MGH Research News for June 14, 2024

June 14, 2024

Announcements, events, funding opportunities and more news for the Mass General Research Institute community.

In this edition:

(Scroll down for more info and click on the links for additional details)

Funding Opportunities

NEW Chong Jin Park Innovative Pilot Award, Aging and Palliative Care
Innovative Treatments for Disorders of Consciousness
The Smith Family Awards for Excellence in Biomedical Research
Support for Early Career Investigators
Limited Submission Funding
Foundation Funding Opportunities

Announcements:

NEW Mentor Training: How to become a better mentor
NEW 2024 Women in Medicine and Science Symposium
Clinical Research Survey, Survey to assess need for qualitative resources
Clinical Research Day Call for Abstracts
Call for Abstract Reviewers and Final Presentation Panelists
Software Offering - ChemDraw

Events:

NEW Financial Planning 10-week Class
Conquering the K Course
RCR Program: Research Integrity
Introduction to Bioinformatics
Clinical Research: Improve Subject Retention and Publish Faster
Faculty Transition Webinar Series Session 5
Brief Mental Health Interventions for Suicide Risk
NEW #Friendtorship: Cultivating peer mentor relationships in academic medicine
NEW Biobank Portal
NEW Drop-In Sessions for CRC’s
NEW Introduction to RPDR
NEW REDCap eConsent Functionality
NEW Town Hall MGB Research Strategic Planning Process 2024
Fourth Annual Conference on Precision Psychiatry
10th Annual World Medical Innovation Forum
4th Annual Conference on Precision Psychiatry
Two Meditation Sessions available every week

NEW Chong Jin Park Innovative Early Career Pilot Award in Aging and Palliative Care

This grantwill support research focused on health equity and improving the lives of older people and or those with serious illness through research in population and health care delivery science.

The Ki Sub Joung Innovative Junior Faculty Pilot Award in Aging and Palliative Care

will support research focused on improving the lives of older people and or those with serious illness, with an emphasis on vulnerable populations.

Each award is $50,000 per year, plus 20% indirect costs.

Project Period: 12 months

Learn more

Innovative Treatments for Disorders of Consciousness

Spaulding Rehabilitation, in collaboration with the Curing Coma Campaign, announces the following funding opportunity to generate and initiate disruptive ideas in the treatment of patients with disorders of consciousness. This award funds projects that create infrastructure to enable prospective multicenter RCTs (including adaptive platform trials) and/or evaluate biologically plausible treatments. Acquisition of pilot data for larger multicenter studies is a key aim of this initiative.

Applying for this opportunity is a two-step process. Applicants first submit a brief Letter of Intent (LOI). Applicants will then be advanced to the next round and invited to submit a full proposal. The LOI submission window opens June 3, 2024, with a submission deadline of July 15, 2024. Visit the website and email SRNOutcomesCenter@partners.org for more details.

Learn more

The Smith Family Awards for Excellence in Biomedical Research

The mission of the Awards Program is to launch the careers of newly independent biomedical researchers with the ultimate goal of achieving medical breakthroughs. The three‐year Award supports newly independent faculty engaged in basic or translational biomedical research. Investigators in the physical sciences (physics, chemistry and engineering) whose projects focus on biomedical science are also encouraged to apply. While basic research projects involving human subjects, data, and samples are eligible, clinical trials research is beyond the scope of this program.

This opportunity is open to full-time faculty at MGH who received or will receive their Assistant Professor appointment on or between 10/1/22 and 4/1/25. The award is $400,000 over three years, inclusive of 5% institutional overhead.

Please contact Foundation Relations in the Office of Development at devcfr@mgh.harvard.edu if you wish to submit a proposal in response to this opportunity. They will be able to advise you on the application process.

Preliminary proposal deadline: Tuesday, June 18, 2024 at 12:00 Noon (Those applicants who make it to the second stage will be invited to submit a full proposal in early October).

Learn more

Support for Early Career Investigators at the Translational and Clinical Research Center

The TCRC at Massachusetts General Hospital will support two early career investigators each year to perform their pilot and feasibility studies or studies related to their early career awards on the TCRC.

Awardees will not be charged for nursing, nutrition, or sample processing time, the TCRC annual fee or the TCRC per visit fee for research conducted on the TCRC (for up to $10,000 per year for two years). Coordinator support will not be available through this program.

Awardees will be supported via consultation with the TCRC Medical Resource Officer in protocol development, building of budgets, grant writing, filing of INDs/IDEs, and study implementation. They will receive guidance regarding participant recruitment and retention in the study, and other support as necessary for successful completion of the proposed project. Awardees will be encouraged to participate in Catalyst supported resources such as the C/T Academy and the GRASP program.

Deadline for Submission: July 1st

Learn more

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.

CURRENT OPPORTUNITIES:

See full details for all awards on our website.

No opportunities

Foundation 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 opportunities. Note that proposals are still routed through the standard InfoEd/Research Management process.

For all open foundation funding announcements, see the MGB Innovation External Funding Database

CURRENT OPPORTUNITIES:

See this week’s full foundation funding announcements (including eligibility, RM deadlines, and IDC) on our website.

Career Development Award (CDA), American Academy of Neurology (AAN). $450,000 (IDC Exempt). Application Deadline: September 10
Clinical Research Training Scholarship (CRTS) (multiple opps), American Academy of Neurology (AAN). $150,000 (No IDC). Application Deadline: September 10
Neuroscience Research Training Scholarship (NRTS), American Academy of Neurology (AAN). $150,000 (No IDC). Application Deadline: September 10
Practice Research Training Scholarship, American Academy of Neurology (AAN). $150,000 (No IDC). Application Deadline: September 10
Richard Olney Clinician Scientist Development Award in ALS, American Academy of Neurology (AAN). $240,000 (IDC Exempt). Application Deadline: September 10
NEW! AACR-AstraZeneca Breast Cancer Fellowship for Endocrine Therapy Research, American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). $130,000 (No IDC). Application Deadline: August 15
Faculty Scholars Grant Program: Innovation in the Use and Measurement of Simulation Pedagogy in Nursing Education, American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). $25,000 (10% IDC). Application Deadline: August 5
Focus Grants (multiple opps), American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). $1.5 million (8% IDC). LOI Deadline: August 1
Innovation Grants (multiple funding levels), American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). $150,000 (8% IDC). Application Deadline: November 15
Linked Standard Research Grant, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). $450,000 (8% IDC). LOI Deadline: September 15
Postdoctoral Fellowship, American Heart Association (AHA). $341,876 (IDC Exempt). Application Deadline: September 5
Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellows Award Program (multiple opps), Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. $542,000 (IDC Exempt). LOI Deadline: September 6
Alzheimer's Disease Research (ADR): Postdoctoral Fellowship Awards, BrightFocus Foundation. $200,000 (No IDC). LOI Deadline: August 2
Alzheimer's Disease Research (ADR): Standard Awards, BrightFocus Foundation. $300,000 (No IDC). LOI Deadline: August 2
Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease (PATH), Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF). $505,000 (No IDC). LOI Deadline: July 18
IBD Ventures Initiative, Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America, Inc. (CCFA). $500,000 (10% IDC). LOI Deadline: September 6
Pathophysiological and Therapeutic Markers, Ehlers-Danlos Society. $300,000 (5% IDC). Application Deadline: July 20
NEW! New Investigator Awards in Aging Biology and Geroscience Research, Hevolution Foundation. $375,000 (20% IDC). LOI Deadline: July 15
Discovery Research Grants, March of Dimes Foundation. $200,000 (10% IDC). Application Deadline: September 6
Early Career Research Grant, Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation (MDF). $190,000 (No IDC). Application Deadline: September 13
NEW! Pilot Grant Program, Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation (MDF). $50,000 (No IDC). Application Deadline: July 12
Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Myotonic Dystrophy, Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation (MDF). $105,000 (No IDC). Application Deadline: September 13
Sulzberger Institute Grants (multiple funding levels), Sulzberger Institute for Dermatologic Education/American Academy of Dermatology (AAD). $30,000 (Unspecified IDC). LOI Deadline: August 19

Do you want to learn more about identifying external funding opportunities? Please click here to request a research consultation with Amy Robb or see ECOR’s website for information on the Pivot database.

NEW Mentor Training: How to become a better mentor

Call of Applications

In this very interactive 2x2-hour workshop, participants will explore approaches to advancing their mentoring practice. Drs. Anne Levy and Marjorie Oettinger will facilitate learning through case studies, drawing on the evidence-based resources of CIMER (Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research), through which both facilitators have been trained.

Facilitators:

Anne Levy, PhD, Senior Program Manager at the Center for Faculty Development.

Margie Oettinger, PhD, Professor of Genetics at HMS and Member of the Molecular Biology Department at MGH.

Application deadline: Tuesday, June 18, 2024 at 11:59pm EST

Click to apply

NEW 2024 Women in Medicine and Science Symposium

Call of Abstracts

The symposium will highlight the achievements of women faculty and trainees at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital by focusing on collaborations across various disciplines including basic research, clinical research, translational research, clinical innovation and medical education – with the goal of building community.

Submit by Sunday, June 16, at 11:59 pm. Click here for details and submissions.

Clinical Research Survey, Survey to assess need for qualitative resources

DCR Course Offerings Survey

The Division of Clinical Research wants to know what you think about our courses and curriculum. Please take a few minutes to fill out this survey. Thank you!

Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research Unit Interest Survey

The DCR's Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research (QMMR) Unit provides consultations with investigators and research teams on qualitative and mixed methods research, including study design, data collection, data coding, analysis and interpretation, dissemination of results, and the development of research proposals and protocols. The Unit also offers educational lectures and a monthly drop-in investigator working group.

We want to hear from you about your interest in current and additional services from the QMMR Unit! Please fill out this 15-20 minute survey https://redcap.partners.org/redcap/surveys/?s=P4M3M3CLYWW49PM9.

Clinical Research Day, Call for Abstracts

We are excited to announce that this year’s Clinical Research Day will be hosted on Thursday, October 10, 2024! At this time, the Event Portal is open for abstract submissions! Abstract submissions will close on July 1, 2024. Submission guidelines are available within the portal.

The event topic this year is Gene and Cell Therapy: Current challenges for implementation. Our keynote speaker is Roger Joseph Hajjar, MD, Director of Mass General Brigham Gene and Cell Therapy Institute. Abstract submission topics are not limited by the event topic.

We are excited to offer a number of hospital wide awards, departmental awards, and recognition awards.

Summer Research Trainee Program (SRTP) Call for Abstract Reviewers and Final Presentation Panelists

Are you a research faculty member interested in getting involved in SRTP? We are seeking clinical, fundamental, and population health faculty researchers to serve as SRTP student Abstract Reviewers or Final Presentation Panelist. Please click here to see details and to provide your availability.

Learn more

Software Offering - ChemDraw

Time to renew your ChemDraw license through the Digital Research Computing Core. Annual ChemDraw licenses expire each year on May 25th. Your license will automatically cancel, and you will need to order again at rcservices.partners.org (MGB login required). ChemDraw licenses are $102/year per User and new licenses can be ordered and accessed today.

ChemDraw is a powerful, yet easy-to use, tool for producing chemical and biological drawings. You can create your own drawings or use those provided in the library of available templates. For more information on ChemDraw go to the Digital Research Computing Core's software page. All questions may be directed to rcc@partners.org.

Learn more

See these events and more on the calendar of events

NEW Financial Planning 10-week Class

June 17, 2024 - September 18, 2024

The Center for Faculty Development is excited to partner with Her Personal Finance to offer a 10-week online financial planning class for all faculty at MGH (not only women)! The course is targeted to early career faculty but is open to faculty at all career stages.

This class will require a $750 upfront investment, but eligible MGPO benefits-eligible physicians can seek reimbursement once the course is complete from the MGPO Benefits Office as part of the $1,500 financial planning benefit. A benefit is once in 5 years. If a faculty member has used the full benefit in the last 5 years, then they will not be eligible to request reimbursement for this course. For questions about reimbursement eligibility, please contact mghmgpofinancialplanning@partners.org. All course participants will receive instructions on how to request reimbursement from the MGPO.

Facilitated by Eryn Schultz, MBA, Founder of Her Personal Finance.

Classes will take place every Wednesday from 4-5pm from July 17 to September 18, 2024.

Conquering the K Course

Monday, June 17, 2024, 3:00 - 5:00 pm

This is a workshop for NIH Career Development Grants or K Grants applicants. Bring one section of your upcoming K grant to review and discuss with fellow applicants and one of our experienced faculty!

RCR Program: Research Integrity

Wednesday, June 18, 2024, 1:00-2:00 pm

In this interactive seminar, participants will learn about the importance of research integrity through reviewing case studies of research misconduct. The course covers methods to avoid research misconduct and obtain viable results. Students will be able to answer ethical questions regarding reasons behind study processes and articulate the consequences of misconduct.

Introduction to Bioinformatics

Tuesday, June 18th | 3:30-5:00pm

Speaker: Ruslan Sadreyev, Director of Bioinformatics

This introductory mini-course is intended for experimental and clinical researchers who would like to get oriented in basic Bioinformatics concepts and tools. It is intended as a primer that would allow you to better understand general ideas, approaches, and available methods, and to start asking the right questions about your experimental data in the context of major next-generation sequencing applications: RNA-seq, single-cell RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, ATAC-seq, metagenomics, pathway analyses etc.

If you want to drill very deeply into a specific question or to get hands-on experience, this probably isn't a course for you. However, we are open to organizing more in-depth courses and workshops in the future.

Clinical Research: Improve Subject Retention and Publish Faster

Thursday, June 20th, 2024, 12:00 - 1:00 pm

Participants will learn methods to:

Engage subjects in a portal using incentives, secure communication, and delivery of personally relevant information.
Visualize outcomes to make data more accessible and actionable for decision-making.
Publish results faster by connecting data capture and the analytical process into a single, integrated system.

Summary: The presentation will explore innovative strategies to enhance participant engagement and retention in clinical research through a user-friendly web portal that enables participants to enter data, earn points for automated gift card compensation, communicate securely with the research team, and access personally relevant study and disease information. It will also demonstrate efficient methods to streamline the transition from raw study data to the polished manuscript by integrating analytical, editing, and text formatting tools within the data collection system.

Faculty Transition Webinar Series Session 5

Thursday, June 20th, 2024, 12:00 - 1:00 pm

The Faculty Transition Webinar Series sponsored by the Office for Senior Faculty Affairs addresses the many elements that come into play as faculty move toward retirement.

This is an entirely new webinar focused on a topic of increasing interest: The mechanics of *partial* retirement while still maintaining an MGH and HMS connection. Topics will include maintaining an HMS appointment and the requirements for maintaining benefits and other MGH privileges.

Panelists:

Bethany Westlund, PhD, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, HMS

Mindy Dellert, Academic Appointments Manager, HMS

Jeffrey L. Ecker, MD, Chief, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, MGH

Virginia C. Rosales, CEBS, HR Benefits Manager, MGH MGPO Professional Staff Benefits

Brief Mental Health Interventions for Suicide Risk

Friday, June 21st, 2024, 10:00 - 11:00 am

Featured speakers include:

Dr. Jessica Schleider – Director of the Lab for Scalable Mental Health at Northwestern University

“Making the Moment Matter: Digital Single-Session Interventions for Suicide Risk and Crisis Response”

Dr. John Torous – Director of the Digital Psychiatry Division at Harvard Medical School

“Clinical Considerations for Digital Resources in Care for Patients With Suicidal Ideation”

Dr. Michael Zimmer – Director of the Center for Data, Ethics and Society at Marquette University

“Data Ethics and Digital Mental Health Interventions: Opportunities & Gaps”

NEW #Friendtorship: Cultivating peer mentor relationships in academic medicine

June 21, 2024, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Panelists

Andrew Lawton, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, HMS
April Zehm, MD, FAAHPM, Associate Professor of Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin
Bethany-Rose Daubman, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, HMS
Sudha Natarajan, PhD, MSN, APRN Fellowship Director, Harvard Interprofessional Palliative Care Fellowship, MGH
Leah Rosenberg, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, HMS

Target Audience: This activity is intended for faculty and faculty trainees. Course Director: Darshan H. Mehta, MD, MPH, Office for Well-Being; Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

NEW Biobank Portal

June 26, 2024, 10:00 am - 11:00 am

Biobank Portal Speaker: Stacey Duey, Assistant Director, RISC When: Wednesday, 6/26/24 | 10:00 – 11:00 am Location: Virtual via Zoom Description: This course will introduce the use of the Biobank Portal application for clinical research, including reviewing healthcare data, types of samples available, genomic information, and requesting data. The course is geared toward investigators and staff at all levels interested in the utility and information of the Biobank Portal for research

NEW Drop-In Sessions for CRC’s

June 26, 2024, 12:00 am - 1:00 pm

Drop-In Sessions for CRCs Are you a clinical research coordinator? Do you have questions about MGB or MGH clinical research processes or systems, or whom to contact and next steps? We are here to help. Come to the DCR’s Virtual Drop-In Sessions for CRCs! Get answers to all of your clinical research operations questions from experienced members of the DCR and chat with your fellow CRCs. Drop-in sessions are hosted on MS Teams bi-weekly on Wednesdays from Noon to 1:00 PM starting June 12th.

Teams Link

NEW Introduction to RPDR

June 27, 2024, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm

Introduction to RPDR Speaker: Stacey Duey, Assistant Director, RISC When: Thursday, June 27 | 11:00 am – 12:30 pm Location: Virtual via Zoom Description: The Research Patient Data Registry (RPDR)* brings clinical information to the researcher's fingertips and ensures the security of patient information by controlling and auditing the distribution of patient data within the guidelines of the IRB. This course will provide an introduction to the use of the RPDR (Research Patient Data Registry) application for clinical research, including the review of healthcare data, creating a query and requesting data. The course is geared toward investigators and staff at all levels interested in the utility and information of the RPDR for research. *Link requires you to be on an MGB workstation or VPN.

NEW REDCap eConsent Functionality

June 28, 2024, 10:00 am - 11:00 am

REDCap eConsent Functionality Speakers: Daniel Foley, Applications Analyst II, and Jeremy Alphonse, Project Analyst II, Research Information Science and Computing (RISC) Applications and Services When: Friday, June 28 | 10:00 – 11:00 am Location: Virtual via Zoom Description: Mass General Brigham (MGB) has developed a REDCap eConsent Framework that will turn the paper-based informed consenting processes into an electronic informed consent process that researchers can use for Institutional Review Board (IRB) reviewed and approved studies. The MGB REDCap eConsent Framework will allow users to combine the validated components to design and customize an eConsent Project to their Use Case and workflow. Learning Objectives:

Understand eConsent technical requirements
Learn how to program REDCap for electronic consent

Target audience: Researchers evaluating electronic consent options for research studies.

NEW Town Hall MGB Research Strategic Planning Process 2024

July 11, 2024, 12:30 am - 1:30 am

One of the current MGB system goals is to create a 10-year strategic plan for the MGB research enterprise.

We are embarking upon this strategic planning exercise in FY24 to ensure sustainable growth, address operational and organizational challenges, and maintain our reputation as a world leader in biomedical research. You can learn more here.

Input from our MGB research community is critical to the development of the strategic plan. Please join us at this town hall to learn about the plan's progress and contribute your thoughts. The town hall will be led by Paul Anderson, MD, PhD – MGB Chief Academic Officer – and Allison Moriarty – SVP, Research Planning & Operations, and Innovation.

10th Annual World Medical Innovation Forum

September 23-25, 2024

Presented by Mass General Brigham and Bank of America, the 2024 World Medical Innovation Forum will focus on three major investment and scientific growth areas—oncology, rare disease, and immunology and inflammation. At the Forum, you’ll have direct access to speakers and peers including dozens of leading CEOs, senior investors, entrepreneurs, government officials, and prominent Harvard clinicians and scientists.

We look forward to welcoming you to Boston—the hub of biotech—and the state-of-the-art meeting center at the top-rated Encore Boston Harbor September 23–25.

4th Annual Conference on Precision Psychiatry

September 26-27, 2024

The Annual Conference on Precision Psychiatry, hosted by the MGH Center for Precision Psychiatry, is becoming a leading venue for showcasing advances in the application of precision medicine approaches to psychiatric research and clinical practice. The Conference will be held virtually over the course of two days: Thursday, September 26th and Friday, September 27th, 2024.

Earn 7 continued education credits for participating this year!