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The start of 2024 is marked by an opportunity to hear about new and in-development NIH programs and policies. Meet with compliance and system policy experts from the NIH Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration (OPERA) to find out about the most recent policy updates and how your institutions could be impacted.

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The Lung Cancer Research Program (LCRP) released a pre-announcement for the following funding opportunities:

• Career Development Award
• Concept Award
• Idea Development Award
• Patient-Centered Outcomes and Survivorship Award
• Translational Research Award

The Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP) released a pre-announcement for the following anticipated funding opportunities:

• Implementation Science Award **NEW for FY24!**
• Data Science Award
• Early Investigator Research Award
• Exploration-Hypothesis Development Award
• Idea Development Award
• Physician Research Award

The Melanoma Research Program (MRP) released a pre-announcement for the following anticipated funding opportunities:

• Survivorship and Patient Wellness Research Award **NEW for FY24!**
• Focused Program Award – Rare Melanomas
• Idea Award
• Melanoma Academy Scholar Award
• Team Science Award

The Autism Research Program (ARP) released a pre-announcement for the following funding opportunities:

• Career Development Award
• Clinical Trial Award
• Discovery Award
• Idea Development Award

• Due: February 29, 2024 (LOI)

• Amount: $200,000-$550,000 depending on award type – see below

• To support research that prioritizes the interrelation of behavioral, social, psychological, and other factors that will increase the quality of life factors for individuals living with spinal cord injury. Priority areas include aging, caregiving, employment, health and fitness, independent living, self-management, and technology access. Awards are available for Postdoctoral Fellows ($200,000 over 2 years), Pilot grants ($300,000 over 2 years), or Studiesand Demonstrations ($550,000 over 3 years) which “encourage substantive research that fill important gaps in the spinal cord injury field, that open new areas of psychosocial research, and/or that develop and evaluate interventions to address psychosocial issues after spinal cord injury.”

• Click here for further details.

Due: February 29, 2024

• Amount: $140,000 over 2 years

• To facilitate the professional career development of rheumatology, nephrology, and

dermatology fellows as well as postdoctoral fellows who are conducting lupus research in the U.S. and Canada. Applicants should be dedicated to developing a career as an independent scientist at an academic, medical, or research institution with a primary focus on lupus investigation

• Click here for further details.

Request for Letters of Intent (due March 1, 2024)

A Breath of Hope Lung Foundation (ABOHLF), in collaboration with its panel of experts in the field of oncology, will evaluate the eligibility and research aim submitted in response to our recent request for letters of intent.

• Review RFP here.
• Submit your letter of intent here.

RFP ELIGIBILITY includes the following criteria:

• Must be employed by a U.S. research institution (proof of Visa)
• If the project involves people or animals, must have received approval from your institution’s review board before the funds are disbursed
• Early-stage investigator (ESI). You are within 10 years following completion of one of the following: Terminal research degree, medical residency, or equivalent.

TOPIC AREAS INCLUDE, but are not limited to the following ideas:

• Women and Lung Cancer. Addressing rising cases among women. Lung cancer diagnoses have risen 84% in women over the past 43 years while dropping 36% in men, even though many of those women never smoked. Women who have never smoked are more than twice as likely as male never-smokers to get lung cancer.
• Strategies to overcome resistance to immunotherapy in oncogene-driven NSCLC
• Predictive and prognostic markers to identify responders and non-responders in NSCLC
• Understanding genetic heterogeneity in mutation-driven NSCLC patients
• Lung cancer in never-smokers
• Novel strategies to improve early diagnosis of lung cancer
• Development of new targeted therapies for small-cell lung cancer

The maximum period of performance is 2 years. The maximum allowable funding for the entire period of performance is $150,000 for research costs.

TIMELINE FOR SUBMISSION AND REVIEW

• Letter of Intent submission deadline: March 1, 2024
• Invitations for Full Proposals sent by ABOHLF: March 15, 2024
• Full Proposals submitted by invited applicants’ deadline: April 19, 2024
• Announcement of Winning proposal: May 15, 2024
• First payment to the institution (assuming receipt of the grant agreement): June 1, 2024

Questions? Reach out to Nancy@abreathofhope.org.

1.Established Investigator Award

• Due: March 1, 2024

• Amount: $250,000 over two years

• For established melanoma researchers or senior researchers working in closely related fields who wish to move into melanoma research. Applicants may, but are not required to, submit applications focused on one of the Specific Topic Proposals listed in the RFP as unmet needs: Prevention, Early Detection & Population Science; Tumor Cell Dormancy & Metastasis; Therapy & Resistance; Immune Related Toxicities; Rare Melanoma Tumors.

Eligibility: Applicants must hold a PhD or MD degree or equivalent at the time of the grant submission. Applicants must have a title equivalent to Associate Professor or higher at the time of the grant submission. Tenured and non-tenured track faculty are encouraged to apply. American citizenship is not required.

• Click here for further details.

2.Career Development Award

• Due: March 1, 2024

• Amount: $50,000 over one year

• For researchers who are beginning a research career focused on melanoma. Applicants may, but are not required to, submit applications focused on one of the Specific Topic Proposals listed in the RFP as unmet needs: Prevention, Early Detection & Population Science; Tumor Cell Dormancy & Metastasis; Therapy & Resistance; Immune Related Toxicities; Rare Melanoma Tumors.

Eligibility: Applicants must hold a PhD or MD degree or equivalent at the time of the

grant submission. Applicants who are postdoctoral fellows must have less than 5 years of postdoctoral experience at the time the grant will be awarded and must not have previously received any major grant support; Applicants who are not postdoctoral fellows may have a title of Research Associate/ Scientist, Staff Scientist, Instructor, Assistant Professor, or equivalent at the time of the grant submission; Applicants are required to have at least one mentor; their biosketch must be included in the application. American citizenship is not required.

• Click here for further details.

The Sontag Foundation, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, is one of the largest private funders of brain cancer research in North America. The Foundation is soliciting applications for its Distinguished Scientist Award. $750,000 in funding over 5 years is open to early career investigators throughout the United States. The goal of this funding initiative is to change the paradigm of brain cancer research by building a community of outstanding scientists whose pioneering approaches have the potential to make significant advances in the field of brain cancer/brain tumors. The applications are due on March 13, 2024 at 11:59pm ET. Please click here to find the grant guidelines.

Eligibility - Applicants must hold a doctoral degree in a discipline with applicability to brain cancer research. Applicants must have received their first independent faculty appointment no earlier than March 1, 2019 and no later than January 1, 2024 at a tax-exempt academic, research, or medical institution within the United States or an equivalent institution in Canada. If the institution grants tenure, the qualifying appointment must be on tenure track. More than one individual from the same institution may apply for this award. This grant does not support clinical trials research. For further inquiries, please contact Shandra Koler, Senior Program Officer, Email: skoler@sontagfoundation.org and phone: 904-274-8557.

Due: March 14, 2024 (LOI)

• Amount: $1,000,000 over 5 years

• Award provides support for outstanding investigators pursuing topics relevant to single ventricle heart disease and aligned with the specific focus areas in the Roadmap – genetics, basic cardiovascular development, tissue engineering, computational modeling, and other relevant areas. Provides research and career development support to investigators during the later stages of a mentored postdoctoral research position (Level I) through the transition to an independent tenure track research position (Level II). Applicants must have earned a PhD, MD, DO, or doctoral equivalent more than 1 year prior to the application due date and must have held their current role for at least 1 year. Applicants must have current postdoctoral fellow or instructor status (or equivalent) and be in non-independent, mentored positions. Applicants cannot concurrently hold a transition award from another organization and must commit to a minimum 9 calendar months (75% of the year) dedicated effort to the proposed work.

• Click here for further details.

The Career Development Award (CDA) provides research funding to clinical investigators who have received their initial faculty appointment, as they work to establish an independent clinical cancer research program. This is a mentored award and the research project is conducted under the guidance of a scientific mentor. The research must have a patient-oriented focus, including a clinical research study and/or translational research involving human subjects. Proposals with a predominant focus on in vitro or animal studies (even if clinically relevant) are not allowed. Applications in all areas of cancer research are accepted from U.S. and international applicants.The CDA is a three-year grant totaling $200,000 that supports personnel and/or research expenses, and travel to attend the Conquer Cancer Grants and Awards Ceremony at the ASCO Annual Meeting. The details of eligibility, application instructions and applicable due date (March 14, 2024) can be found here.

The Young Investigator Award (YIA) provides funding to promising investigators to encourage and promote quality research in clinical oncology. The purpose of this grant is to fund physicians during the transition from a fellowship program to a faculty appointment. This is a mentored award and the research project is conducted under the guidance of a scientific mentor. Applications in all areas of cancer research are accepted from U.S. and international applicants. The YIA is a one-year grant totaling $50,000 that supports personnel and/or research expenses, and travel to attend the Conquer Cancer Grants & Awards Ceremony at the ASCO Annual Meeting. Applicants who are selected to receive a YIA are allowed to receive other grants from other funding agencies. The details of eligibility, application instructions and applicable due date (March 14, 2024) can be found here.

Due: March 15, 2024

• Amount: $290,000+

The Foundation encourages all theoretical and experimental research relevant to the study of cancer and the search for cancer causes, mechanisms, therapies and prevention. Scoring considers importance of the problem, originality of approach, appropriateness of techniques and clarity of presentation. Must have a mentor. Physician-scientists must devote their principal time (at least 80 percent) to Damon Runyon-supported research activities. Activities constituting the remaining 20 percent of time should be clearly specified in the application and in the annual progress report. Applicants must have completed one or more of the following degrees or its equivalent: MD, PhD, MD/PhD, DDS, DVM, DO.

Click here for further details.

The Cystinosis Research Foundation is accepting applications for research studies and for the Post-Doctoral Cystinosis Research Fellowship Program. The goal is to fund the best and most promising research in the world in an effort to find better treatments and a cure for cystinosis. The cover sheets are mandatory for all applications submitted. The documents can also be found on the CRF website:  https://www.cystinosisresearch.org/apply-for-research-grant/      

To learn more about the foundation, visit the website at https://www.cystinosisresearch.org/ or email Nancy Stack at nstack@cystinosisresearch.org.

The deadline for the Spring 2024 applications is Friday, March 15, 2024. All applicants will be notified about the status of their application in May, 2024.

Due: March 19, 2024

• Amount: $420,000 over four years

• The awards aim to increase the number of physicians, dentists, and nurses from historically disadvantaged backgrounds by offering four-year postdoctoral research awards to faculty from historically marginalized backgrounds who can achieve senior rank in academic medicine, dentistry, or nursing. The foundation seeks leaders whose background, identity, or lived experiences have positioned them to contribute to the program’s goals, which include addressing structural racism. AMFDP applicants should be committed to developing careers and achieving senior rank in academic medicine, dentistry, or nursing; fostering the development of succeeding classes of physicians, dentists, and nurses from historically marginalized backgrounds; and improving the health of underserved populations or working toward understanding and eliminating health disparities.

Eligibility: Applicants must be physicians, dentists, or nurses from historically marginalized backgrounds and are able to describe how their background, identity, or lived experiences have positioned them to contribute to the goals of the program; must be US citizens or permanent residents, are completing or have complete formal clinical training or—in the case of nurses—their research doctorate; must be able to spend 70% time on research; and are not related to any officer or trustee of the foundation, nor a descendant of Robert Wood Johnson. Physicians must be Board-eligible to apply for this program. A dental applicant must be a general dentist with a master’s degree or a PhD or have completed advanced dental education. Nurse applicants must be registered nurses with a research doctorate in nursing or a related discipline completed by the application deadline. Applications from basic science clinician-researchers are welcome.

• Click here for further details.

• Due: March 28, 2024

• Amount: $250,000 over one to two years

• The goal is to provide initial support to identify new therapeutic modalities including small molecules, antibodies, and cell therapies against validated melanoma targets, with an emphasis on targets that are applicable to rare melanoma subtypes such as acral, mucosal, and uveal melanomas. Support will be geared towards early stages of the drug discovery continuum that could result in an optimized lead compound or biologic showing activity in appropriate melanoma preclinical models. Target suggestions: adapter proteins and transcription factors,

epigenetic regulators, cell surface proteins that can be targeted with antibodies or cell-based therapies. The RFP supports High throughput screening (HTS) or high content screening (HCS) of the target including design and optimization of relevant HTS or HCS assays • Medicinal chemistry efforts to optimize activity in cell-based assays and in vitro ADME and in vivo PK properties • Testing of optimized lead compounds in relevant melanoma animal models for efficacy and PD assessments • Optimization of biologics (antibodies and cell-based therapies) that can be tested in relevant melanoma cell-based and animal models. The RFA does not support Identification and validation of new targets • Testing of repurposed drugs, FDA

approved, or drugs being clinically tested in other cancer and disease indications • Development and characterization of new cell lines, organoid and xenograft models for preclinical drug testing (a separate priority funding announcement from the Next Steps Program will be released to support these activities).

Eligibility: PIs must hold a full-time faculty appointment at the level of

Assistant Professor (or equivalent) or above. An investigator may serve as PI on only one proposal submitted to the Next Steps RFA call in any given calendar year.

• Click here for further details.

1.Exceptional Project Grants

• Due: March 31, 2024

• Amount: $100,000/1 year

• Limited submission 2 LOIs per institution. This award recognizes creative, unique, and

innovative research. Proposal must focus on breast cancer. There is no limitation on the subject matter of the project if it is reasonably related to the treatment, prevention, or cure of breast cancer. However, the proposed project should be an exceptional project that can stand alone. The LOI must include hypothesis, outline of research aims and methods, and project’s potential impact. Eligibility: Clinical doctors and research scientists at any stage of their career, including postdocs. You do not have to be a US citizen to apply.

• Please contact the Institutional Giving team at institutionalgiving@montefiore.org and click here for further details.

2.Young Investigator Grants

• Due: March 31, 2024

• Amount: $125,000 over two years

• Limited submission 2 LOIs per institution. Proposal must focus on breast cancer. This

grant is intended to help advance the careers of young researchers who do not yet have their own major grant support but who design and conduct their own independent research projects. The LOI must include hypothesis, outline of research aims and methods, and project’s potential impact. Eligibility: Clinical doctors and research scientists who are in the early stages of their careers, including post docs. Applicants must (i) not have held a tenure track faculty or tenure track research position for more than four years following completion of their training, as of March 1, 2025; (ii) not have been or are not a principal investigator on an NIH R01 or equivalent national/international non-mentored award as of March 1, 2025; and (iii) dedicate at least 50% of their work effort to research. You do not have to be a US citizen to apply.

• Please contact the Institutional Giving team at institutionalgiving@montefiore.org and click here for further details.

• Due April 29, 2024

• Amount: $750,000 over three years

• These grants are awarded to outstanding early career investigators to support high-impact, high-risk projects that are distinct from their current research portfolio. This award is not intended to be the main source of funding for the applicant’s lab. Applicants must demonstrate multi-year independent funding that sustains the central activities of the lab.

Projects must be centered on evidence-based laboratory, data, and/or medical science.

Eligibility: MD, PhD or equivalent is required; Must be 3 to 8 years from the start of an independent faculty research appointment as of 12/31/2024.