Charcot Fund: fundamental research

1. The Charcot Research Fund (CRF) is an annual grant that the Belgian Charcot Foundation (BCF) makes available to researchers (or groups of researchers) working in a Belgian institution and whose work deals with clinical or fundamental issues relating to the better understanding and/or treatment of multiple sclerosis. A jury, composed of members of the scientific committee of the BCF selects the applications to be funded. In line with the rules, the Chair of the management committee of the BCF informs the Chair of the scientific committee of the BCF of the available grants. The announcement to the scientific and medical communities takes place at the end of June by post and by email.
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2. Candidates must submit their application to the online platform www.belgiancharcotfoundation-research.be before midnight on 30 September. The application must be written in English.  

The documents to be attached to the application are: 

1° A curriculum vitae of the candidate or candidates. The candidate designated as the “principal investigator”, who is responsible for the project, must hold a PhD at the time the application is submitted;

2° A detailed description (maximum 4 pages) of the research that will be carried out with the support of the CRF;

3° A concise list of the most important publications (from the last 5 years) related to the research described that the candidate(s) may already have published. 

The application must also specify how the allocated grant will be used and justify the amount of funding requested. The grant may be used for the purchase of equipment, laboratory reagents, and the possible hiring of additional technical staff. Salaries for scientific personnel cannot be covered. Secretariat costs, overheads, travel or accommodation expenses, registration fees or participation in conferences, etc., cannot be covered. The application must specify the person (hereinafter referred to as “the principal investigator”) authorised to receive all correspondence. It must also indicate the account into which the awarded grant is to be paid. 

The principal investigator shall indicate whether the research project will be financed solely through the CF grant. Applications for joint funding with other parties must be mentioned. 

3. The Jury responsible for awarding the grants shall consist of 5 to 7 members. It shall include ex officio the President of the CF, who chairs the Jury. The other members of the jury shall be chosen from among the scientific council of the CF and from among the members of the BSGMS (Belgian Study Group for Multiple Sclerosis, asbl/vzw), provided that they are not part of a team applying for a grant nor the head of department of such a team.

4. The beneficiaries undertake to respect the regulations governing grants awarded by the BCF. After the allocation of grants, all correspondence must be addressed to the Chair of the Belgian Charcot Foundation. As the grants are exclusively awarded for carrying out research programs which have been approved by the jury, the applicant is required to dedicate the entirety of the grant to this end. The grants (or any remaining monies from the grants) must be repaid to the BCF from such time as their use ceases to respect this requirement. Any fundamental modification to a research program (goal of the research, use of the grants) must address the same requirements as the original application.
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Each year, one or two foreign MS experts will be invited to be part of the jury. The decisions of the jury are only valid if five or more members are present.  Written, or proxy voting is not permitted and only jury members who are physically present have the right to vote.  The jury convenes before December15th.  The invitation to the meeting and the applications for grants are distributed at least four weeks before the date of the meeting. The laureates are selected according to the respective votes given by the jury.  Apart from the usual criteria (originality, presentation of the project, experimental methodology, expertise, and justification of costs…) the contribution that the project will make to the improvement of treatment is an important criterion. The jury is authorized to settle any unforeseen problem in the course of the meeting. Its decisions are final.

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5. The budgetary year begins on 1 January and comes to an end on 31 December. All materials or equipment acquired through use of a grant or provided by the CRF become the property of the individual or institution named on the invoice.  Grants intended for the payment of technical staff must be used during the current budgetary year; grants intended for the purchase of equipment or reagents, can, following justification, be accounted for in the budgetary year following the one for which the grant was allocated.  Grants allocated for either of these two uses cannot be transferred to another use.  Unspent money must be repaid to the BCF.  

6. Reporting obligations: The principal investigator is required to complete a financial report and a scientific report for each funded project via the online platform www.belgiancharcotfoundation-research.be  within 3 months following the end of the financial year.  

Regarding the recruitment of technical staff within an institution, the principal investigator undertakes to inform the institution of the sum allocated for this purpose in order to permit, at the expiry of the grant, the termination of the employment contract or the funding of the staff by the principal investigator through other means. If the principal investigator is authorized to recruit technical staff within the framework of projects subsidised by the BCF, such recruitment must not, in any case, exceed the stated lifespan of the project and must conform to the payscales and rules in place for the research institution.  Without exception, the BCF does not recruit technical staff.

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A project requiring particularly substantial funding may be spread over two years. In such a case, the awarded grant will be paid in two instalments at the beginning of each calendar year.
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The financial report (interim or final) must include supporting documents for the expenses (original or certified copy) for the past year. The supporting documents must correspond to the categories listed in the itemized budget submitted and approved by the Panel. 

The scientific report shall include: a) for programmes not yet completed: an interim report on the state of progress of the research and the part of the programme still to be carried out; b) for completed programmes: a final report to which copies of the corresponding publications shall be attached (in manuscript form where required).

7. The grants are officially awarded at an academic session which generally takes place during the month of January. The laureate(s) undertake(s) to participate.

8. Publications concerning the research carried out with Belgian Charcot Foundation aid shall mention the origin of the grants. At the request of the BCF, the recipients of grants may be invited to present the results of their research at scientific meetings organized by the BCF.

9. All modifications to this Regulation must be subject of prior approval by the board of the BCF.

Belgian Charcot Foundation 
March 2026

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