JHU CORPORATE AND FOUNDATION RELATIONS

Infectious Diseases Society of America Education and Research Foundation and National Foundation for Infectious Diseases - Merle A. Sande/ Pfizer Fellowship Award in International Infectious Diseases

To support young physicians pursuing clinical research in infectious diseases and/or HIV/AIDS conducted in a resource limited setting.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - Grand Challenges Point-of-Care Diagnostics

This program aims to create a new class of point-of-care (POC) diagnostics that share common standards for use, development, and integration in resource-poor settings. This new Grand Challenges program is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, and the Wellcome Trust in addition to the Gates Foundation.

Applicants can submit more than one letter of inquiry to different Topic Areas, but each should only address one of the following areas:
- Topic Area 1: Sample Collection, Concentration and Preparation;
- Topic Area 2: Amplification and Detection Technologies;
- Topic Area 3: Readout and Signal Transduction; or
- Topic Area 4: Enabling Technologies for Diagnostics.

This grant program will consist of two phases: Phase I will be focused on developing standards related to component integration, user experience and logistics requirements and conducting proof-of-principle investigations into component technologies. Phase II will be dedicated to integrating component technologies from Phase I or elsewhere to demonstrate POC platform concepts, performance, and operation. Invitations to submit full proposals will be issued in April.

Thrasher Research Fund - Research Grants

Iacocca Foundation - Diabetes Research Awards

Ellison Medical Foundation - Senior Scholar Award in Aging

Specific areas of interest include:

• Structural biology
  
• Molecular genetics
  
• Studies with model systems ranging from lower eukaryotes to humans
  
• Inquiries testing the relevance of simpler models to human aging
  
• Genetic epidemiology of aging; candidate longevity genes
  
• Aging in the immune system
  
• Host defense molecules in aging systems
  
• Mechanisms of free radical induced cell aging
  
• Mechanisms of aging in various differentiated cell populations
  
• Gene/environment and gene/gene interactions
  
• Integrative physiology
  
• New approaches to age-modulated disease mechanisms

Kenneth Rainin Foundation - Innovator Awards Program for Inflammatory Bowel Disease Research

This is a new awards program of the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, a private family foundation that provides grants in health, education, and the arts. The focus of the program is to find applicants from diverse backgrounds who can help build a creative, conceptual paradigm for IBD, with emphasis on nurturing interdisciplinary collaborations. Alternative approaches that are nutrition-based or holistic in nature also are welcome.

James S. McDonnell Foundation - 21st Century Science Initiative

The 21st Century Research Awards support investigator-initiated research in two topical areas:

• Studying Complex Systems. The Foundation supports scholarship and research directed at developing theoretical and mathematical tools that can be applied to the study of complex, adaptive, nonlinear systems. Eligible fields for research funded in this program include biology, biodiversity, climate, demography, epidemiology, technological change, economic development, governance, and computation. While the program's emphasis is on the development and application of the theory and tools used in the study of complex research questions and not on particular fields of research per se, JSMF is particularly interested in projects attempting to apply complex systems approaches to coherently articulated questions. Proposals intending to apply complex system tools and models to problems where such approaches are not yet considered usual or mainstream are appropriate.

• Brain Cancer Research. The Foundation is particularly interested in supporting novel research that will generate new knowledge leading to increased rates of survival and improve functional recovery for individuals with brain cancer. Support awarded through the 21st Century Science Initiative is intended to encourage new ideas and approaches, early in their development, that are unlikely to be funded from traditional sources. Proposals from junior faculty and from individuals with strong neuroscience, genetics, mathematics, molecular pathology, and tumor immunology backgrounds, interested in pursuing novel research on brain cancer, are encouraged.
  

Assistant professors and above. When senior scientists serve as principal investigators the proposal must describe, in detail, how they (and not only their research assistants and post-doctoral fellows) will use the requested funds to pursue research building on but departing from ongoing work in their laboratories. Current McDonnell Foundation grantees may not apply. PIs who have submitted a proposal that was unsuccessful must wait three years to reapply.

There are no restrictions on the number of submissions that may be sponsored by a particular institution. However, considering the small number of grants awarded each year the foundation asks that institutions limit sponsorships to proposals meeting both the letter and the spirit of the Foundation's application guidelines.

21st Century Research Awards are designed to support research projects with a high probability of generating new knowledge and insights. Projects submitted for funding consideration should be at an early, even preliminary stage of development, and should be intended to break new ground or to revisit commonly-held assumptions. Projects submitted should be sufficiently cross-disciplinary or heterodox to have a strong likelihood of influencing the development of new ways of thinking about important problems.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program

Candidates must be physicians at universities, schools of medicine, or research institutions who:

• are from historically disadvantaged backgrounds (ethnic, financial or educational);
• are citizens or permanent residents of the United States or its territories at the time of application; and
• are now completing or have completed their formal clinical training. (Preference will be given to physicians who have recently completed their formal clinical training.)

Applicants must identify faculty mentors with whom a research plan will be developed. The mentor's experience in the supervision of trainees and the adequacy of the mentor's research environment and support will be a key consideration in the selection of Amos Scholars.

Up to eight grants will be awarded in this cycle. Successful scholars will demonstrate that they:

• have excelled in their education;
• are prepared to devote four consecutive years to research;
• are committed to: 1) pursuing academic careers, 2) serving as role models for students and faculty from historically disadvantaged backgrounds, 3) improving the health status of the underserved, and/or 4) decreasing health disparities.
  
  

Human Frontier Science Program Organization - Young Investigators' Grants and Program Grants

3/22/10 (Pre-registration on HFSP Web site)

3/31/10 (Letters of Intent)

To promote new lines of research in fundamental biology through collaboration with international researchers.

Teams must include two to four members, with not more than one member from any one country unless critical for the interdisciplinary nature of the project. The principal applicant for program grants must have a laboratory in one of the following countries: Australia, Canada, European Union, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Young Investigators' Grants are awarded to teams of researchers, all of whom are within the first 5 years after obtaining an independent laboratory. Additionally, all team members must have obtained their Ph.D. or equivalent not longer than 10 years before March 2010.

Program Grants are awarded to teams of independent researchers at any stage of their careers. All members of a Program Grant team must be in a position to initiate and direct their own independent lines of research. They must have responsibility for their own laboratories and show evidence of independence.

The HFSP, based in Strasbourg, France, supports novel, innovative and interdisciplinary basic research focused on the complex mechanisms of living organisms; topics range from molecular and cellular approaches to systems and cognitive neuroscience. A clear emphasis is placed on novel collaborations that bring biologists together with scientists from fields such as physics, mathematics, chemistry, computer science and engineering to focus on problems at the frontier of the life sciences.

Sontag Foundation - Distinguished Scientist Awards

Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation - Research Fellow Awards

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - Active Living Research

The Foundation offers funding for: 1) specified research topics, 2) dissertation awards, and 3) "New Connections" research by young investigators from under-represented groups. Please see the Foundation's Web site for detailed information.

1. Research proposals must address of the following topics:

• Topic 1-Evaluations of policy or environmental interventions and strategies for increasing physical activity or reducing sedentary behaviors among youths (Three 12- to 24-month awards of up to $300,000 each).
• Topic 2-Economic analyses to assess feasibility and advisability of policy or environmental interventions that affect youth physical activity or sedentary behaviors (Three 12- to 24-month awards of up to $100,000 each).
• Topic 3-Analyses of macro-level policies and environmental change strategies with strong potential to increase physical activity or reduce sedentary behaviors among youths (Two 12- to 24-month awards of up to $50,000 each).
• Topic 4-Quantitative meta-analyses of the relationships between built environment or social environment variables and physical activity; built environment or social environment variables and sedentary behavior; or built environment or social environment variables and obesity (Three 12-month awards of up to $75,000 each).
• Topic 5-Evaluations of youth advocacy efforts to support active living (Two 12-month awards of up to $200,000 each).
• Topic 6-Case studies of active living policy changes in communities at high risk for childhood obesity, including those with high rates of childhood obesity; those that represent the ethnic and racial groups at greatest risk; and under-resourced, lower-income or rural communities. Case studies that examine the impact of active living policy changes on youths with disabilities also will be considered (Two 12-month awards for single case studies of up to $50,000 each and two 12-month awards for multiple case studies of up to $100,000 each).

 

2. New Connections grants: For new investigators from groups that have been historically underrepresented in the research activities supported by RWJF. (Approximately four 12- to18-month awards of up to $75,000 each) In addition, applicants are required to identify a mentor who will receive an honorarium that cannot exceed $2,000, based on four days of work. These costs, and any project-related travel costs, must be included in the proposal.

3. Dissertation Awards: Doctoral candidates in any field or discipline may request up to $25,000 total for up to two years as support for their doctoral dissertations. Projects must have clear relevance to the overall mission of Active Living Research, and to informing environmental and policy strategies for preventing childhood obesity by increasing physical activity among youths. However, projects do not have to address the specific topics in this Call for Proposals (Approximately three 12-month grants of up to $25,000 each).

Research Awards-Applicant teams should include at least one representative of the community or stakeholder group targeted (e.g., community leader, policy-maker) as a regular adviser.
New Connections Awards-New investigators from groups that have been historically underrepresented in the research activities supported by RWJF. Only U.S. citizens who received their doctorate or terminal degree within the last seven years are eligible.

This program supports research to inform policy and environmental strategies for increasing physical activity among children and adolescents, decreasing their sedentary behaviors and preventing obesity. The Foundation emphasizes strategies with the potential to reach children and youths ages 3 to 18 who are at highest risk for obesity: African-American, Latino, American Indian, Alaska Native, Asian-American and Pacific Islander children, as well as children who live in under-resourced and lower-income communities. Grants funded under this call for proposals are expected to advance RWJF's efforts to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015.