Grants

Research Grants

The European Association of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anaesthesia and Intensive Care (EACTAIC) has established a Research Grants funded to a maximum of €30,000. The Research Grant can be split in up to three minor grants to a value €10,000 each.

The Research Grants will be awarded by the EACTAIC after evaluation of the applications by the EACTAIC Scientific Committee.
EACTAIC Scientific Committee will score and rank applications (see below).
The final decision comes under the EACTAIC Board of Directors on February according to the Scientific Committee advice and possible splitting of the annual grant.

The application form (word / pdf) including the required attachments should be submitted to the EACTAIC Executive Office. Please include those items that are applicable in your study plan. If you already have another written plan that includes about the same items, you can send that plan instead.

Conditions

  1. Applicants must be members of EACTAIC and aged of 40 years or younger and are either intending specialist or within the first years of appointment as a cardiothoracic specialist.
  2. Applications must be made using the terms of the guidelines or can be obtained from the EACTAIC Scientific Secretary.
  3. Applications must come from an anaesthesiology/critical care department, concerning any aspect of cardio-thoracic / vascular anaesthesia or intensive care.
  4. Each application must take the form of a formal research protocol, identifying the background to the project, the study hypothesis, and proposed methodology. Details of statistical method and power analysis for clinical studies must be included. Expected duration of the study, justified appropriately, should be included.
  5. Applicants should state whether the grant is for partial or whole funding. If partial funding is sought, a successful application may be conditional on applicants providing documented evidence of successfully gaining the remainder.
  6. Applicants should provide evidence of seeking other alternative sources of funding. It should be noted that applicants would normally be expected to seek other sources, particularly in countries where these are readily available.
  7. Support from the applicant's home Institution (e.g. letters of support from departmental heads, colleagues, hospital administrators) has to be documented.
  8. Preference will be given to young researchers, either intending specialists or within the first years of appointment as a cardiothoracic specialist.
  9. Applicants must be willing to present their research findings to the EACTAIC at a free paper or other scientific session.
  10. Applications must be submitted to the EACTAIC Scientific Secretariat (see deadline and address) respecting the announced deadline.

Scoring system

Scoring system in evaluation of EACTAIC Research Grant applications

The applications are evaluated in terms of following sub-criteria, yielding a maximum 5 points each. Thus, the maximum total score is 20.

  • Educational/Scientific value (1–15), sum of the following:
    • Originality (1–5)
    • Scientific significance / Clinical significance (1–5)
    • Appropriate study/educational design and methods to acquire the aimed result (1–5)
  • Adequate material and human resources (1–5):
    • Realistic financing plan (this is also a prerequisite)
    • Laboratory and/or other methodological facilities
    • Adequate time for the applicant allocated for clinical fellowship or research and/or needed auxiliary assisting/co-working personnel

Application deadline for 2025: August 15th, 2025

Winners will be announced during the EACTAIC Annual Congress.

2023

Ruairí Wilson – Epigenetic susceptibility to postoperative organ dysfunction after cardiac, thoracic and vascular surgery

Floor Harms – Mitochondrial oxygenation – based interventions during cardiac surgery to prevent cardiac surgery-associated acute kidney injury (MOBIDCS-CSA-AKI)

Ughetto Aurore – Heart graft preservation: comparison of cold ischemia and ex situ normothermic perfusion with and without colchicine pre-treatment effect on ischemia-reperfusion injury

2022

René M’Pembele, Germany – Effect of remote ischemic preconditioning on acute kidney injury in patients undergoing heart transplantation – A randomized controlled study

Paolo Meani, The Netherlands – Continuous Vs. ECG-Synchronized pulsatile venoarterial extracorporeal life support in a porcine cardiac arrest model

2021

Jan-Oliver Friess, Switzerland – Influence of different inspired oxygen fractions on perioperative myocardial biomarkers, myocardial strain and outcome in patients undergoing general anaesthesia for elective non-cardiac surgery: A prospective randomized open-label single centre study

Johanna Tichy, Austria – Comparison of Novel Urinary Biomarkers for early detection of Acute Kidney Injury after Cardiac Surgery

2020

Roth Sebastian, Germany – Predictive value of copeptin and heart-type fatty acid binding protein in cardiac surgery: practice – a multicenter prospective cohort study

Danny Hoogma, Belgium – Erector spinae plane block for minimally invasive mitral valve surgery: A double-blind, prospective randomized placebo-controlled trial

Carolin Torregroza, Germany – Influence of ultralipid on remodeling after Myocardial Infarction

2019

David Lagier, France – Determinants and biomarkers of early lung injury induced by mild endotoxemia during one-lung ventilation: an integrated proteogenomics analysis guided by lung PET/CT

Emre Bingul, Turkey – Preoperative inspiratory muscle training coupled to aerobic exercises to prevent postoperative pulmonary complications in patients undergoing thoracic surgery (INSPIRE study): a multicentre randomized controlled trial

2018

2015/2016

Mauerman Eckhard, Switzerland – Assessment of Diastolic Function Using Intraoperative Transesophageal Echocardiography: Comparison of Mitral Annular Plane Velocity and Systolic Excursion Measured by Tissue Doppler Imaging vs. Speckle-Tracking

Lukas Dehe, Germany – Impact of the cardiac opioid system on cardiac function during volume overload induced heart failure

Joanne Frances, UK – Effect of spontaneous ventilation versus positive pressure ventilation in patients undergoing diagnostic thoracoscopic biopsy for Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) under General Anaesthesia (GA)

2014/2015

Dominik Guensch, Switzerland – The study of heart injury observable after clinical cardioversion (SHOCC)

Friederike Behmenburg, Germany – Age-dependent changes in releasing the humoral factor after RIPC

2013/2014

Massimiliano Greco, Italy – A randomized controlled study on the effect of early extubation and non-invasive ventilation in patients undergoing thoracoabdominal aneurysmectomy

Steffen Rex, Belgium – Xenon as an adjuvant to propofol anesthesia in patients undergoing off-pump coronary artery bypass graft surgery: a randomized controlled clinical trial (EudraCT 2013-000485-11)

Maurice Hogan, UK – The efficacy of prophylactic nasal high flow oxygen compared with soft face mask oxygen therapy in improving early postoperative recovery in patients after lung resection surgery

2012/2013

David Smith, UK – The effect of cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass on the formation of microparticles

Marianne de Schmidt, Germany – Impact of Connexin43 induced cardioprotection via mKCa channel – therapeutic option in senescent hearts?

Benjamin Shelley, UK – The Pulmonary Vascular / Right Ventricular Response to Lung Resection

2011/2012

Sibtain Anwar, UK – Pain outcomes after cardiac anaesthesia and surgery

Maria Fedosova, Denmark – Investigation of the cardioprotective effects of transcutaneous muscle stimulation in clinical cases requiring coronary bypass

Matthew Hung, UK – A prospective observational study to investigate the aetiology of preoperative anaemia in patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery

2010/2011

Christa Boer, The Netherlands – Preservation of postoperative microcirculatory perfusion after pulsative cardiopulmonary bypass: the role of a prothrombogenic profile

Sisse A. Thomassen, Denmark – The correlation between systemic oxygenation and regional oxygenation in brain and muscle tissue measured with near-infrared spectroscopy during cardiopulmonary bypass