The competition is open to any European Union (EU) body, public or private. Applications can be from single organisations or investigators or from consortia. The lead applicant must be EU based.

Currently there are three interesting CRACK-IT challenges open: DARTpaths, DoCE und RespiraTox.

1. DARTpaths
DARTpath means "Developmental and reproductive toxicity". To develop a data strategy and supporting data management structure to properly integrate available information on the relation between specific genes and specific physiology, or specific compounds and specific effects, for model organisms to include human, mouse, rat, rabbit, zebrafish, fruitfly, nematode and D. discoideum.
a) To map those gene-to-physiology or compound-effect relations properly between these organisms all with a focus on humans.
b) To build and use this framework to establish two proof-of-concepts (PoCs): Identify key data gaps in mechanistic understanding and demonstrate that newly generated mechanistic data for classes of substances
with these gaps (e.g. UVCBs) can be integrated.
To evaluate whether this framework and mechanistic data could have predicted a developmental toxicity de novo in a novel chemical class (e.g. of a crop protection chemical).

Phase 1 (duration six month): up to £100k
Phase 2 (duration up to three years): up to £1 million
Sponsors are Shell and Syngenta

The deadline to submit Two Phase Challenges-Phase 1 applications is 12 noon, 8 November 2017.

2. DoCE
DO CE means dosing and measurement of chemicals in vitro. To establish improved and increased throughput methods and approaches to better account for bioavailability through development of dosing and measurement strategies of test chemicals in in vitro assays. Successful completion of this Challenge will deliver new capability (dosing and measurement of chemicals in vitro) to ensure concentration-response relationships determined from a range of in vitro test systems, that are reflective of human and environmental species in vivo exposure conditions, to enable robust QIVIVE. Improving confidence in the relevance of in vitro-derived data, through better understanding and control of exposure parameters, will deliver the 3Rs benefits stated earlier.
a) Develop a framework to describe when and how to select appropriate dosing technologies to enable improved characterisation of bioavailable exposures in vitro for a diverse range of chemical types.
b) Develop increased throughput methods for controlled dosing and measurement of chemical concentrations in in vitro assays to enable their uptake, application and use in risk-based decision making; and a strategy to maximise the potential for regulatory acceptance of the approaches developed.

Phase 1 (duration six month): up to £100k
Phase 2 (duration up to three years): up to £1 million
Sponsors are Unilever and Shell

The deadline to submit Two Phase Challenges-Phase 1 applications is 12 noon, 8 November 2017.

3. RespiraTox
The overall aim of this Challenge is to develop a QSAR-based tool that reliably predicts human respiratory irritancy potential of chemicals. The tool should fulfill the five OECD principles for QSAR validation to demonstrate the statistical and mechanistic reliability of the model. This will endorse the model's use under regulatory context (e.g. REACH, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)).

Development of a QSAR tool that reliably predicts the respiratory irritancy potential of chemicals in humans will allow for the early identification of potential toxicities in candidate chemicals without having to use in vivo studies, and contribute to the scientific justification to waive the in vivo studies for respiratory irritation for those taken forward to registration.

Duration: one year, funding up to £100k
Sponsor is Shell.

The deadline to submit Single Phase Challenge applications is 12 noon, 15 November 2017.

Read more here:
https://crackit.org.uk/challenge-26-dartpaths
https://crackit.org.uk/challenge-27-doce
https://crackit.org.uk/challenge-28-respiratox