FoM – Weekly Announcements and Funding Opportunities September 23 – 27

In this week’s issue:

Announcement:

Funding Opportunities:

  • BrightFocus Foundation – Alzheimer’s Disease Research Program
  • Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative – Multiple Opportunities
  • ALS Therapy Alliance – Request for Proposals
  • Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute – Improving Healthcare Systems
  • Burroughs Wellcome Fund – Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease (final reminder)
  • BrightFocus Foundation – National Glaucoma Research Program
  • Heart and Stroke Foundation – Personnel Awards
  • Burroughs Wellcome Fund – Preterm Birth Initiative
  • The W. Garfield Weston Foundation – Rapid Response: Neurodegenerative Diseases of Aging

Events:

  • Centre for Blood Research – Seminar Series: Set7 at the intersection of Hippo and Wnt signaling in intestinal homeostasis, regeneration and cancer
  • German Research Foundation – Building links to German research
  • Gairdner Symposium

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES:

BrightFocus Foundation – Alzheimer’s Disease Research Program

Deadline: October 11, 2013

BrightFocus provides research funds for U.S. domestic as well as international researchers pursuing pioneering research leading to a greater understanding of Alzheimer’s disease.

The maximum award value of the ADR Standard Award is US $250,000, payable over three years.

Interested post-doctoral researchers should apply for the ADR Research Fellowship, a two year award with a maximum value of US $100,000.

Preference is made for exciting, cutting-edge type projects that would not, at their present stage, be competitive for large government or industry awards. Typically these awards are made to junior investigators, or to more established investigators who are proposing particularly innovative research.

Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative – Multiple Opportunities

LOI Deadline: October 11, 2013

The mission of the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative is to improve the diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorders by funding, catalyzing, and driving research of the highest quality. The program is seeking Letters of Intent for SFARI awards from individuals who will conduct bold, imaginative, rigorous, and relevant research.

Applications are invited for the following types of awards:

SFARI Pilot Awards are intended for innovative, high-impact proposals requesting support for small-scale projects or early-stage experiments that build on preliminary data or a prior track record and lead to competitive applications for funding by SFARI or other organizations. Investigators new to the field of autism are encouraged to apply for pilot awards. The maximum budget is $125,000 (including indirect costs) per year for up to two years.

SFARI Research Awards are designed for investigators with demonstrated expertise conducting compelling high-impact research on an experimental hypothesis for which, in most cases, preliminary data have already been gathered. The foundation also will consider projects focused on a central hypothesis where success depends on close collaboration between two or more labs. The initiative expects to fund proposals for a maximum of $250,000 per year (including indirect costs) for up to three years, but under exceptional circumstances will consider proposals at higher levels.

In addition to the pilot and research award programs, the SFARI Explorer Award program accepts applications at any time for rapid review and support through a rolling award program. The Explorer Award program provides timely resources on a one-time basis, not to exceed $60,000, including indirect costs, to support focused experiments highly relevant to SFARI’s mission.

ALS Therapy Alliance – Request for Proposals

Deadline: October 15, 2013

The Boston-based ALS Therapy Alliance is seeking proposals for research projects related to ALS.

Grants ranging from $100,000 to $1 million over one to three years will be awarded to projects — including but not limited to basic, clinical, and translational research and clinical trials — working toward a better understanding of and/or treatments for ALS.

National and international nonprofit organizations and for-profit companies are eligible to apply.

Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute – Improving Healthcare Systems

LOI Deadline: October 15, 2013; 5pm ET

PCORI is seeking applications to study the comparative effectiveness of alternate features of healthcare systems (e.g., innovative information technologies, personnel deployments, incentives, service designs, etc.) designed to optimize the quality, outcomes, and/or efficiency of care for the patients they serve.  Healthcare systems include:  private and public health insurance plans; physician groups; hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living facilities; academic medical centers; integrated delivery systems; community-based and safety-net clinics; federal, state, and municipal providers; and other entities organized to deliver, arrange, purchase, or coordinate healthcare services.  PCORI seeks studies that will provide information of value to patients, their caregivers and clinicians, as well as to healthcare leaders, regarding which features of systems lead to better patient-centered outcomes.

Three-year grants of up to $1.5 million will be awarded for research on the comparative effectiveness of alternate features of healthcare systems that are designed to optimize the quality, outcomes, and/or efficiency of care for the patients they serve.

To apply, please visit the PCORI website.

Burroughs Wellcome Fund – Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease

Faculty of Medicine Internal Deadline: October 18, 2013

Deadline: November 1, 2013

Five-year awards provide $500,000 to support accomplished investigators at the assistant professor level to study pathogenesis, with a focus on the interplay between human and microbial biology, shedding light on how human and microbial systems are affected by their encounters. The awards are intended to give recipients the freedom and flexibility to pursue new avenues of inquiry and higher-risk research projects that hold potential for significantly advancing the biochemical, pharmacological, immunological, and molecular biological understanding of how microbes and the human body interact.

BrightFocus Foundation –National Glaucoma Research Program

Deadline: October 30, 2013

BrightFocus  provides research funds for U.S. domestic as well as international researchers pursuing pioneering research with relevance to the prevention and treatment of glaucoma.

The maximum award value of the NGR Standard Award is US $100,000, payable over two years.

Preference is made for exciting, cutting-edge type projects that would not, at their present stage, be competitive for large government or industry awards. Typically these awards are made to junior investigators, or to more established investigators who are proposing particularly innovative research.

Heart and Stroke Foundation – Personnel Awards

Deadline: November 1, 2013; 1pm PST

As a major funder of research, the Heart and Stroke Foundation offers support for projects in the cardiovascular and/or cerebrovascular fields. In addition to its Grants-in-Aid Program, the Foundation provides funding to outstanding cardiovascular researchers at all stages of their careers through its Personnel Award Program.

  • Doctoral Research Award – Available to highly qualified graduate students enrolled in a PhD program who are undertaking full-time research training in the cardiovascular or cerebrovascular fields.
  • Research Fellowship – An “in training” award to support young investigators with a professional degree (PhD, MD, BM, DVM or equivalent) in initiating and/or continuing research in the cardiovascular or cerebrovascular fields.

For guidelines and application form, visit http://www.hsf.ca/research/en/personnel-award-programs

Burroughs Wellcome Fund – Preterm Birth Initiative

Deadline: December 2, 2013

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund’s Preterm Birth Initiative was created to increase the understanding of the biological mechanisms underlying parturition and spontaneous preterm birth.

The initiative is designed to bring together diverse interdisciplinary groups with expertise in genetics/genomics, immunology, microbiology, and proteomics, along with the more traditional areas of parturition research such as maternal fetal medicine, obstetrics, and pediatrics, to address scientific issues related to preterm birth.

The fund has committed $3 million for the initiative and anticipates making five grants of up to $600,000 over a four-year period ($150,000 per year).

The principal investigator must have a faculty appointment at a degree-granting institution in the United States or Canada. Researchers working at research institutes, national laboratories, within the federal government, or outside of North America may be partners or collaborators but all funding must be channeled through the U.S. or Canadian degree-granting institution of the principal investigator. Proposals should address the biomedical causes and mechanisms underlying preterm parturition, including but not limited to peri-implantational events, placentation, fetal determinants, fetal-maternal immune responses, biological basis for racial-ethnic disparities, mechanisms relating preterm birth to other adverse pregnancy outcomes, biology of normal labor, etc. Proposals seeking to identify biomarkers predicting preterm birth are welcome.

Proposals must have an interdisciplinary approach. One member of the team must have training and expertise outside the traditional areas of reproductive science. Proposals that cross institutional boundaries (partnerships between multiple universities or collaborations within larger universities) are encouraged.

The W. Garfield Weston Foundation – Rapid Response: Neurodegenerative Diseases of Aging

LOI Deadline: January 7, 2014; 11am EST

The W. Garfield Weston Foundation is pleased to announce the launch of the Rapid Response: Neurodegenerative Diseases of Aging grant program this fall.

  • The goal of the program is to provide support to novel, high-risk, high-reward translational research that will accelerate the development of therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases of aging.
  • The Foundation will commit up to $150,000 per project over 12-18 months, up to a maximum of $4.5 million in total for all projects.
  • The program is open to researchers at or above the level of postdoctoral fellow or equivalent from registered charitable institutions in Canada.

Application requires a short Letter of Intent due by Tuesday, January 7, 2014, 11:00 A.M. EST through the Foundation’s online application system. The system will open to accept applications starting Monday, November 18, 2013. Applicants with high potential projects will be invited to submit a proposal early next year.

Details about the program are attached and are also available at www.westonfoundation.org/Pages/neurorapid.aspx.

The Foundation welcomes inquiries about the request for applications at info@westonneuroscience.ca or 416-935-4056.

EVENTS:

Centre for Blood Research – Seminar Series: Set7 at the intersection of Hippo and Wnt signaling in intestinal homeostasis, regeneration and cancer

Date: October 2nd, 2013, 12-1pm

Location: LSC 3, Life Sciences Centre, 2350 Health Sciences Mall

Seminar by Dr. Colby Zaph, Associate Professor, The Biomedical Research Centre, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, UBC

Sandwiches and refreshments will be served at 11:55am.

Watch online: http://meetingfomubc.adobeconnect.com/CBRseminar/

German Research Foundation – Building links to German research

Date: October 21, 2013; 10:30 – 11:30am

Location: Michael Smith Laboratories, Room 102, 2185 East Mall

On Monday, October 21st,  from 10:30am to 11:30am, SPARC is pleased to welcome the German Research Foundation to campus for a presentation on “Building Links to German Research”.  For more information, and to register, please click the following link: http://www.research.ubc.ca/civicrm/event/info?id=93&reset=1

Gairdner Symposium

Date: October 21, 2013; 4– 6pm

Location: Life Sciences Centre, Lecture Theatre 2 (LSC 2), UBC, 2350 Health Sciences Mall

Don’t miss this opportunity to listen to two dynamic and high profiled researchers at the 2013 Gairdner Vancouver Symposium.

This free public lecture will feature:

Dr. Nasmyth  [2007 Canada Gairdner International Award Recipient]

Presentation title: How are chromosomes held together?

Sir Winter [2013 Canada Gairdner International Award Recipient]

Presentation title: The antibody revolution: new pharmaceuticals for a new age

More information about the symposium can be found at http://www.cmmt.ubc.ca/events/2013/10/2013-gairdner-foundation-symposium

More information about the Gairdner Foundation can be found at http://www.gairdner.org/

For questions or more information please contact Seetha at skumaran@cmmt.ubc.ca