Research News - June 9, 2017

The Executive Committee on Research (ECOR) Interim Support Program is intended to financially support MGH Investigators during a lapse or delay in their federal funding. This program operates with limited funding and in order to sustain that funding and support the broadest cross-section of investigators, the eligibility for Formulaic Bridge Support has been updated.

Effective immediately, investigators who have received ECOR bridge funding (either Formulaic or Deliberative) in the past 24 months must submit all current bridge funding requests (regardless of percentile) through the Deliberative process. The 24-month window begins upon the start date of the most recent Formulaic or Deliberative award.

The next deadline for Deliberative ISF 17-3 applications will be August 1. For further information on the application process, please look for an announcement from ECOR in several weeks.

For further questions, please contact ECOR at ecor@mgh.harvard.edu

Help the Disruptors research team raise money for the 2017 My Giving Helps (MGH Fund + United Way) employee campaign and give us a leg-up in this year's Operation game at the Employee Picnic on June 21. The team that raises the most dollars and the team that recruits the most individual donors will be rewarded with extra “operating” time on competition day.

Nine teams, led by MGH captains, will be competing to see who can get a head start on the Operation game.   With your help, we can make the Disruptors the hospital’s top fund raiser in both overall dollars and number of contributors, and get us off to a good start in the game. Even a $1 one-time contribution helps and makes you eligible to win an MGH Research Institute fleece.  You will receive one raffle entry for every dollar donated and we will raffle off one fleece for every $500 collected.  As an extra bonus, anyone who contributes will be entered into a separate raffle for a chance to be a part of our ninth competing team, captained by a special VIP guest.

The MGH Fund is the hospital's primary source of flexible funding, one that Dr. Slavin has used often to seed important research projects such as the circulating tumor cell initiative.  Thank you for being a generous member of the Mass General Research Institute; come watch us win at the picnic on 21 June!

There are several easy ways to contribute:
Credit Card on Website: https://because.massgeneral.org/team/120860
(Note: if you have trouble accessing the site, please copy and paste it into your browser. Thank you.)
Or, call or email Leigh Mueller at 617-643-4189,  lamueller@mgh.harvard.edu if you wish to give by:

• Credit Card over the phone
• One-Time Payroll Deduction
• Cash
• Check

Thanks!
The Disruptors Research Team – Peter Chelton, Anne Clancy, Maurizio Fava, Michael Fisher, Donna Jarrell, Tatiana Koretskaia, Katherine Kulig, Maire Leyne, Samantha Molle, Harry Orf (captain), Sue Slaugenhaupt, and Gary Smith

The USCIS Fraud Detection and National Security (FNDS) Directorate conducts random, unannounced audits of H-1B sponsors in order to verify the terms and conditions of H-1B employment. Partners entities have recently experienced an increase in these visits where an FDNS officer arrives at the worksite without notice to question the sponsored foreign national employee as well as the department's immigration contact.

Departments must be prepared for these visits! Please take the following actions now so you are prepared:

• Identify the responsible administrator
• Notify your foreign national employees about the possibility of an FDNS visit and interview
• Confirm that the salary, worksite(s), and job duties outlined in the H-1B petition for the employee are accurate.  Contact pips@partners.org if your department's copy of the petition is unavailable.
• Review the FDNS visit guidance from PIPS here

Please contact PIPS if you have questions and if you receive a visit from FDNS.

Click here to read the latest update from the NIH Office of Extramural Research.

Monday, June 12, 1:00– 5:00pm

Thanks to those of you who have registered for the symposium – we are excited to welcome all our participants next week.  If you have not yet registered, have no fear – there is still time.

We invite you and your colleagues to the 3rd Annual Skeletal Research Symposium hosted by the MGH Endocrine Unit.  This year we will feature talks by two talented leaders in the field, Sean Morrison, PhD from U Southwestern and Elizabeth Shane, MD from Columbia University.  We will also have talks by two young investigators who will present their research supported by Pilot Grants awarded by the CSR.  There will be a special seminar for young investigators and post docs presented by Dr. Shane entitled “Launching your career in today’s world”.  An important part of the symposium will be the poster session that will allow time for informal exchange about research ideas, prizes will be awarded.

There is no charge for this event but advanced registration is recommended due to limited seating.   For more information, go to  CSR 2017 Symposium   or use our quick link to Register

Tuesday, June 20, 1:00 – 2:00 pm, Main Campus, details provided upon registration
The Center for Faculty Development's Office for Research Career Development presents a seminar for HMS faculty and trainees.

The final RCR Session of 2016-2017 academic year will discuss:
• Management of research data for publication and sharing
• Research integrity in collaborations and publications
• Perspectives of an HMS policymaker and a senior faculty member

Research Integrity & Data Management
Discussion Leaders:
Gretchen Brodnicki, JD, dean of faculty and research integrity, HMS
Dennis Brown, PhD,professor of Medicine, HMS, director, Office for Research Career Development

Please click here to register by Fri, Jun 16.

This seminar counts as one of the four required lectures in part III of Partners RCR training.
All are welcome, but space is limited and registration preference will be given to those with RCR training requirements. For more information on RCR training, click here.

Wednesday & Thursday, June 21 & 22, 1-4 pm, Ruth Sleeper Hall, Room 070, MGH main campus (corner of Parkman St. and Blossom St., across from the Wyndham Hotel)

The MGH Department of Biomedical Engineering’s Model Shop will be hosting an open house to showcase its capabilities in design, machining, and fabrication. MGH Biomedical Engineering offers highly specialized prototyping and fabrication facilities that provide custom designs and tooling to meet the needs of researchers and clinicians within MGH and Partners.

Our services include the manufacturing of one-of-a-kind products, design and development of models, product customization, CAD services, equipment repairs, and 3D printing.

Reservations are not required but RSVPs are encouraged: modelshop@partners.org

Thursday, June 29, 12:00 – 1:00 pm, Garrod/Mendel Conference Room
Clinical Research Coordinators, What would you have liked to know when you started your job? What difficult and challenging situations have you encountered? Please come and share your wisdom to help the Division of Clinical Research create a course for future coordinators. Lunch will be provided.
Course Facilitators: Karen K. Miller, MD and Andrew A. Nierenberg, MD

Registration is required. Please contact Tiereny Morrison-Rolfs at tmorrison-rohlfs@partners.org with any questions.

Thursday, July 13, 10:00am – 12:00pm, Simches 3.120

Sponsored by the MGH Division of Clinical Research and the MGH Office of Research Compliance

Pamela Richtmyer, Senior Research Compliance Associate, MGH Research Compliance

This presentation will provide a basic overview of clinical research billing.  Attendees will gain a general understanding of the clinical research billing process including:

• Developing a study budget that will cover all costs
• Epic research billing responsibilities
• Determining what is billable to insurance
• Routing charges appropriately
• Insight Patient Care Correction process
• Maintaining financial health of study
• Understanding relevant regulations and requirements
• Available resources

The Clinical Trial Billing Education Series is provided by MGH Research Compliance for the MGH Division of Clinical Research.

This course is geared towards investigators, research nurses, study coordinators, project managers, and all other study staff.

This program meets the requirements of the Board of Registration in Nursing, at 244 CMR 5.00, for 1 contact hour of nursing continuing education.

Registration is required. Contact Tiereny Morrison-Rohlfs with questions.

Wednesday & Thursday, July 12 - 13, The Joseph B. Martin Conference Center at Harvard Medical School, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston, MA 02115

On behalf of the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at Harvard, we would like to extend registration to our 18th Annual Symposium, which will take place in July. Please consider registering, as this is a very educational event to attend. Registration is free and we welcome everyone- students, physicians, community members, academic faculty, etc. Click here to register.

Contact: HarvardNORC@mgh.harvard.edu with any questions.

We hope to see you there!

Thursday, October 5

On Thursday, October 5, MGH will celebrate the 15th Annual Clinical Research Day. The Division of Clinical Research invites investigators from across the hospital to submit abstracts at https://crp2017.abstractcentral.com/login by the July 10th deadline.

Please note that submissions must be about clinical research conducted at MGH and may include manuscripts published or submitted for publication between September 2016 and July 2017.

MGH awards for best abstracts:

• $5,000 Team Award (Nominations by chiefs required)
• $1,500 Translational Research Award, sponsored by the Department of Molecular Biology
• $1,000 Individual Award
• Departmental Awards for clinical researchers include: Anesthesia, Dermatology, Emergency Medicine, Medicine, Neurology, Ob/Gyn, Orthopaedic Surgery, Pathology, Pediatric Surgery, Pediatrics, Performance Analysis and Improvement/Practice Improvement, Psychiatry, Radiology, and Surgery

Clinical Research Day will begin at 8 a.m. with the keynote address delivered by Dr. Daniel J. Rader, Seymour Gray Professor of Molecular Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Please contact Jillian Tonelli with any questions.

Tuesdays and Thursdays, September - October 2017, 5:00pm – 6:30pm, Potts Conference Room

Sponsored by the MGH Division of Clinical Research, the Division of Infectious Diseases, and the Department of Psychiatry

Design and Conduct of Clinical Trials is an intensive thirteen-session course offered from early-September through late October. Physicians with a serious interest in clinical trials will be introduced to theoretical and practical issues facing clinical researchers.  Course participants will learn how to envision, plan, develop and execute effective clinical trials. Study content includes research designs, protocols, ethical patient recruitment, informed consent, regulations, and clinical trial management.

The course is ideally suited for clinical fellows starting their research years, junior faculty pursuing careers in clinical research, and physicians with an interest in becoming more actively involved in clinical research.  All participants are expected to use the course curriculum to develop and present a trial design at the final session of the course. 

Enrollment is limited to facilitate interaction and individual attention. To ensure placement in the course, early application is recommended. All applications will be reviewed in mid-August.

To submit an application and/or view a course schedule, please go to: Design and Conduct of Clinical Trials. Contact Tiereny Morrison-Rohlfs with any questions.

Preliminary applications are now being accepted by the Executive Committee on Research (ECOR) for the NIH Director’s Early Independence Awards.

What are they?
The NIH Director’s Early Independence Award Program supports exceptional investigators who wish to pursue independent research directly after completion of their terminal doctoral/research degree or clinical residency, thereby forgoing the traditional post-doctoral training period and accelerating their entry into an independent research career.

MGH is eligible to nominate two candidates to apply to NIH for this award.

When is the deadline?  
MGH internal preliminary applications: Monday July 10, 2017 – 5:00 PM

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

Following two successful years with a total of 12 proposals funded at MGH and BWH under Sanofi Innovation Awards (iAwards) Program, we are pleased to announce the third (annual) call for pre-proposals under this program.

The Sanofi iAwards program, launched in 2015, brings together 7 top academic research institutions across the country and aims to support research ideas early in the translational path, at the transition between basic research and first proof of concept.

Successful projects have the potential to grow into sponsored research agreements with significantly increased funding levels and timelines.

Please click here for a flyer with more information and timelines.
Research Areas of Interest to Sanofi (including but not limited to):

• Cardiovascular Diseases
• Diabetes
• Oncology
• Immuno-Oncology
• Immunology
• Neurology/Neurosciences
• Infectious Diseases
• Rare Diseases
• Biologics

Funding & Term:
$125,000 (this is total amount including full IDC) for one year.

Pre-proposals:
Please submit your pre-proposal using this Pre-proposals Template and limit the total length to a maximum of 2 pages (excluding publications). All information in the pre-proposal should be non-confidential.

Deadline for submission: June 16, 2017
Please send pre-proposals by email to phsstrategicalliances@partners.org

Questions:  
Please contact Seema Basu, PhD, at Partners Innovation (ssbasu@partners.org) or Zongxi Li, PhD, at the Mass General Research Institute (zli9@mgh.harvard.edu)
We look forward to working with you in submitting highly innovative, early translation projects to be funded by the Sanofi iAwards Program!

The Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine, presented by the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals – part of The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development – honors a physician-scientist who has moved science forward with notable achievements in innovation, creativity and potential for clinical application.
This annual prize includes:

• An unrestricted $20,000 honorarium
• The Harrington Prize Lecture, delivered at the 2018 AAP/ASCI/APSA Joint Meeting
• Participation at the Harrington Discovery Institute Annual Symposium
• A personal essay, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation

This prize requires Institutional Nomination; MGH is not limited in the number of nominees we can submit. If you are interested, please contact MGH ECOR at ecor@partners.org by July 15, 2017 to be considered.

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

If there is more than one MGH investigator 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.

• W.M. Keck Foundation Medical Research Program
• Gabrielle's Angel Foundation
• NIAMS Rheumatic Diseases Research Resource-based Centers (P30)
• George M. O'Brien Kidney Research Core 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.

Please note that any grant that brings in less than 15% in indirect costs (IDC) will need to be supplemented up to the 15% equivalent by existing investigator or departmental sundry funds. Resolution of this issue must occur prior to submission of the award.

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.

Week of 6/9/17

•  Mentored Research Award (MRA) Program, Hemophilia and Thrombophilia Research Society
• Independent Grants for Learning & Change (IGLC): Track 2 - Call for Grant Applications (CGA) - Addressing Attitudes, Beliefs, and Cultural Barriers in Women's Health Decision-Making, Pfizer, Inc.  
• Independent Grants for Learning & Change (IGLC): Track 2 - Call for Grant Applications (CGA) - Multi-discipline and Systemic Caring for the Woman Experiencing Menopause: Innovative Decision Making Tools, Pfizer, Inc.
• Bridge to Independence Award, Simons Foundation/Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI)

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

Center for Genomic Medicine Catalysis Awards
Application Deadline: June 15, 2017

HHMI Announces New Investigator Competition
Application Deadline: June 27, 2017

MGH ECOR Formulaic Bridge Funding Support
Application Deadline: July 7, 2017; 7th day of each month

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

Center for Skeletal Research 3rd Annual Research Symposium – June 12

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