Also financially supported by the Grand défi Pierre Lavoie Foundation, the aim of the ACCÉLÉRATION research grant program is to support innovative projects involving multidisciplinary collaboration among CERMO-FC members, to promote the use of CERMO-FC technological platforms, and to encourage major scientific breakthroughs in the field of orphan diseases. The ACCÉLÉRATION grants also aim to increase the competitiveness of CERMO-FC researchers with major funding agencies and to provide a high-quality, stimulating training environment for our students.
Date to remember
Application
December 14, 2025, 3:00pm
Results
February 2026
Orphan diseases definition
An orphan disease is a pathology that does not have effective therapies, mainly due to the lack of knowledge. These diseases are usually rare, each affecting less than one person in 2000. The small number of cases seen in the clinic also complicates the diagnosis. These rare / orphan diseases are more than 7,000 in the world, 80% of which are of genetic origin. Other causes include infections or intoxications. Most of these diseases are life-threatening and about 75% affect children. According to the Regroupement Québécois des Maladies Orphelines (RQMO), close to one in 20 people would be infected or have a rare disease in Quebec, which is about 500,000 Quebecois. While identifying the genes involved in rare diseases greatly benefits from the Human Genome Project, much research is still needed to understand the pathogenic mechanisms and develop therapies.
Directions
Eligibility
- The principal applicant must be a regular professor at UQAM and regular member of CERMO-FC at the grant application;
- The co-investigator(s) must be member(s) of the CERMO-FC at the grant application;
- Funding up to $ 25,000 is for one year;
- The university or institution that will receive the grant on behalf of the researcher must agree not to incur a management fee;
- A member of the recipient team will be invited to present the results of this project at the annual CERMO-FC symposium;
- Each member of the recipient team is expected to contribute to the activities of the CERMO-FC, for example as a committee member, scholarship evaluator or student presentation.
Selection criteria
- Scientific quality and relevance of the research project related to orphan diseases;
- Innovative and pluridisciplinary aspect of the proposed new research project;
- Quality, dynamism and structuring effect of the team;
- Contribution to the advancement of knowledge on at least one orphan disease;
- Impact on the objectives and missions of CERMO-FC;
- Special attention will be paid to projects based on the CERMO-FC’s technology platforms.
Contribution
Maximum value of the grant: $ 25,000 maximum per project
Required documents
- Research grant application form;
- Curriculum vitae of all researchers making the request, Canadian Common CV format (CIHR, CRSNG, or FRQ).
Please, send all required documents (combined as one PDF file) to cermo-fc@uqam.ca
Laureates
Both editions of the CERMO-FC NIRC Research Grant competition were a great success. The external evaluation committee, as well as the scientific committee of CERMO-FC underline the excellence of the application files, and thank all the principal researchers and co-cheurs for their participation in the competition. .
To learn more about the research work of the laureates, please consult the Research projects page
Laureates – 2021 edition
- Marc Lussier, Laurent Cappadocia, and Lekha Sleno (UQAM, Chemistry department), Implementation of a BioID-AlphaFold pipeline to study the neuronal impact of RNF13 variants linked to developmental and epileptic encephalopathies
- Said Kourrich, Véronik Lachance (UQAM, Biological sciences department) and Marc Lussier (UQAM, Chemistry department), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and FrontoTemporal Dementia: Focus on Rare Variants of Sigmar1 Gene, Neuronal Excitability & Behavior
Laureates – 2020 edition
- Benoit Barbeau, François Dragon (UQAM, Biological sciences department) and Lekha Sleno (UQAM, Chemistry department), Identification of nucleolar proteins and RNAs interacting with the HTLV-1 HBZ protein
- Marc Lussier, Laurent Cappadocia (UQAM, Chemistry department) and Said Kourrich (UQAM, Biological sciences department), Impact of altered RNF13-AP3 complex binding on neuronal activity: an underlying mechanism of early infantile epileptic encephalopathy 73
Laureates – 2019 edition
- François Dragon (UQAM, Biological sciences department) and Kessen Patten (INRS-Centre Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnologie), Implementation of a zebrafish model to study a novel rare disease with severe developmental defects
- Rodolphe Soret, Nicolas Pilon, Mohammad-Ali Jenabian, Steven Kembel (UQAM, Biological sciences department) and Mircea Alexandru Mateescu (UQAM, Chemistry department), Comprendre et traiter la maladie inflammatoire de l’intestin très précoce.