The World Anti-Doping Agency said it would invest up to $500,000 in an individual project "if costs are well justified" ©Getty Images

Scientific research projects have been urged to apply for funding from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to help with the development of gene doping detection methods.

A call for applications has been issued by WADA in a bid to build on work that led to the implementation of a sensitive analytical method using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in accredited laboratories.

WADA said it would invest up to $500,000 (£415,000/€466,000) in an individual project "if costs are well justified".

The global watchdog said the goal was to support projects that "optimise and validate" analytical tools to detect nucleic acids used for gene doping while incorporating technology platforms that can scale to identify range of sequences in many samples without a loss of sensitivity relative to the current PCR approach.

Researchers have been given until the end of next month to express an interest in the funding ©Getty Images
Researchers have been given until the end of next month to express an interest in the funding ©Getty Images

"Science is key to driving advances in anti-doping," a statement from WADA read.

"Innovative research leads to the identification of new doping trends, new substances, new doping methods and new detection approaches.

"WADA funds scientific research projects to develop and optimise analytical tools for the detection of use of prohibited substances and doping methods within sport populations."

A deadline of March 31 has been set for researchers to submit an expression of interest.

WADA is due to review proposals in April before inviting those that are "aligned with the specified research priorities and submitted by teams with relevant expertise" to issue full applications.

Independent experts and members of WADA’s Gene and Cell Doping Expert Advisory Group are then set to review the applications before making decisions in October.