Each year, the Foundation awards the ROGER DE SPOELBERCH Prize to a winner for a clinical and basic scientific research project in the area of neurodegenerative diseases and psychiatric disorders. The value of the prize currently amounts to 750,000 euros.
The winners
2009 ROGER DE SPOELBERCH Prize
awarded to Professor Pierre Vanderhaeghen, member of the Université Libre de Bruxelles. cvvanderhaeghen
“Study of the mechanisms of the development of the cerebral cortex, from stem cells to circuits, in health and disease.”
2010 ROGER DE SPOELBERCH Prize
awarded to Professor Pierre GRESSENS, Hôpital Robert-Debré, Inserm and Université Paris Diderot. CV-Gressens
The research of Professor Pierre Gressens concerns the understanding of the mechanisms responsible for brain damage in new-born babies and the identification of new strategies to protect the brains of these infants.
2011 ROGER DE SPOELBERCH Prize
awarded to Professor Alexis BRICE (Hôpital de la Pitié-Salpétrière à Paris) CVABrice_English 2018 11 22 – 2p (1)
“Élucidation des bases moléculaires des maladies neurodégénératives”
“Elucidation of the genetic basis of neurodegenerative diseases.”
2012 ROGER DE SPOELBERCH Prize
awarded to Professor Stanislas DEHAENE (Collège de France) CV_StanDEHAENE
“Signatures of consciousness : From theory to clinical applications in coma and vegetative patients.”
2013 ROGER DE SPOELBERCH Prize
awarded to Professor Andreas MEYER-LINDENBERG CV Meyer-Lindenberg
“Advancing treatment discovery in schizophrenia through functionally relevant neuronal intermediate phenotypes.”
2014 ROGER DE SPOELBERCH Prize
awarded to Professor Oscar MARIN (King’s College London) CV Oscar Marin
“Understanding the aetiology of neuropsychiatric illness trough neural circuit interrogation in animal models.”
2015 ROGER DE SPOELBERCH Prize
awarded to Professor Franck POLLEUX CV Franck Polleux
“Cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the development, maintenance and evolution of cortical connectivity”
2016 ROGER DE SPOELBERCH Prize
awarded to Professor Magdalena GÖTZ CV Magdalena Götz
The Götz lab works on the mechanisms of neurogenesis and applies these after brain injury towards replacing degenerated neurons and improving scar formation.
2017 ROGER DE SPOELBERCH Prize
awarded to Professor David RUBINSZTEIN CV David Rubinsztein
“Which Mendelian neurodegeneration-causing genes impact autophagy?”
2018 ROGER DE SPOELBERCH Prize
awarded to Professor Frank BRADKE CV Frank Bradke
“Axon Growth and Regeneration”
2019 ROGER DE SPOELBERCH Prize
awarded to Professor Bassem HASSAN CV B Hassan
“The Amyloid Precursor Protein in neuronal development, homeostasis and demise”
2020 ROGER DE SPOELBERCH Prize
awarded to Professor Thomas BOURGERON
“Genetic Diversity and Brain Connectivity in Neuropsychiatry”
BiosketchBourgeronJanuary2021 FullPub
2021 ROGER DE SPOELBERCH Prize
awarded to Doctor Rosa COSSART CV&publis2021
“mise en place des circuits de la mémoire au cours du développement normal et pathologique”
2022 ROGER DE SPOELBERCH Prize
awarded to Professor Grégoire Courtine (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne)
“Mechanisms through which electrical spinal cord stimulation alleviates motor and autonomic dysfunctions after neurotrauma and neurodegenerative disorders”
The regulations
Regulations relating to the awarding of the prize for medical research in the area of neurodegenerative diseases and psychiatric disorders
- Article 1
The ROGER DE SPOELBERCH Foundation, a Geneva based foundation, was set up in order to implement the wishes of certain members of the de Spoelberch family, a very reputable Belgian family, in particular to grant funds to research programmes in the areas of neurodegenerative diseases and psychiatric disorders.
- Article 2
In order to fulfil its purpose, the Foundation has decided to award an annual Prize. The Prize awarded by the Foundation is reserved to clinical and fundamental scientific research projects. The Prize amount awarded is set at the amount that is determined by the Foundation Council which is made known in due time. The Foundation Council determines the Prize amount at its sole discretion.
The Prize is awarded annually.
Until otherwise decided by the Foundation Council, the amount of the Prize is set at 750.000 euros, at least two-thirds of which must be assigned to meet the costs of developing the research that is the subject of the Prize. The balance of the Prize amount may be attributed to the Laureate personally.
The Prize may, if applicable, cover staff, investment or operating costs of the Awardee (also Laureate) and/or his or her team subsequently to the Prize granting. In this case, the Laureate will inform the Scientific Committee in writing of his or her intention to proceed in this manner, the provisions of article 7 here below notwithstanding.
- Article 3
Any candidate must be proposed by a person duly qualified to assess the value of his or her work.
Applications must be submitted prior to 30 June of the current year and sent to the Chairman of the Scientific Committee by email to Fondation.roger.de.spoelberch@gmail.com or Fondation.rds@gmail.com or to the Foundation’s postal address, 17 Chemin Rieu, CH-1208 Geneva.
The upper age limit for all candidates is set at 55 at the time of the filing of the application. The nominees may not have previously won a prize equivalent to the ROGER DE SPOELBERCH Prize.
The Foundation Council may permit an exception under exceptional circumstances as well as upon a duly reasoned proposal from the Scientific Committee.
There is no application form. Any candidate will send a full CV, including his/her top ten peer-reviewed publications, research achievements and project proposal for the Prize with detailed budget.
Any candidate to the ROGER DE SPOELBERCH Foundation yearly prize will preferably be a national of one of the member states of the European Union (EU) or of a country member of European Free Trade Association (EFTA) or of the United Kingdom or more generally of a country of which the neurology scientific societies or psychiatric societies or neurosurgery societies are members of corresponding European societies.
Moreover, will only be allowed to apply a candidate proving that he·she carries out his·her activities in a laboratory, a clinic, a hospital or an institution established in one of the countries member of the European Union (EU) or of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) or of the European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC) or additionally, in the United Kingdom or in Israel, as these countries belong to the European Research Area (ERA).
- Article 4
Candidates for the Prize must hold a Ph.D.
The Prize may not be divided up among several persons.
- Article 5
The applications are analysed by the Scientific Committee. The latter will make award recommendations to the Foundation Council, which is solely authorised to take award decisions based on the proposal(s) that has (have) been submitted to it.
The proposal is subject to an absolute majority of the votes of the members of the Scientific Committee. In the case of a tie, the Chairman of the Scientific Committee has the casting vote.
The Scientific Committee will give its decision at short notice in the course of the year of the granting of the annual Prize subject to an absolute majority of the votes, without appeal.
Should the Scientific Committee consider that none of the projects are of sufficient value it will immediately inform the Foundation Council. In this event, no Prize will be awarded. In this case, the Foundation Council may ask the Chairman of the Scientific Committee to initiate a new procedure with the aim of awarding a Prize during the same year.
- Article 6
The Prize amount is awarded through a one-off payment, subject to exceptions agreed to by the Foundation Council. The amount of the Prize is transferred to the bank account of the institution to which the Awardee is attaching to, as well as, in respect of the share given to the Awardee himself or herself pursuant to article 2, to his or her personal bank account.
The Awardee is requested to personally undertake the necessary steps for him or her to receive the Prize amount net of any withholding that the institution to which he or she is attached to might wish to make.
Should the Awardee leave the institution to which he or she is attached before the Prize amount has been fully used, the balance of the Prize must be retained by him or her. It is the Awardee’s responsibility to ensure that this balance be transferred to his or her new hosting institution.
In the case of death of the Awardee before the Prize amount has been fully used, the institution to which he or she was attached to before his or her death, may keep the unspent part of the Prize amount and use it to meet earlier contractual commitments or to continue works in progress not yet entirely completed.
- Article 7
The Awardee is required to provide to the Chairman of the Scientific Committee an annual report about the scientific works for which he or she was awarded the Prize, as well as about the precise allocation of the Prize amount and the justification of the incurred costs.
The Foundation Council may request a more detailed analysis from the Scientific Committee if it so deems necessary.
Upon the expiry of a three-year period or at a later date if the Foundation Council considers it appropriate, the Awardee must submit to the Scientific Committee a summary report about his or her works and a final report about the use of the funds that he or she has received.
The Scientific Committee examines this report and within a two-month time span after having received such, it informs the Foundation Council of its assessments.
If it so deems necessary, the Foundation Council reserves the right to request from third party experts the confirmation of the adequacy of the submitted financial reports.
- Article 8
The recipients of the Prize, i.e. the Awardee and the members of his or her team for whom the Awardee vouches whose works were the reason for the awarding of the Prize, undertake to explicitly mention the name of the Foundation in their acknowledgements in any publication, in particular scientific publications, that deals with the research carried out with the assistance of the Foundation or refers to such works.
- Article 9
The Foundation Council will make the appropriate decisions upon its sole discretion in case of a difference of opinion on the admissibility of applications submitted with a view to award the Prize or concerning its awarding, for which it may priory request the opinion of the Scientific Committee.