Research News - March 18, 2016

Please click here to read the latest update from the Partners Government Affairs office.

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

April 6 & 7, 2016

The 69th Annual Meeting of the MGH Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) is being held on April 6 & 7, 2016.
Please click here to view the agenda. More information to follow in the upcoming weeks!

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 TODAY, Mar 18.

Please click here for instructions and abstract submission materials.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016, 4:00 – 5:00 PM, CNY 149, 2.204

MicroRNA Regulation of Vascular Inflammation and Angiogenesis
Mark Feinberg, MD
Assistant Professor
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Mondays, 3/28, 4/25, 5/23 & 6/27 from 3:00 -5:00 pm, One Constitution Center, Charlestown, MA

The Executive Committee on Research (ECOR) is accepting applications for the April 1st deadline for the Deliberative Interim Support Funding.  April is the 2nd of three standing deadlines for these awards in Fiscal Year 2016.  The next deadline will be August 1, 2016.  

What are they?
Deliberative Interim Support Funding
This is open to Principal Investigators during a lapse or delay in their research funding from the NIH or another Federal agency (e.g., the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense).  Investigators must have applied for independent, long-term support (R01, R21, U01 and P01).  The Deliberative Interim Support process is open to:

1. Investigators whose grants were not scored or whose scores were not translated into a percentile ranking.
2. Investigators whose grants received scores >20th percentile.
3. Investigators who have already received Formulaic Bridge Funding or Deliberative Interim Support on their A0 grant application and are now requesting support for their A1 or A0 resubmission.  Investigators in this category must apply through the Deliberative Interim Support process for their A1 and A0 resubmission regardless of the score they received on their resubmitted grant.

When is the deadline?
Friday, April 1, 2016 - 5:00 PM

How do I learn more and apply?
Deliberative Interim Support Funding - Click here

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. 

The Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals, in Cleveland, Ohio – part of The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development – is pleased to announce the call for applications for the 2017 Harrington Scholar-Innovator Award.

The award recognizes physician-scientists (MD and MD/PhD) across the U.S. whose drug discovery research has the potential to change standard of care. Harrington Discovery Institute is committed to providing Scholar-Innovator awardees with a full level of support:

• $100,000 guaranteed, opportunity to qualify for up to $700,000 over 2 years 
• Pharmaceutical industry drug development expertise and project management support through our Innovation Support Center
• Connections to pharmaceutical commercialization partners

Call for applications opens March 1, 2016
 
Applications are being accepted through June 6, 2016
 
Learn more at HarringtonDiscovery.org/Grant.
 
Questions, please contact HDIQuestions@HarringtonDiscovery.org.
 
To learn more about the Harrington Scholar experience watch the video.

Click hereto learn more about the Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio – part of The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development – a $250 million international initiative to advance medicine and society by enabling inventive physician-scientists to turn their discoveries into medicines that improve human health.               

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).

Up to $500,000 in Grants to be Awarded!

Application Deadline: April 18

The Heart Rhythm Society, in partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (BIPI), is proud to announce a call for grant applications to support innovation and advancement in atrial fibrillation and stroke prevention research aimed at addressing National Quality Improvement (QI) priorities via demonstration projects/research. Through this effort, BIPI is providing $500,000 to support multiple grants to eligible applicants for proposals that aim to affect the behaviors and performance of patients, providers, and/or systems that when combined with existing standards and approaches to care, may enhance patient outcomes.

The Heart Rhythm Society seeks applications from U.S.-based health care providers, research scientists and Centers for Excellence focused on QI demonstration projects/research that improve risk screening and management of patients 18 years and older with a diagnosis of non-valvular atrial fibrillation, who are at risk for ischemic stroke. Finalists will present their proposals in front of an expert panel at Heart Rhythm 2016 in San Francisco, California on May 5, 2016. The winner(s) will go on to present their findings at Heart Rhythm 2017 in Chicago.

Note: The intent of these awards is not to support clinical research projects. Projects evaluating the efficacy of therapeutic or diagnostic agents will not be considered.

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.

• ASAF Fellowship Research Award, American Surgical Association Foundation (ASAF)
• Healthy Eating Research: Building Evidence to Prevent Childhood Obesity - Round 10, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)
• New Connections Grants Awarded through the Healthy Eating Research Program, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)
• National Grants Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation

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.

• 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 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

SAC 2016 - April 6 & 7

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