This call for project proposals aims to accelerate research that is geared towards the circular transition of hospitals and facilitates and financially supports cross-disciplinary collaborations between the four alliance institutions. The grants are intended to be used for projects aimed at societal added value, for conducting preliminary research to be able to apply for a larger grant application, or for activities to support preparing such a grant application. More details can be found in the Terms of Conditions, see enclosed links below. Deadline for application is 30 October 2022.
THEMES
The purpose of this second call for project proposals is to facilitate and financially support cross disciplinary and collaborative initiatives that contribute to the mission and research goals of the hub CSH. We especially encourage (applied or methodological) project proposals that are geared towards large(r) initiatives with regards to (but not limited to) the following three research lines of the hub CSH:
- Circular strategies for medical devices and procedures: Hospitals need to move away from their “take-make-waste” culture with regards to medical procedures, devices and single-use products and become torchbearers for sustainable supply chains. In this research line we investigate how we can make the transition from a linear to a circular way of working and design safe interventions that lower the environmental impact of medical procedures, devices and (single use) medical products used in for example, but not limited to, the OR and ICU.
- Medication without harm – preventing waste and pollution: As we cannot imagine health care without medicines, this research line aims to develop safe strategies and scalable solutions to lower the environmental impact of medication. There are at least two major issues to solve. The first is disposal of unused medication which leads to a large waste of resources that were used for the production, packaging and transport of medication. The second issue relates to medication residues in surface and ground water, having a major negative impact on the environment and eventually on human health. In this research line we investigate the problem and develop circular strategies and scalable solutions to minimize the environmental impact of medication.
- Future proof patient diets – balancing nutrition and circularity: An important aspect for the transition towards a Circular Society is the need to provide nutritious food that is both healthy and environmentally sustainable to all of the world’s citizens by 2050. Diets like the Healthy Reference Diet are especially interesting to implement in hospitals, as nutritious food accelerates the recovery of patients and contributes to the patient’s future health (preventive health). The diminished demand for healthcare in turn will lower the footprint of the sector. In this research line we investigate nutritious food with a minimal ecological footprint from farm to fork and develop strategies and scalable solutions for hospitals to offer a healthy diet within the planetary boundaries.
BUDGET
The Circular Society working group estimates that grants of between €10-25K will be sufficient for activities to support preparing a larger grant application and grants between €15-100K will be sufficient for proposals regarding conducting necessary preliminary research to apply for a larger grant soon.
DEADLINE
Deadline for application is 30 October 2022, 18:00 hrs.
CONTACT
The Terms & Conditions of the call for project proposals provides information on the eligibility criteria that all applications must meet and on the quality criteria on which the applications will be judged. It also provides information on how applications can be submitted. For questions about this call, please contact Petra Dijkman, program manager of the hub Circular Safe Hospitals at circularhospital@umcutrecht.nl.