If your center is a member of the UCARE network, you can initiate a UCARE scientific study. UCAREs who want to apply to run a project should check on our website for ongoing, past, and approved projects in preparation. If you believe your project to be unique enough please download the application form and send it via email to the UCARE OFFICE at info(at)ga2len-ucare.com.
Please include as much detail as possible, especially regarding scope, desired number of participants, milestones, project duration etc. Please note that the project duration should be at least 1.5 to 2 years, to give participating centers time for their ethics proposals.
After checking that everything is in order, the UCARE office sends your application out to the Scientific Advisory Board for review.
If they reject your proposal, you will be given feedback and the opportunity to review. If the decision is affirmative: Congratulations!
The Board will nominate a responsible UCARE Steering Committee project advisor (USCPA) and the UCARE office will inform you of the affirmative decision and connect you to your USCPA.
Your USCPA is your first point of contact for any questions you may have and will assist you with the first steps towards initiating your project. Depending on the type of project, your milestones may vary.
The first step is to form a Steering Committee (Ste.Com) for your scientific project. It should consist of experienced UCARE physicians that are interested in taking part in your study and should be as international and diverse as possible (more on the Ste.com in question 4). After that you need to develop your project tools and documents and achieve ethics approval. The UCARE office can supply you with templates for patient surveys, patient information and informed consent forms.
Then, you need to develop your database, examples of which can be seen on our sharing platform SHASAF, under scientific projects.
A further milestone would be a pilot study in which the developed instruments are tested in a proof-of-concept study at your steering committee’s centers before your global rollout.
Please note that while the UCARE office is happy to assist, the final responsibility to supply all needed documents such as protocols, ethic committee applications etc. lies with the project leader.
Here is an exemplary list of project milestones:
You can discuss possible Steering Committee members with your USCPA. The USCPA may also make suggestions on whom to invite to the committee. It should have 3-7 members, be geographically diverse, have a strong interest in the project and work as project ambassadors in their region and within their scientific communities.
Send project related documents to the UCARE office so they can be uploaded to the website and SHASAF member area. Include translations as they become available.
Write a project announcement note, including the start and end date of the project, co-authorship requirements and a brief description of the project. The announcement will be sent to all UCAREs via the UCARE office.
Make sure that co-authorship criteria are as defined as possible
Here again, please keep the UCARE office cc on all communication.
Promote your project: make sure that there is good uptake of the project within the UCARE network.
Invite participating UCARE centers to send updates on the recruitment of patients to the project and to periodically send datasets for review.
The UCARE Office will ask for periodic updates, please keep us in the loop!
Communicate the completion of the study to the UCARE network and work with your Steering Committee on the publication strategy and on getting the paper(s) ready to be submitted.
The previously defined authorship criteria should be applied when developing the manuscript(s). We will make an announcement on our website to celebrate your publication, and your project will be presented at one of our conferences, either GUF (Global Urticaria Forum) or the UCARE Conference.
UCARE is the largest network of urticaria-treating specialists worldwide. This means that not only will conducting your project in our network give you access to some of the best urticariologists worldwide, but it will also broaden the pool of study participants. In addition, you will get support from the UCARE office as well as senior physicians in the role of USPCA.
