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EFIC-GRÜNENTHAL-GRANT (E-G-G)

What is the E-G-G?

EFIC-Grünenthal-Grant

The EFIC-Grünenthal-Grant (E-G-G) is a research grant scheme awarded by the European Pain Federation EFIC® and generously sponsored by the pharmaceutical company Grünenthal GmbH. Since 2004, it has provided funding worth approximately €1.8 million for 70 innovative research projects across 14 countries. Grünenthal supports the E-G-G 2025 with a maximum of €110,000, and each grant will have a maximum value of €50,000. Research Grants are intended for clinical and human experimental pain research including innovative educational initiatives aimed at improving diagnosis and treatment of pain. Research proposals on animals, computer simulations, cell lines, etc. will not be considered. The decision on awarding grants is made independently by a sub-group of the Research Committee of the European Pain Federation EFIC®.

 

E-G-G 2025 is now closed! The deadline was on 2 September 2024.

Applicants will be notified in December of their status.

Criteria

Individual eligibility criteria

The E-G-G is open to applicants who are:

  • Healthcare professionals or researchers working in the field of pain management and/or pain research
  • Holding a PhD degree (for a maximum of 7 years on 2 September 2024); the eligibility period can be extended for the following documented circumstances having occurred after the award of the qualifying degree and until the call deadline: maternity and paternity leave, long-term illness and national service. The extension time will be calculated based on the supporting documentation provided by the applicant.
  • Holding a temporary or permanent position at a hospital, university, or research institution of any member country of European Pain Federation EFIC®

 

Project eligibility criteria

The E-G-G is intended for translational or clinical research aiming at improving our understanding of pain mechanisms in humans and/or improving diagnosis, treatment and management of pain in patients, including innovative educational initiatives.

 

Project evaluation criteria

The members of the Working group for grants and prizes of the EFIC are responsible for the selection of suitable applicants and award grants under the respective E-G-G. The selection shall be based on the following aspects:

 

Strength of the applicant

– Strength of the applicant, including training, research experience and publication record
– Both junior and senior researchers are encouraged to apply. Evaluation of the career trajectory will consider number of years since completion of PhD (or other qualifying diploma)
– Adequacy between expertise of the applicant and the proposed research

 

Novelty and originality of the research question or approach

– Hypothesis testing is preferred over empirical data collection
– Research with clear short- or long-term potential to improve the quality of life of patients with pain will be valorized
– Research on a particularly interesting topic or using a particularly original approach is encouraged, even if there is a risk of failure

 

Quality of the proposal

– Clarity and pertinence of the research objectives and research plan, and the extent to which they go bebyond the state-of-the-art
– Soundness of the proposed methodology and study design, including the underlying concepts, models and assumptions
– Validity of the analysis plan including justification for planned sample size

Feasibility

– Feasibility of the proposed methods and research plan
– The proposed research should be achievable within two years after receipt of the grant
–  In general, E-G-G sponsored projects are self-contained, and it should be feasible to carry out the planned with a total budget of up to €40,000. The expert panel will consider funding a subproject within a larger project, but this needs to be explained and justified, and the E-G-G sponsored subproject must be a recognizable module within the larger project.

Jury

The E-G-G is judged and awarded by the EFIC Working group for grants and prizes. The members are:

  • Thomas Graven Nielsen (Chair)
  • Nadine Attal
  • Ulf Baumgärtner
  • Kirsty Bannister
  • Ulrike Bingel
  • Nanna Brix Finnerup
  • Ruth Defrin
  • Patrice Forget
  • Bijar Ghafouri
  • Thomas Graven Nielsen
  • Eija Kalso
  • Michele Curatalo
  • Walter Magerl
  • Gisele Pickering
  • Markus Ploner
  • Esther Pogatzki-Zahn
  • Audun Stubhaug
  • Andrea Truini
  • David Walsh
Timeline

February 2024 – Application Open

2 September 2024 – Application Closed

September – October 2024 – Evaluation of the applications

January 2025 – Announcement of winners

February – March 2025 – Grants awarded

24 – 26 April 2025 in Lyon, France – Presentation of E-G-G Winners 2025 at the 14th Congress of the European Pain Federation EFIC

Award ceremony

The winners of the E-G-G will be invited to the congress of the European Pain Federation in Lyon, France in April 2025, where they will be acknowledged during the Opening Ceremony of the EFIC® Congress.

How to apply

The application has to be made online. Please note that the application and all respective documents must be in English. Throughout the application forms the fields that have to be filled in are marked with an*. Please note that the application form cannot be saved and edited several times, so please be sure to have all necessary information ready and available when you are about to submit the form. If in exceptional cases further changes are necessary this can be done via e-mail to research@efic.org.

 

E-G-G 2025 is now closed! The deadline was on 2 September 2024.

Applicants will be notified in November of their status.

 

Please note that you will need to have the following documents ready for upload:

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E-G-G Winner Testimonials

Find out how winning an E-G-G has impacted the career of previous recipients.

Maud Frot, 2004 E-G-G Winner

“After receiving the EGG, I managed to get a permanent position as a researcher in France. Obtaining this award was important to compete for the position of researcher and also to support myself financially while waiting for the position. Since then I have continued my research career in the field of pain. First of all, I continued to explore, thanks to electrodes implanted in humans, the different cortical regions responding to painful stimuli by studying their temporal dynamics of activation. In particular, we worked a lot on the exploration of the insula which participates in both the sensory and emotional integration of pain. As this region is buried in the brain, the technique of implanted electrodes has been particularly adapted to the exploration of this region. 

 We have also used this technique to study the early activation of cortical structures that we know to be involved in the perception of pain, this time in response to the vision of another person’s pain and in particular in response to the vision of a face expressing pain. We are also interested in the study of the electrophysiological correlates of pain perception. We are trying to identify brain markers that would indicate the perception of pain as such. Finally, we have been developing for a few years a new research theme concerning the memory of pain. We are particularly interested in understanding the mechanisms of long-term memory of pain, which can be qualified as traumatic memory.”

Publications:

  • Frot M, Mauguière F, Garcia-Larrea L. Insular Dichotomy in the Implicit Detection of Emotions in Human Faces. Cereb Cortex. 2022 Jan 14:bhab477. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhab477.  
  • Chapon A, Perchet C, Garcia-Larrea L, Frot M. Hyperalgesia when observing pain-related images is a genuine bias in perception and enhances autonomic responses. Sci Rep. 2019 Oct 24;9(1):15266. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-51743-3.  
  • Frot M, Faillenot I, Mauguière F. Processing of nociceptive input from posterior to anterior insula in humans. Hum Brain Mapp. 2014 Nov;35(11):5486-99. doi: 10.1002/hbm.22565.  
Helge Kasch, 2005 E-G-G Winner

 “I have continued my research with my main focus on the bio-psycho-social dimensions of whiplash injury, and pain. I have furthermore done research in the fields of secondary headaches and research regarding spinal cord injury. I concluded my PhD Thesis in 2001, Pain, Tenderness and Mobility in Neck and Head Following Whiplash Injury. A One-Year Prospective Study from Aarhus University, Denmark, and defended my doctorate thesis, entitled Pain and Long-term Disability following Whiplash Injury, Aarhus University, Health in 2020. I received the E.G.G. Grant the same year that I finalized my specialization as neurologist, and have been a senior consultant neurologist from 2008. I have an academic career as the Academic Coordinator for the Regional Hospital Central Jutland, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Denmark (2018-2025) and a Lecturer in neurology, Aarhus University Medical Faculty, from 2008-2021. Receiving the EGG Grant in 2005 was indeed very helpful for my career which I have continued to spend mainly in clinical multidisciplinary research.”

Publications:

  • Rasmussen MK, Kongsted A, Carstensen T, Jensen TS, Kasch H. Revisiting Risk-stratified Whiplash-exposed Patients 12 to 14 Years After Injury. The Clinical journal of pain 2020;36(12):923-931.DOI: 10.1097/AJP.0000000000000877 
  • Kasch H, Kongsted A, Qerama E, Bach FW, Bendix T, Jensen TS. A new stratified risk assessment tool for whiplash injuries developed from a prospective observational study. BMJ Open 2013;3. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2012-002050 
  • Helge Kasch, Flemming W. Bach, Troels S. Jensen Handicap after acute whiplash injury: A one-year prospective study of risk factors. Neurology 2001;56:1637-42. doi: 10.1212/wnl.56.12.1637 

  

Katharina Zimmermann, 2013 E-G-G Winner

“Since winning the EGG Grant in 2013, I obtained a Heisenberg Professorship funded by the DFG since 2014. Meanwhile I have established my own lab at the department of Anesthesia at the University Hospital Erlangen at University Erlangen Nürnberg. Since then I’ve focused on the research on ion channels and other proteins and their contibution to Pain and Thermoregulation and the mechanisms underlying the perception of cold temperatures. In my research I focus on translational animal models to obtain a more profound understanding of physiological and pathological mechanisms of somatosensory and thermoregulatory processes in humans.”

Publications: https://www.anaesthesie.uk-erlangen.de/forschung/arbeitsgruppen/schmerzforschung-in-der-anaesthesie/ 

Flavia Mancini, 2014 E-G-G Winner

“I used funding from the EGG to start a line of work on learning and pain. This eventually led to a MRC Career Development Award to lead my own group, and now also to a faculty position at the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge. Demonstrating the ability to obtain and manage independent funding was instrumental to later success. Start small, grow big.”

Publications: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=eFt4-cwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao 

Susanne Becker, 2017 E-G-G Winner

“I was awarded the E.G.G. in 2017 when I was a research group leader at the Department of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience (Scientific Director: Dr. Dr. h.c. Dr. h.c. Herta Flor), Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany. In August 2019, a prestigious and substantial PRIMA grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) allowed me to start a new research group at the Department of Chiropractic Medicine, University Hospital Balgrist, University of Zurich, Switzerland, where I was promoted to an Assistant Professor in February 2021. Importantly, this grant allowed me to establish a fully funded and independent research group, thereby strongly fostering my career. Being awarded the E.G.G. had in two major aspects a true impact on my career. First, the grant money allowed me to perform an experiment that built an important basis for developing and establishing my own independent line of research. In addition to achieving novel insights into the mechanisms of the neurotransmitter dopamine in human pain perception, these results strongly supported my following applications for larger third-party research grants. Second, the promotion of the winners by EFIC and Grünenthal created a surprisingly high amount of attention, putting my research into focus. I perceived this additional attention and promotion as very beneficial for my career development, helping, for example, to be selected as a member in relevant committees (e.g. of EFIC) as a very important part for a successful scientific career and extending the personal and scientific network. In sum, winning the E.G.G. had many benefits for me, going also beyond the fact of have more research money available.”

Publications:

  • Becker S, Löffler M, Seymour B (2020). Reward enhances pain discrimination in humans. Psychological Science, 31(9):1191-1199. doi:10.1177/0956797620939588
  • Florin E, Koschmieder KC, Schnitzler A, Becker S (2020). Recovery of impaired endogenous pain modulation by dopaminergic medication in Parkinson’s disease. Movement Disorders, 35(12):2338-2343. doi:10.1002/mds.28241
  • Becker S, Gandhi W, Pomares F, Schweinhardt P (2017). Orbitofrontal cortex mediates pain inhibition by monetary reward. Social Affective and Cognitive Neuroscience, 12(4): 651-661. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsw173 
Alex Clark, 2018 E-G-G Winner

“I was awarded the E.G.G in 2018, and it has been pivotal in establishing myself as an independent researcher. The consumable money from the E.G.G funded most of the laboratory experiments I conducted for a first author paper published in Cell Reports Medicine earlier this year. Due to the fact I independently funded most of the research I was also co-corresponding author on this publication.  In 2019, I was awarded a Guarantors of Brain Fellowship. It was very clear in the interview that they were impressed I had already secured my first independent grant and was already using it to develop my own research ideas. I believe being awarded the E.G.G was a major contributing factor in being successful in this Fellowship application. In 2021, I was successful in an application for a tenured Neuroscience Lectureship at Queen Mary University. Having a track record of acquiring independent funding and having a senior authorship publication was undoubtedly integral to being offered the position. 

The E.G.G was my first independently acquired grant, and there is no question that this has been the biggest steppingstone on my path towards academic independence. I am immensely grateful for this support which ultimately was vital in furthering my career and attaining the Neuroscience Lectureship. I would also like to add that I am very thankful to EFIC and Grunenthal for being sympathetic during the Covid pandemic. My lab was shut for nearly 6 months, and after speaking to the grants teams, my E.G.G was extended to account for this closure. I would highly recommend any early career researcher to apply for this prestigious award, it has been truly instrumental in furthering my career.”

Publications: 

 

 

Using an engineered glutamate-gated chloride channel to silence sensory neurons and treat neuropathic pain at the source 

GA Weir, SJ Middleton, AJ Clark, T Daniel, N Khovanov, SB McMahon, … 

Brain 140 (10), 2570-2585. 2017 

https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/140/10/2570/4085760?login=true 

Robin Bekrater-Bodmann, 2018 E-G-G Winner

“The EGG is a particularly highly respected award in the field of pain research. I am convinced that the grant helped me to successfully apply for a full professorship on psychobiological mechanisms of chronic pain in 2023 at RWTH Aachen University, Germany. Over the next years I will build on and expand the research that I carried out as part of the EGG project.”

Top 5 publications:

  1. Bekrater-Bodmann R, Reinhard I, Diers M, Fuchs X, Flor H. Relationship of prosthesis ownership and phantom limb pain: results of a survey in 2,383 limb amputees.Pain. 2021 162(2):630-640. Epub 2020 Aug 27.
  2. Bekrater-Bodmann R, Foell J, Kamping S. The importance of ventral premotor cortex for body ownership processing.J Neurosci. 2011 31(26):9443-4.
  3. Bekrater-Bodmann R, Foell J. Limb ownership experience and peripersonal space processing.J Neurosci. 2013 33(7):2729-31.
  4. Bekrater-Bodmann R. Meta-analytic evidence for acute pain hyposensitivity in Borderline Personality Disorder: where do we go from here?Clinical psychology : science and practice. 2021 28(4):360-362.
  5. Bekrater-Bodmann R, Chung BY, Richter I, Wicking M, Foell J, Mancke F, Schmahl C, Flor H. Deficits in pain perception in borderline personality disorder: results from the thermal grill illusion.Pain. 2015 156:2084-2092. Epub 2015 Jun 19.
All past winners

A complete list of E-G-G winners can be found here.

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