Research News - February 27, 2015

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. PIPS Guidance for Your Department's Documentation of J-1 Researchers' English Proficiency

This notice applies to all Principal Investigators who sponsor J-1 visas.  

Click here to review English Proficiency guidance related to new rules implemented on January 5, 2015 by the U.S. Department of State.  These new rules require your department to document English proficiency for all new J-1 requests. Can't view the link?  Access requires a PC/mac on the Partners network and also requires sign-up.

This English requirement applies to those who are being offered new J-1 visa sponsorship (not current J-1 extensions/transfers).

2. Core of the Week: MGH Biomedical Informatics Core

MGH Biomedical Informatics Core
Director: Timothy W. Clark
Location: 65 Landsdowne Street, Suite 200, Cambridge, MA 02139

The MGH Biomedical informatics Core (MGH BMIC) serves the information management and analysis needs of the MGH/Partners/Harvard research community as well as non-profit organizations and industry. MGH BMIC has expertise in biomedical informatics, and leverages re-usable tools developed by the group to offer services in a cost-effective manner.

To learn more about the MGH Biomedical Informatics Core, please click here.

3. PCORI Update: First Pragmatic Studies Awards; Peer Review Process Adopted; LOI Deadline

Please click here to read the latest news from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

EVENTS

1. MGH Research Council

Monday, March 2, 2015, 12:00-1:00 pm, Simches Auditorium (3.110), Broadcast to Isselbacher Auditorium (CNY-149, 7th Floor)

Annual Conversation with Andrew Chase
Vice President, Partners Research Management & Research Finance

Revisions to the Principal Investigator Eligibility Policy
Mary Mitchell, Corporate Director of Research Compliance

(Lunch available at 11:45 AM)

All MGH Researchers welcome!

2. Call for Abstracts! 2015 Research Fellow Poster Celebration

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

The ORCD's Research Fellow Poster Celebration will take place on May 27, 2015. The Poster Celebration highlights the excellent research being done by MGH postdoctoral fellows. The Call for Abstracts is now open! All MGH postdocs are invited to submit your research abstract now to present your research to the MGH community at this high-profile event and compete for cash prizes.

Abstracts are due Thu, Mar 19 at 5:00 pm.

Please click here for instructions and abstract submission materials.

3. HMS Faculty Seminar: Crafting Your CV Narrative 

Wednesday, March 11, 2015, 12:00 - 1:00 pm, Thier Conference Room, Thier Research Building, 1st floor

The Center for Faculty Development’s Office for Clinical Careers presents a seminar for MGH faculty with HMS academic appointments.

This interactive seminar will review the purpose and structure of the HMS CV narrative. Additionally, there will be a practicum on how to overcome writer’s block and craft a narrative that best describes your major contributions and achievements.

Crafting Your CV Narrative
Facilitator: Theodore Stern, MD Director of the Office for Clinical Careers, Ned H. Cassem Professor of Psychiatry in the Field of Psychosomatic Medicine/Consultation at HMS, and Chief of the Avery D. Weisman, MD, Psychiatry Consultation Service.

Faculty with HMS academic appointments please click here to register by Wednesday, Feb 25.

Accreditation
Partners HealthCare System is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians. Partners HealthCare System designates this live activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

1. HMS Foundation Funds: Opportunities for Faculty and Fellows

Information on funding opportunities offered through the HMS Foundation Funds is now available online at: www.hms.harvard.edu/foundationfunds

Each year several foundations invite HMS junior faculty members and postdocs to apply for their fellowships and grants, which serve as critical funding at the early stages of a research career. For awards that limit the number of applicants from Harvard, interested investigators must first apply for the HMS nomination through the HMS Foundation Funds, and a committee will select the final candidates to submit applications to the foundations.

The following opportunities may be applied to via HMS:

• Brain Research Foundation Scientific Innovations Award
• Burroughs Wellcome Career Award for Medical Scientists
• Burroughs Wellcome Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Diseases
• Greenwall Faculty Scholars Program
• Grunebaum Cancer Research Fellowship
• Microsoft New Faculty Fellowship Program
• Searle Scholars Program
• W.T. Grant Scholars Program

Researchers interested in applying for any of the awards listed above can apply for the HMS nomination by submitting an application online no later than Tuesday, April 7, 2015 by 5:00PM

Please join us for one of two informational forums:

• March 3, 3:00-4:00pm at MGH in the Haber conference room
• March 23, 2:00-3:00pm at HMS in the Armenise Amphitheater

Please direct all inquiries to Betty Carbunari, Office of the HMS Dean for Academic and Clinical Affairs, 617-432-7463, Betty_Carbunari@hms.harvard.edu

The selection process for the following opportunities is handled by MGH ECOR. To view MGH’s internal process on applying for limited submission funding opportunities as well as corresponding deadlines, please click here. For more information, please visit the ECOR website.

• ADA Pathway to Stop Diabetes: Diabetes Research Accelerator Award
• ADA Pathway to Stop Diabetes: Diabetes Research Career Initiator Award
• ADA Pathway to Stop Diabetes: Diabetes Research Visionary Award
• Edward Mallinckrodt Jr. Foundation Grant
• Pew Scholars Program in Biomedical Sciences
• Smith Family Award for Excellence in Biomedical Research

If you have any questions regarding applying for a limited funding opportunity through MGH, please contact Erin McGivney at 617-643-6471.

2. NIH Shared Instrumentation Grant Program (S10)

The NIH ORIP's Shared Instrumentation Grant (SIG) program supports the purchase of research equipment in the $100,000 to $600,000 price range. Examples of instrumentation supported by SIG funding include nuclear magnetic resonance systems, electron and confocal microscopes, mass spectrometers, protein and DNA sequencers, biosensors, X-ray diffractometers and cell sorters.

The MGH Executive Committee on Research (ECOR) has again committed funding to provide institutional support of $50,000 (for up to 10 funded grants) this year for Shared Instrumentation Grant proposals. ECOR has made this commitment because it recognizes that institutional support greatly increases the likelihood that a SIG application will be funded.

Several required application components for submitting an S10 grant to the NIH were changed in 2014 for this call and ECOR will be preparing this information and including it with the institutional letter of support.  The changes include:

• The institution must now explicitly state a commitment to provide financial support for the proposed financial plan should a shortfall be experienced due to a lack of other grant funding or chargeback/volume fluctuations (see Sect. IV).
  • A separate communication will be sent directly to department chiefs addressing the support of financial plans for submitted applications.
• The institution must also provide a Letter of Support that includes a table that provides information about instrument performance of all previous S10 awards for instruments awarded or installed within the past five years.
  • To meet this requirement, any recipient of an S10 award from 2010-present will be asked to provide specific details that will be used to support all shared instrumentation grants going forward. A separate email will be sent directly to the PIs to which this applies.

How to Apply
Due to increased administrative components required for these grants to be submitted for review going forward, we ask that any investigator who will be seeking institutional support to email their intent to apply to ecor@partners.org no later than Friday, March 6. This email should simply be a statement of intent to apply with the contact information for the PI intending to apply as well as their administrator. Once we have received this email, we will contact you with next steps on how to proceed.

If you have questions, please contact MGH ECOR at ecor@partners.org or call Erin McGivney at 617-643-6471.

Please note that while the deadline for S10 grants in past years was in March, the deadline is now May 29, 2015.

3. Claflin Distinguished Scholar Awards for Junior Faculty Women Investigators in Basic & Clinical Research

Applications are now being accepted by the Executive Committee on Research (ECOR) for the Claflin Distinguished Scholar Awards!

What are the Claflin Awards?
Although women scientists are recruited to Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) programs, their advancement to senior faculty positions is still far less frequent than that of their male counterparts.  In 1993, The Women in Academic Medicine Committee, originally chaired by Mrs. R. Morton Claflin, Honorary Trustee, was established to facilitate the academic careers of women in science at MGH.  Recognizing that a significant obstacle to career advancement is the difficulty of maintaining research productivity during the child-rearing years, this Committee, with the sponsorship of the Executive Committee On Research (ECOR), established the Claflin Distinguished Scholar Awards.  It is intended that this transitional funding will increase opportunities for women to advance to senior positions in academic medicine.

How much is each award?
These are two year awards for $50,000 per year in direct costs, plus 15% for indirect costs.

When is the deadline?
Tuesday, March 3, 2015

How do I learn more and apply?
Click here to read more and apply online!

4. KL2 Catalyst Medical Research Investigator Training (CMeRIT) Award

Applications due April 16, 2015

The KL2/CMeRIT program offers advanced training through educational activities and mentored research for senior fellows and junior faculty in clinical and translational research. The award provides two years of salary support at 50-75 percent of the awardee’s institutional salary base within NIH guidelines. Please see the RFA for application instructions and detailed eligibility requirements.

"The program provides young faculty like me with a roadmap, resources, and mentoring to navigate the difficult transition to becoming an independent investigator." - Joseph Mancias, MD, PhD, a 2014 KL2 Catalyst Medical Research Investigator Training (CMeRIT) Award recipient.

Read the Spotlight to learn more about how the KL2 Catalyst Medical Researcher Investigator Training (CMeRIT) award helps investigators.

Information Sessions: This information session will give prospective applicants and overview of the program and answer questions.
• March 10, 1:00-2:00pm, Ware Room, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School

Applications due April 16. Please see the RFA for application instructions and detailed eligibility requirements.

5. Nutrition Obesity Research Center at Harvard

Deadline: April 22, 2015

The Nutrition Obesity Research Center at Harvard (NORC-H)  (previously known as Harvard Clinical Nutrition Research Center) will be accepting applications for new pilot/ feasibility projects as well as for competing renewals of currently funded one-year projects for the 20th year (08/01/2015-07/31/2016) of the NIH-supported NORC. Projects will be funded up to $20,000 in the first year with possibility for renewal for a second year.

The specific purpose is to find:

1. Young investigators (senior fellows* or junior faculty) established by research programs relevant to clinical research who are without NIH R01 and R21 grant support (K awardees are encouraged to apply).
2. Established scientists not currently focused on nutrition per se who wish to initiate studies of direct or indirect importance to nutrition, metabolism or obesity.
3. Established nutrition researchers with novel new projects distinctly removed from their currently funded research projects.

Applications should be in the format of an R01, including all the NIH forms and budget pages, with the text portion of the grant limited to 3-5 pages single-spaced (NIH PHS 398). For anyone planning to submit a continuation please be certain to detail the progress you have made in the first year, as well as your plans for the proposed second year.

In addition, please suggest 3 or 4 individuals who might be able to review your application knowledgeably. These individuals can be from within or outside the Nutrition Obesity Research Center, but should not be current collaborators.  Please include their full names, mailing addresses, telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address.

All applications should be received in the NORC office by April 22, 2015.  Please submit electronically to Ewelinka ‘Nika’ Grzejka at egrzejka@partners.org.  For a complete application go to the NORC website
http://norch.org/pilot-and-feasibility-grants/application-procedure

For any science related questions please contact Dr. Steven Grinspoon, Co-Director of the NORC and Director of the Pilot Feasibility Program at 617-724-9109

*Fellows must be in the final year of training and must have a documented commitment to a faculty appointment by a sponsoring division or department.

6. Private Funding Opportunities 

Please contact Corporate & Foundation Relations in the Office of Development at devcfr@mgh.harvard.edu if you wish to submit a proposal in response to any of these funding opportunities.  Note that proposals are still routed through the standard InfoEd/Research Management process.

• Taub Foundation Grants Program for Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS) Research, Health Resources in Action (HRiA)/The Medical Foundation
• Accelerating Payment and Delivery System Reform Efforts, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)
• Post-Doctoral Cystinosis Research Fellowship Program, Cystinosis Research Foundation
• Biomedical Science:  Collaborative Awards in Science, Wellcome Trust

Please click here for further details on these funding opportunities.

7. Limited Submission Funding Opportunities

We ask that all MGH Investigators interested in applying for any limited submission award submit a Letter of Intent (see detailed instructions below) to the MGH Executive Committee on Research (ECOR) by the deadline indicated for each award to be considered to receive an institutional nomination.

Process
Submit a one- to two-page Letter of Intent (LOI) to the MGH Executive Committee on Research (ECOR) via email to ecor@partners.org.  In addition to your LOI, please include an NIH Biosketch.

The letter of intent should include:

• Name of the Principal Investigator with appropriate contact information 
• A descriptive title of the potential application
• Brief description of the project 
• Brief description of why you specifically should be selected to receive institutional nomination for this award

In the event that there is more than one MGH investigators interested in applying for each limited submission award, the LOIs will be used to assess candidates and a review and selection process will take place.

Current Limited Submission Funding Opportunities
Please click here for more information and for our internal deadlines.

• NIAMS Skin Biology and Diseases Resource-based Centers (P30)
• NIAMS Musculoskeletal Biology and Medicine Resource-based Centers (P30)
• American Diabetes Association Pathway to Stop Diabetes Research Awards
• Edward Mallinckrodt Jr. Foundation Grant
• NIAMS Rheumatic Diseases Research Resource-based Centers (P30)

If there is a limited submission funding opportunity you do not see listed above or you have any additional questions, please contact Erin McGivney at 617-643-6471.

8. NIH Update for Week Ending February 27, 2015

For the latest National Institutes of Health notices, requests for applications, and program announcements, follow this link: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/WeeklyIndex.cfm
 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Reminders of recently posted funding opportunities, deadlines and events

Claflin Distinguished Scholar Awards for Junior Faculty Women Investigators in Basic & Clinical Research
Application Deadline:  March 3

MGH ECOR Formulaic Bridge Funding
Application Deadline: March 7, 7th day of each month

2015 Fund for Medical Discovery (FMD) Clinical Fellowship Awards
Application Deadline: March 10

MGH Physician and/or Scientist Development Award 2015
Application Deadline: March 20

The Conquer Paralysis Now (CPN) Challenge
Application Deadline: April 1

Boston Biomedical Innovation Center (B-BIC) Accepting PILOT & DRIVE Grant Pre-Proposals

Communicating with Potential Donors: A Panel Discussion with the MGH Development Office - March 4

Communicating within Study Teams - March 24

Bedside to Bench: Recognizing and studying patients that lead to new discoveries - March 31

Save the Date! SAC 2015 - April 1 & 2, 2015

2015 World Medical Innovation Forum - Neurosciences - April 27-29

New Biographical Sketch Format Required for NIH and AHRQ Grant Applications Submitted - May 25

Register for the Employee Alert System (EAS) today!

Executive Committee On Research (ECOR) Massachusetts General Hospital

50 Staniford Street, Suite 1001, Boston, MA 02114

ecor@mgh.harvard.edu