Aiming to encourage the innovative applied research programs and to promote a continuous improvement of research competence in healthcare area in China, Guangzhou BINC established the Nutrition & Care Research Fund (hereinafter referred to as the fund) with an annual investment of RMB 1.5 million as scientific research funds. The delivery of research program funding will be carried out across the country by Guangzhou BINC. There will be an annual evaluation on the candidate research programs led by BINC. The maximum amount of funds rewarded to these outstanding programs is RMB 200,000.

These programs to be funded are mainly in an area of health care with scientific value or a potential for commercialization, or those that can provide scientific and technological support services. An optimal research program should be one that can achieve certain progress or outcomes in the near future. The fund will give priority to research programs that will cooperate with BINC in any of the research platforms including the BINC global analysis platform, micro-ecology research platform, medical and clinical research platform, personal care research platform, and psychological and behavioral research platform (refer to the attachment for the specific scientific research platforms functions). BINC will encourage that the candidates to apply for national or local subsidized research programs jointly with BINC. BINC will participate in project design, application, and implementation as a research partner, and provide technical and financial support. As for the programs that are not carried out cooperatively with BINC,the candidates can apply for funds on their own or together with other research partners related to the funded study areas.

This year, there will be two categories of BINC-funded programs--BINC research platform cooperated programs and non-cooperated programs, shown as follows:

I. Cooperative Research Projects with BINC’s Research Platform

1. The effect of mother's gene on the phenotype of breast milk and children’s health

The study aims to understand the distribution characteristics of the secretory gene and non-secretory gene in the population of lactating Chinese mothers, and the content changes of oligo-saccharides in breast milk (HMO) for different types of people. It will also look into followup their effect on the health of children characterized by colonization and diversity of intestinal bifidobacteria as well as relevant indicators for growth and development measurement and the incidence of diseases.

2. Study on the bifidobacteria diversity of intestinal flora in Chinese infants

3. Study on the health effects of calcium and vitamin D supplements

4. Study on the effect of cranberry supplements on women's health

5. Comparison of educational effects for 2-3-year-old children by using tablet computers and face-to-face education

This study is about comparing two groups of 2 to 3-year-old children, with the first group playing games using tablet computers and the second group playing games with the experimenters in a face-to-face manner.Then the two groups will be tested (attention test/intelligence test) after a planned period, then be compared based on test outcomes.

II. Independent programs

1. Nutrition and health

(1) Nutrition and weight control

(2) Correlation between allergy and food as well as the environment

2. The barrier function of skin and its restoration

(1) Diaper rash and the skin barrier function

(2) The effect of dietary supplements on the features and functions of skin

3. Psychology and behavior

(1) Brain-gut axis (probiotics - emotion regulation)

(2) Mental health (e.g., localization of the international assessment scale)

(3) The effect of children’s obesity on early onset depression

(4) The correlation between the time duration of electronic screen exposure for infants and their behavior (attention) defects

See the attachments for detailed fund application guidelines; all researchers in relevant fields are welcome to apply for funds as requested in this notice. The deadline for application forms to be received is April 1, 2015. See the BINC website for more details: www.binc.com.cn.

Tel: 020-28117152

Fax: 020-38189888

Email:Institute@binc.com.cn