusing on treatment modalities for hemophilia.
• Research focused on understanding the therapeutic mechanism of action of FVIIa
• Innovations that would lead to improved safety, efficacy or duration of action of rFVIIa for the treatment of hemophilia
• Development of experimental in vitro and in vivo models to evaluate therapeutics for the treatment of bleeding disorders
• Discovery or development of new recombinant molecules with potential therapeutic value in bleeding disorders
• New delivery options for these molecules, including gene therapy
• Research to define a molecular basis for inhibitor development in hemophilia
• Health outcomes and quality-of-life research related to hemophilia
• Studies designed to increase the diagnosis, recognition and treatment of hemophilia in underserved areas.

Previous Research

In previous award cycles the Program has provided funding to support several projects in the following areas:

• Aspects of the molecular biology of vWF structure and function and the diagnosis and treatment of vWD
• The function and regulation of platelets and the diagnosis of platelet disorders.

As a result, the Program will not award projects in these areas during this award cycle.

Excluded Research Topics

In order to maintain a focus on hemophilia and bleeding disorders, the Program will not support research focused on:

• Products or technologies licensed or patented by competitors of Bayer
• Cancer diagnosis or therapy
• AIDS diagnosis or hepatitis therapy except where specifically related to patients with hemophilia and HIV, HCV or HBV
• Cardiovascular disease diagnosis or therapy
• Purely thrombotic disorders.

Dates & Deadlines

Thank you for your interest in applying for the Bayer Hemophilia Awards Program. This program represents Bayer’s continuing commitment to taking the next steps for the next generation of people with hemophilia to enjoy a better quality of life and treatment options.

Applications will be processed solely through the Internet and all applications must be submitted in English.

As a first step, applicants should submit a Letter of Intent describing the proposed project in 500 words or fewer. All Letters of Intent submitted will receive an e-mail confirming receipt.

Letters of Intent (LOI) will be reviewed by all 12 members of the Grants Review and Awards Committee. In some cases, additional information may be requested.

Selected applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal that will be reviewed by at least two members of the Grants Review and Awards Committee. These applicants will be e-mailed a full application form.

The results of the review process and funding decisions will be communicated to applicants in May each year. Funded applicants must send a letter of acceptance and enter into an agreement outlining obligations and understandings prior to disbursement of funds.

Awardees will be invited to attend an Awards Dinner that will coincide with the bi-annual meetings of the World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH) or the International Society for Thrombosis and Hemostasis (ISTH).

The table below summarizes the application timelines for 2011/12.

Application Process

Letters of Intent and Full Applications are reviewed by the Grants Review and Awards Committee which comprises 12 members, representing many of the leading experts from clinical and academic medicine:

• Johannes Oldenburg MD, Bonn, Germany (chairman)
• Marijke van den Berg MD, Utrecht, Netherlands
• Erik Berntorp MD, Malmö, Sweden
• Craig Kessler MD, Washington DC, USA
• David Lillicrap MD, Kingston, Canada
• Pier Mannucci MD, Milan, Italy
• Andrea Pritchard Kennedy, PhD, RN, MN, Calgary, AB, Canada
• Brenda Riske MS, MBA, MPA, Aurora, CO, USA
• Midori Shima MD, Nara, Japan
• Alok Srivastava MD, Vellore, India
• Alison Street MD, Melbourne, Australia
• Gil White MD, Milwaukee, WI, USA

All members of the Grants Review and Awards Committee will review the Letters of Intent and determine which candidates will be invited to submit full applications. Full applications will be reviewed by at least two members of the committee.

Reviewers will evaluate full applications according to the criteria outlined in the Awards section of this website. The reviewers will provide written comments and preliminary numeric scores according to these criteria.

The Committee will meet to discuss individual proposals including strengths, weaknesses and scoring. In this meeting, a consensus score for each grant application will be agreed upon. Proposals will then be ranked according to these scores in order to determine funding. In the event of identical scoring, the Committee will discuss the proposals in question and revise the scoring in order to clearly define a ranked priority. Funding will occur on a regional basis.

Three regions are defined as:

1. United States and Canada
2. Europe (for the purposes of this award, the Europe region includes Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom)
3. Japan, China, India, Australia and all other countries.

Awards will be determined on the final priority score as agreed by the Grants Review and Awards Committee. In the event that inadequate numbers of acceptable applications are received from a particular region, additional acceptable proposals will be funded solely on the basis of priority scores, without regard to region.

The Committee’s decision is final and there is no appeal mechanism. Applicants who have constructive suggestions about the review of their applications, or the process in general, are encouraged to contact us. See Contact.

Conflict of Interest

The Program has ‘conflict of interest’ guidelines that ensure reviews are conducted in a fair and equitable manner. Reviewers will not participate in the review or priority scoring of applications in which they, or institutions with which they are affiliated, have an interest. Also, to the extent practicable, reviewers will not participate in the review of proposals competing for funding with proposals for individuals associated with their institutions.

Confidentiality

The members of the Grants Review and Awards Committee are bound by the confidentiality rules generally applicable to such bodies.

Past Award Recipients: 2011

Clinical Training Award
	Dr Johanna Haselböck Medical University Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Early Career Investigator Award
	Dr Mettine Bos Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands Mechanisms regulating the macromolecular enzyme complex assembly in blood coagulation
	Dr Paris Margaritis The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA The role of EPCR on FVIIa-mediated hemostasis
	Dr Laura Maggi University of Florence, Florence, Italy Role of CD4+CD25+Treg cells in FVIII inhibitors production by hemophilia A patients
	Dr Vanessa Oliveira University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal Boosting dendritic cell function to facilitate tolerance induction to recombinant clotting factors
	Dr Davide Matino University of Perugia, Italy Modulating the antibody response to exogenous Factor VIII: the role of tryptophan catabolism
Special Project Award
	Dr John Sheehan University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA Contribution of the heparin binding exosite to factor IX clearance and in vivo activity
	Dr Thierry VandenDriessche Free University of Brussels, Brussels, Belgium Immune stealth AAV nanoparticles for gene therapy of hemophilia A
	Dr Christine Hough Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada Regulation of endothelial FVIII synthesis and it contribution to overall plasma FVIII levels
	Dr Carol Miao Seattle Children’s Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA Immunomodulation to eradicate anti-factor VIII inhibitory antibodies
	Dr Flora Peyvandi Fondazione Luigi Villa, Milan, Italy Discovery of genetic determinants of inhibitor development in hemophilia a by exome sequencing
	Dr Seiji Madoiwa Jichi Medical University, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, Japan Development of novel thymus-directed strategy for central immune tolerance induction in hemophilia A
Caregiver Award
	Piet de Kleijn Van Creveldkliniek, Utrecht, The Netherlands Multiple Joint Procedures in hemophilia: long term results
	Xinyi Wu Beijing Children’s Hospital, Beijing, China Development of a comprehensive pediatric hemophilia care model in China
	Janine Furmedge The Royal Children's Hospital, Parkville, Victoria, Australia Development of an infusaport education package informed by the learning needs of parents
	Kate Khair Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, UK An expert patient programme for girls and young women with inherited bleeding disorders
	JoAnn Nilson Royal University Hospital, Saskatoon, SK , Canada Development and evaluation of an evidence-based self-assessment care pathway for young men with mild hemophilia
	Linat Tiv Cambodian Hemophilia Association, Phnom Penh, Cambodia Providing counseling and therapy for patient and families with hemophilia in their community

Past Award Recipients

• 2010 Awardees
• 2009 Awardees
• 2008 Awardees
• 2007 Awardees
• 2006 Awardees
• 2005 Awardees
• 2004 Awardees
• 2003 Awardees