Research News - March 11, 2016

Does it seem like some of our research processes, policies and systems could be more efficient?

The best ideas for improving our research enterprise come from YOU – the researchers and support staff who face these challenges every day. But we can’t make changes unless we know what to fix.

This week at Research Council, we introduced Isuggest, a new idea-driven continuous improvement program for researchers and support staff.  The Isuggest program is an expanded version of the Continuous Research Operations Improvement (CROI) Program that originated at Mass General and now includes Brigham and Women’s Hospital and all of Partners Research Management.

Use Isuggest to send us your ideas for improving workflow, eliminating unnecessary procedures, and other ways that we can make your workday easier. Help us help you!

There are two easy ways to submit a suggestion:

• Visit the Isuggest portal at:  https://isuggest.partners.org/
• Send an email to:  Isuggest@mgh.harvard.edu

If you missed the MGH Research Council meeting on Monday, March 7, or just want another look at the materials presented, please visit the ECOR website’s Research Council page.

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

Monday, March 14, 2016, 4:00 – 5:00 PM, CNY 149, 7th Floor, Isselbacher Auditorium

“Analysis of genome-wide chromatin accessibility in single-cells”
Keji Zhao, PhD
Director, Laboratory of Epigenome Biology
National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) NIH

Registration at Lobby Security Desk may be required. Shuttle bus leaves MGH Main Campus (Blossom St) every 15 minutes. Refreshments available.

Tuesday, March 15, 2016, 4:00 – 5:00 PM, CNY 149, 2.204

Cardiac and Skeletal Muscle Metabolic Abnormalities and their Relationship to Exercise Intolerance and Subsequent Clinical Outcomes in Heart Failure Patients

Robert Weiss, MD
Professor of Medicine and Radiology
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Friday, March 18, 2016, 12:00 - 1:30 pm, Location provided upon registration
The Center for Faculty Development’s Office for Research Career Development presents a seminar for MGH faculty with HMS academic appointments.

This panel discussion is designed for early career faculty who are new to the process of hiring and leading laboratory staff. Topics covered will help
you in building the best lab team for your new research program, including:
• Strategies for different types of research and funding
• Getting started: who to hire, postdoc or technician
• Getting your team off to a good start: setting expectations
• How to avoid pitfalls and what to do if things go wrong

Lab Management Series: Strategies for Building a Lab Team
Panelists:

• Dennis Brown, PhD, Professor, Department of Medicine; Director, Program in Membrane Biology; Director, Office for Research Career Development
• Bryan Hurley, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics
• Melissa Suter, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine/Pulmonary & Critical Care Unit

Please click here to register by Fri, Mar 11. Registration preference to MGH faculty, fellows admitted as space permits.

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

The ORCD's Research Fellow Poster Celebration will take place on May 25, 2016. The annual 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. Abstracts/posters will be evaluated by a review committee, and the top presentations will receive awards and cash prizes.

Abstracts are due at 5:00 pm on Fri, Mar 18.

Please click here for instructions and abstract submission materials.

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. For some awards, MGH receives invitations to submit their own nominations. In this case, MGH faculty must first apply for the MGH nomination through ECOR and a committee at MGH will select the final MGH candidates to submit applications to the foundations. 

To view the HMS Foundation Funds that are currently available and the Institution that MGH faculty should apply through, please click here.

Please direct all inquiries regarding the application process at HMS to Betty Carbunari, Office of the HMS Dean for Academic and Clinical Affairs, 617-432-7463, Betty_Carbunari@hms.harvard.edu.  If you have questions regarding the MGH application process, please email MGH ECOR, ecor@mgh.harvard.edu. 

Letters of Intent are now being accepted by the Executive Committee on Research (ECOR) for the American Diabetes Association Pathways to Stop Diabetes Award

What are they?
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) Pathways to Stop Diabetes supports innovative basic, clinical, translational, epidemiological, behavioral, or health services research relevant to any diabetes type, diabetes-related disease state, or diabetes complication. The ADA seeks exceptional candidates from a broad range of disciplines, including medicine, biology, chemistry, computing, physics, mathematics and engineering.

MGH is eligible to nominate one candidate to apply to the ADA for this award.

When is the deadline?  
MGH Letters of Intent: Wednesday, March 16, 2016 – 3:00 PM

How do I learn more and apply?
Click here for more information and to apply for this award.

Four Year Award for Investigators who are Underrepresented in Academic Medicine*

*Basic, Clinical, Translational, and Health Services investigators are all eligible

Applications for grants are invited by the MGH Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CDI) and the Executive Committee on Research (ECOR). 

What is the Award?
The MGH Physician and/or Scientist Development Award (PSDA) is designed for MD and/or PhD investigators at MGH who are considered underrepresented in academic medicine (URM). This Award is intended to provide transitional funding for support in the development of physicians and scientists underrepresented in academic medicine, and thereby increase opportunities for URM researchers to advance to senior positions in academic medicine at MGH.  The CDI will evaluate the need for this Award on a regular basis.

Am I URM (Underrepresented in Medicine)?
For the purposes of the PSDA, MGH follows the definition of underrepresented in medicine and biomedical research (URM) of the NIH and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).  URM groups may include Latino/ Hispanic (including Brazilian), African-American/Black, American Indian, Native Hawaiian and Alaskan Natives, among others. Please note that Asians are not considered URM, UNLESS they are underrepresented relative to the population MGH serves, e.g., Cambodian or Laotian.

How much is the award?
A maximum of $120,000.00 will be awarded to be spent over a three or four-year period, with a maximum of $40,000.00 per year of funding in direct costs, plus 15% for indirect costs.

When is the deadline?
Friday, March 18, 2016 – 4:00 PM

Deadline: April 29, 2016
The MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC) is accepting applications for an award to support clinical, community, or laboratory-based pilot and feasibility studies. The intent of the award is to allow MGHfC junior faculty who lack other substantial sources of research support to initiate studies that have a high likelihood of leading to extramural funding.

AWARD DESCRIPTION AND CRITERIA

1. The intent is to award one $25,000 proposal to be used over 1 year for supplies and research staff salary support. The award cannot be used to cover salary for the Principal Investigator (applicant) or equipment. Indirect costs are not allowed.
2. The applicant should hold the rank of Instructor or Assistant Professor at HMS and should play an active role in the care of pediatric patients and/or the research activities of the MGHfC. Investigators with NIH K awards are eligible, but those with R awards are not.
3. The deadline for receipt of applications is 12 noon on April 29th, 2016.
4. The award will be announced in June, with funding expected to start by July 1st.
5. Selection criteria for the award will include the applicant’s record of achievements and commitment to research, the scientific merits of the proposal, and the likelihood that the project will lead to long-term funding.

APPLICATION GUIDELINES
The application should include all the components listed below:

1. Partners cover-page with signatures of the Principal Investigator and Division Chief.
2. Description of proposed research, including Aims, Background and Significance, Preliminary Data (if available) and Experimental Design (5 pages maximum for these items). Literature citations are not included in the page limit.
3. Budget, including a brief justification of the expenses (1 page maximum).
4. Biosketch of applicant in current (Ver C) NIH format (5 page maximum).
5. A list of all current and pending research support (including departmental start-up funds, if any), with dates of awards, direct cost dollar amounts, goals, and overlap, if any, with current proposal.
6. Copy of IRB or IACUC approval if applicable.
7. Two letters of support - from a research mentor and the Division Chief. In addition to an evaluation of the applicant’s qualifications for the award, the letters should indicate plans for his or her career development at MGHfC, and the amount of protected time devoted to research.

Components 2 - 5 should be formatted according to NIH guidelines using pages with no
less than 0.5” margins, Arial font, no smaller than 11 point (figures and legends may use smaller
font as long as it is legible), single-spaced. Page restrictions are inclusive of figures, tables and
other pertinent data, and will be strictly enforced.

Assemble all components of the application into a single PDF file in the order indicated, and e-mail to William Cullen (wcullen@mgh.harvard.edu). Address any questions to Dr. Elizabeth Goodman (egoodman3@mgh.harvard.edu).

This award recognizes an outstanding junior faculty member who has demonstrated leadership in the United States in addressing inequities in medical education and health care; demonstrated efforts in addressing educational, societal, and health care needs racial and ethnic minorities; and is committed to a career in academic medicine. The recipient receives a $15,000 grant to support his or her academic and professional activities. Funding for the fellowship begins in November of the year the fellowship is awarded. The recipient will be required to submit a final narrative and financial reports.

A medical school may nominate one current faculty member per year for this award. All MGH faculty members must apply to HMS for this funding opportunity.

A candidate must:

• Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident
• Hold the rank of full-time assistant professor in an LCME-accredited U.S. medical school department
• Have held the assistant professor position for no more than three years
• Have received only one appointment as assistant professor
• Hold a MD, PhD, or have earned another doctoral degree

The nomination packet must include:

• A letter of recommendation from the nominee's department or section chair
• A letter of recommendation of the nominee's choosing
• A personal statement from the nominee discussing his or her motivations and objectives for a career in academic medicine, not to exceed four double-spaced pages
• An itemized one-page budget with specific details on how the fellowship funds will be used
• A current curriculum vitae (CV) for the nominee, which clearly indicates exact date of appointment and contact information

*All nomination letters and personal statement should be double-spaced with one inch margins, and size 12, Times New Roman font.

Please email applications to betty_carbunari@hms.harvard.edu by Friday, April 1, 2016.

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.

• TRIH Grant, Action on Hearing Loss (Trading Name of the Royal National Institute for Deaf People ([RNID])
• Pilot and Feasibility Awards, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF)
• Taub Foundation Grants Program for Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS) Research, Health Resources in Action (HRiA)/The Medical Foundation
• Jacobs Early Career Research Fellowship, Jacobs Foundation
• Culture of Health Leaders, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)
• NHF-Baxtalta Clinical Fellowship Program, National Hemophilia Foundation (NHF)
• Adherence Improvement - Post Doctoral Fellowships, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America Foundation, Inc. (PhRMA Foundation)
• Adherence Improvement - Research Starter Grants, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America Foundation, Inc. (PhRMA Foundation)
• Biomedical Science: Collaborative Awards in Science, Wellcome Trust

Please click here for further details on these 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.

• Breast Cancer Alliance Exceptional Project Grant
• Environmental Health Sciences Core Centers (EHS CC) (P30)
• National Health Education Lupus Program (NHELP)
• Consortium for Food Allergy Research: Leadership Center (UM2)
• Consortium for Food Allergy Research: Clinical Research Units (UM1)

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.

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

MGH Physician and/or Scientist Development Award 2016
Application Deadline: March 18, 2016

MGH ECOR Deliberative Interim Support Funding (ISF)
Application Deadline: April 1, 2016

The Nutrition Obesity Research Center at Harvard (NORC-H) Pilot Feasibility Project Grants in Nutrition, Obesity, or Related Research Fields
Application Deadline:  April 1, 2016

Center for Skeletal Research Requests Proposals for Pilot and Feasibility Studies
Application Deadline: April 1, 2016

MGH ECOR Formulaic Bridge Funding Support
Application Deadline: April 7, 2016; 7th day of each month

KL2 Catalyst Medical Research Investigator Training (CMeRIT) Award
Application Deadline: April 14, 2016

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

Clinical Research Spotlight Series: Research Subject Support and Education – March 16

SAVE THE DATE! SAC 2016 - April 6 & 7

Innovation at Partners HealthCare: Fall Newsletter

Information Systems News - Fall 2015

Partners Office for Interactions with Industry’s FY15 Annual Report

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