Research News - January 23, 2015

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. Core of the Week: PET Core

PET Core
Director: Georges El Fakhri, PhD
Location: Blossom St., Edwards Basement and White II, Boston

The PET Core Laboratory provides a full range of technical and professional services for the design and execution of programs using Positron Emission Tomography (PET).

The PET Core Facility provides the required facilities and personnel on a per study basis to allow investigators to use PET without requiring them to acquire the needed special expertise and equipment.

To learn more about the PET Core, please click here.

2. PCORI Update: Board to Consider New Advisory Panel and PCORnet Research Topic; Funding Deadlines

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

EVENTS

1. Research Council Meeting

Monday, February 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

(Lunch available at 11:45 AM)

All MGH Researchers welcome!

2. 5th Annual Research Administrators Retreat

Tuesday, February 10, 2015, Time: 8:00 am - 4:00 pm, reception to follow, Simches, 3rd Floor 

Please join us for the 5th Annual Research Administrators Retreat. All MGH Department Administrators and Partners Central Administrators are invited to attend as well as any interested investigators. The retreat will be equally beneficial to those who are new to research administration and those who have been in the field for years, and will be a great opportunity to network with your colleagues.

Please click here to register.

3. Budgeting for Industry Sponsored Clinical Trials

Thursday, February 12, 12:00 - 1:30pm, Simches 3.120

This program is sponsored by the MGH Clinical Research Program and the Partners Clinical Research Office

Francine Molay, Project Manager, MGH Clinical Research Program
Megan Hunt, Financial Analyst Specialist, Partners Clinical Research Office
Sarah Bednar, Financial Analyst/MCA Specialist, Partners Clinical Research Office

This course will review the steps for developing an industry sponsored - clinical trial budget, describe direct costs, indirect costs, professional and technical fees, discuss the role of a Medicare Coverage Analysis and review the MGH budget approval process highlighting the role of the Partners Clinical Research Office (PCRO). An overview and live demonstration of Budget Builder will also be presented.

This session meets the requirements of the Board of Registration in Nursing, at 244 CMR 5.00, for 1.5 contact hours of nursing continuing education.

Registration is required. Please contact Kelsey Gay with any questions.

4. Munn Nursing Research Grand Rounds

Thursday, February 5, 1:30-2:30 pm, O’Keeffe Auditorium

“Family Members’ Perceptions of Most Helpful Interventions during End-of-Life Care”
Julie Cronin, MSN, RN, OCN; Clinical Nurse Specialist, GYN/Oncology
Recipient, Munn Nursing Research Award (2010)

This presentation will describe nursing interventions family members perceive as most helpful to increase their comfort and well-being during the time their loved one is receiving end-of-life care. It will also identify overall themes that were gleaned from the perspectives of family members that were interviewed during this time.

“Does Handling Influence Preterm Infants’ Pain Experience?”
Kim Francis RN, PhD, PHCNS-BC; Neonatal Clinical Nurse Specialist, Obstetric Service
Recipient, Munn Post Doctoral Fellowship (2012)

This presentation will describe the effect routine procedures may have on preterm infants’ behavioral pain response.

Norman Knight Nursing Center for Clinical and Professional Development at Massachusetts General Hospital (OH-239, 10/1/2017) is an approved provider of continuing nursing education by the Ohio Nurses Association (OBN-001-91), an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

The learner must stay for the entire program and submit a completed evaluation to obtain contact hours.

5. Research Faculty Seminar - Grant Writing Series: NIH Career Development (K) Awards 

Wednesday, January 28, 2015, 12:00 - 1:00 pm, Location provided upon registration.

The Center for Faculty Development's Office for Research Career Development presents a seminar for MGH research faculty.

This panel discussion will describe the different National Institutes of Health (NIH) career development awards that are available for research fellows and early career faculty. Topics will include:

• Which K award is right for you
• Selecting the mentor(s)
• The career development plan
• The research plan
• Responding to reviewers in a resubmitted grant

Panelists: Iain Drummond, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Nephrology; Bakhos Tannous, PhD, Associate Professor of Neurology; Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases

Faculty with HMS academic appointments, please click here to register by Fri, Jan 23.

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

1. MGH-MIT Grand Challenge 3: Neuroscience

We are pleased to announce our next funding opportunity available through the MGH-MIT Strategic Partnership - Grand Challenge 3: Neuroscience!

Grand Challenge 3: Develop joint ventures which link basic and clinical research in order to accelerate progress towards more effective diagnostic approaches and therapies in clinical neuroscience.

Award Types and Amounts: 

• 2 (two) “large” grants at $150,000 (total costs) per team per year for up to 2 years
• 4 (four) "small" at $50,000 (total costs) per team per year for 1 year
• 3 (three) “continuation" projects at $50,000 (total costs) per team for 1 year, to follow a "small" project

Note: Each award amount represents total award, inclusive of IDC/fund fees, 10% at MIT and 15% at MGH.

Letter of Intent (LOI): To be eligible to apply for this award, you must submit an e-mail notification with a letter of intent to apply as well as an award coversheet by February 6, 2015. Letters of intent should include the attached cover sheet, the names of the principal investigators and a brief description of the project. Please submit the LOI and coversheet to imes_rfp@mit@mit.edu AND to ecor@partners.org.

The email subject should read “MIT-MGH Challenge 3” and should include a single pdf file with the following name convention: the PI(s) last name separated by “_” and followed by “_LOI_GC3”.
Example: “Smith_Clark_LOI_GC3”.

Selected LOI will receive an email inviting a full proposal and detailed submission instructions.

Full Proposal Submission Date: March 15, 2015

Project Start Date: June 1, 2015

Submission Information: Letters of intent and applications should be submitted electronically to: imes_rfp@mit@mit.edu AND ecor@partners.org

To view the complete RFA, please click here. 

2. Pfizer Centers for Therapeutic Innovation 2015

We are pleased to alert you to a call for proposals for Pfizer’s Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI) 2015 CTI program for the development of bio-therapeutics for treatment of various diseases. For those familiar with the program we also want to call your attention to some changes in CTI process.

CTI supports translational programs in the therapeutic areas of Inflammation, Autoimmunity, Tissue remodeling, Oncology, Cancer immunotherapy, Rare or genetic diseases, Neuroscience, Cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.

CTI now has three annual Call-for-Proposal deadlines. The 2015 submission deadlines for a 2 page pre-proposal are February 13, June 12 and October 16.

Researchers working with validated drug targets that are tractable with biologic modalities such as antibodies, peptides, proteins, and are interested in developing a novel therapeutic agent to address an unmet clinical need should apply.Pfizer may fund 1-3 post-doctoral fellows for 2-3 years per project. Any intellectual property covering the newly developed therapeutic will be jointly owned by the Partners entity and CTI. Background intellectual property is not necessary for submission, but access to it may be required, if it exists.

The process: Pre-proposals should be submitted via email to Partners Innovation. Innovation will conduct a review of each pre-proposal to ensure that no confidential or proprietary information is included, prior to forwarding to CTI. CTI will make the decisions on which pre-proposals to advance to a full proposal stage. Invitations will then be sent to the PI‘s to submit confidential full proposals, to be developed together with CTI personnel. Funding decisions on full proposals will be made by the CTI-Partners Joint Steering Committee.

If you have any questions regarding the program, please contact Rekha Paleyanda at rpaleyanda@partners.org.

3. 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.

• Shark Tank Competition, Epilepsy Foundation of America (EFA)

Please click here for further details on these funding opportunities.

4. 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:

1. Name of the Principal Investigator with appropriate contact information
2. A descriptive title of the potential application
3. Brief description of the project
4. 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.

• Centers for Common Disease Genomics (UM1)
• Centers for Mendelian Genomics (UM1)
• Environmental Health Sciences Core Centers (EHS CC) (P30)
• NIAMS Skin Biology and Diseases Resource-based Centers (P30)
• NIAMS Rheumatic Diseases Research Resource-based Centers (P30) - NEW!

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.

5. NIH Update for Week Ending January 23, 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

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

MLSC Cooperative Research Matching Grant Program
Application Deadline: February 13

2015 Joseph B. Martin Dean’s Leadership Award for the Advancement of Women Faculty
Nomination Deadline: February 16 

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

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

Research Nurse Book Club - January 27

Research Administrators Retreat - February 10

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

Executive Committee On Research (ECOR) Massachusetts General Hospital

50 Staniford Street, Suite 1001, Boston, MA 02114

ecor@mgh.harvard.edu