1. Objective - towards the future
The Sleep Europe Foundation (SEF) aims at fostering networking among European laboratories and supporting the careers of early-stage applicants in sleep research and sleep medicine.
The SEF Career Development Award will be awarded to post-graduate and post-doctoral scientists aiming to conduct a collaborative project including partners from at least two European countries. Each applicant must meet the early-career-stage (up to 5 years after MSc or PhD) requirement, even if one is acting as the lead or main applicant.
The project call refers to new or ongoing projects, covering basic, translational, or clinical aspects of sleep research and sleep medicine.
The project should be completed within three years
- A progress report will be required by September 2027
- The recipient is expected to submit an abstract based on the research to Sleep Europe 2027/2028 and to publish an article in a scientific journal
The SEF Career Development Award is sponsored by the Sleep Europe Foundation Günzstr. 4, 93059 Regensburg, GERMANY and awarded in cooperation with the European Sleep Research Society (ESRS).
Applicants who wish to apply for the SEF Career Development Award must submit their application by email to
2. Deadlines
2.1 The application deadline is January 31, 2025, 23:59 h CEST. The finalists will be informed by April 01, 2025, and must provide a 5-minute video by March 15, 2025.
2.2 The award will be presented to the winner at the opening ceremony of the next congress of the European Sleep Research Society.
3. Participation requirements
3.1 Applicants who have submitted their project or thesis to a university, research group, or Sleep Medicine Centre after October 01, 2024, and work on a topic relevant to sleep medicine (see 1. Objective) are eligible to apply. Employees of the SEF and the ESRS e.V. are excluded.
3.2 It is not permitted to re-submit a project or thesis for the SEF Career Development Award.
3.3 Participation in the competition is free of charge and voluntary.
3.4 It is mandatory to provide the data marked in section 4. Content requirements. Failure to provide the required information may result in delays or rejection of the application.
3.5 All applications will be stored by SEF, even if they are rejected. The SEF uses this data for the planning of future SEF events, for example, to recruit applicants for presentations at future events or to determine whether applicants have already applied for the SEF Career Development Award at an earlier date.
If you do not wish this to happen, you can request the deletion of the applications you have submitted by sending an email to
4. Content requirements
General documents
- Cover letter
- Applicants information (Names and contact details of all applicants, portrait photos of the applicants, ID copies, CV, publication list)
- Clarify collective goals and tasks as well as individual responsibilities
- Executive summary
In-depth documents
- Statement of need
- Objectives and goals, predicted outcomes
- Methods and strategies
- Project time line
- Budget (also support from other sources)
- A written approval by the relevant ethical committee when applicable
- Organizational information
5. Formal requirements for submissions
The complete award application must be submitted in English and PDF format.
If the work is marked with a blocking note, a declaration of consent from the company/institution must be sent to the SEF (
6. Determination of the winners
6.1. Based on the application documents, an expert jury (see section 7) will select three finalists The projects re. theses will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
- Practical relevance/benefit for users
- Methodology
- Structure, organization, and presentation of the thesis:
- Originality/innovation:
- Quality of the scientific/technical content:
6.2. All finalists must send a short presentation (max. 5 minutes) as a video by email or link to
6.3. Representations violating relevant legal or regulatory provisions or morality, including content that is harmful to minors, pornographic, racist, glorifying violence, inciting hatred, or offensive, are not allowed. Contributions that do not correspond to the given theme or may harm the image of SEF may also be rejected. In such cases, SEF reserves the right to exclude the entry from the current competition. Notification of exclusion will be provided separately.
7. Expert Jury
7.1. The entries will be evaluated by an expert jury consisting of representatives of the SEF and the cooperation partner European Sleep Research Society (ESRS) e.V..
7.2. The independent and final decisions of the expert jury are not subject to appeal. Legal recourse is excluded.
8. Awards
8.1. Applicants will not receive any remuneration or reimbursement of expenses for participating in the competition. Award winners will be provided with a permanent ticket for the ESRS Sleep Europe 2024 congress.
8.2. The award winners will be selected from the finalists and will receive a funding amount of 20,000 EUR. The grant will be disbursed as a lump sum
8.3. The use of the award money is not earmarked. The award money will be transferred to the winners within 8 weeks after the official award ceremony. For this purpose, the winners will be contacted by the organizer and asked to provide their bank details.
9. Travel Cost Reimbursement
9.1. SEF will reimburse the award winners of the SEF Career Development Award for travel expenses (arrival/departure and one night's stay) for participation in the award ceremony up to an amount of € 400.
9.2. Travel costs will be reimbursed to the award winners only if their employer or university does not cover the travel expenses. The following costs will be covered for the mentioned individuals:
- One night's stay with breakfast (excluding extras and personal expenses such as parking fees, minibar, telephone, etc.)
- Travel expenses (train and flight in the 2nd class/economy or travel allowance of €0.35 per km)
Conditions:
- The employer or university of the finalist does not cover the costs (please send a declaration for travel cost coverage).
- The total value of €400.00 per person is not exceeded.
Travelers are responsible for their information and the completeness of the documents. All parties are obligated to limit the travel costs to the necessary extent. If deviations from the principles of economical and efficient use were necessary, this should be sufficiently justified.
9.3. For reimbursement, an official invoice with receipts must be submitted to SEF, Günzstr. 4, 93059 Regensburg, GERMANY or