The FY21 Defense Appropriations Act provides funding to the Department of Defense Kidney Cancer Research Program (KCRP) to support research of exceptional scientific merit in the area of kidney cancer.  As directed by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, the Defense Health Agency J9, Research and Development Directorate manages the Defense Health Program (DHP) Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E) appropriation.  The managing agent for the anticipated Program Announcements/Funding Opportunities is the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC).

The KCRP is providing the information in this pre-announcement to allow investigators time to plan and develop ideas for submission to the anticipated FY21 funding opportunities.  This pre-announcement should not be construed as an obligation by the Government.  The FY21 KCRP Program Announcements and General Application Instructions for the following award mechanisms will be posted on the Grants.gov website.  Pre-application and application deadlines will be available when the Program Announcements are released. 

Applications submitted to the FY21 KCRP must address one or more of the following focus areas:

• Conduct basic biology research to better understand etiology and cancer progression, metastatic disease, refractory disease and therapeutic resistance, genetic and environmental risk factors and the prevention of kidney cancer.
• Identify and develop new strategies for screening, early-stage detection, accurate diagnosis and prognosis prediction of kidney cancers, with examples including biomarkers and imaging.
• Define the biology of rare kidney cancers and develop treatments to improve outcomes and reduce death.
• Develop novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of kidney cancer, such as novel drug targets, therapeutic modalities and agents, treatment combinations and drug delivery systems.
• Identify and implement strategies to improve the quality of life of patients.
• Identify and implement strategies to mitigate health disparities, such as access to healthcare, social and cultural factors, environmental factors, and biological contributors.

https://cdmrp.army.mil/funding/kcrp

Academy of Kidney Cancer Investigators – Early-Career Investigator Award – Letter of Intent due September 14, 2021

Within 3 years of last postdoctoral research position (Ph.D.) or clinical fellowship (M.D.), or equivalent, as of full application submission deadline.

Letter attesting to eligibility required.

• Supports addition of new Early-Career Investigators (ECIs) to the unique, interactive virtual academy providing intensive mentoring, national networking, and a peer group for junior faculty.
• ECIs whose ability to commit to conducting kidney cancer research is limited by lack of resources or other overwhelming obstacles are encouraged to apply.
• A Designated Mentor who is an experienced kidney cancer researcher with a record of kidney cancer funding is required.
• The Designated Mentor not required to be at the same institution as the ECI.
• Preliminary data required.
• Clinical trials are not allowed.
• Maximum funding of $725,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs).
• Maximum period of performance 4 years.
• Indirect costs may be proposed in accordance with the institution’s negotiated rate agreement.

Clinical Trial Award – Letter of Intent due September 14, 2021

Independent investigators at all levels.

• Supports projects ranging from small proof-of-concept trials (e.g., pilot, first in human, phase 0) to demonstrate feasibility or inform the design of more advanced trials, through large-scale trials to determine efficacy in relevant patient populations.
• Clinical trials may be designed to evaluate promising new products, pharmacologic agents (drugs or biologics), devices, clinical guidance, and/or emerging approaches and technologies.
• Investigational New Drug (IND) or Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) application, if applicable, must be submitted to the U.S. Department of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by the time of application submission.
• Documented availability of and access to the drug/compound, device, and/or other materials needed, as appropriate, for the proposed duration of the study must be provided.
• Clinical trials are expected to begin no later than 12 months after the award date, or 18 months after the award date for FDA-regulated studies.
• Maximum funding of $2,000,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs).
• Maximum period of performance is 4 years.
• Indirect costs may be proposed in accordance with the institution’s negotiated rate agreement.

Clinical Research Nurse Development Award – Letter of Intent due September 14, 2021

The Initiating Principal Investigator (PI) must be at or above the level of Assistant Professor (or equivalent) with an M.D. and/or M.D./Ph.D. degree (or equivalent).

• The Partnering PI must be a clinical research nurse coordinator with at least 2 years of oncology or cancer clinical trial research nurse experience, and have a Registered Nurse license and/or a Bachelor’s, Master’s, or Doctoral degree in nursing.
• Supports partnerships between a clinician and a clinical research nurse coordinator (or equivalent).
• Supports kidney cancer research and the career development of kidney cancer clinical trial research nurses.
• Clinical trials are not allowed; correlative studies to clinical trials are allowed.
• Maximum funding of $300,000 for direct costs (plus indirect costs).
• Maximum period of performance is 2 years.
• Indirect costs may be proposed in accordance with the institution’s negotiated rate agreement.

A pre-application is required and must be submitted through the electronic Biomedical Research Application Portal (eBRAP) at https://eBRAP.org prior to the pre-application deadline.  All applications must conform to the final Program Announcements and General Application Instructions that will be available for electronic downloading from the Grants.gov website.  The application package containing the required forms for each award mechanism will also be found on Grants.gov.  A listing of all CDMRP and other USAMRDC extramural funding opportunities can be obtained on the Grants.gov website by performing a basic search using CFDA Number 12.420. 

Submission deadlines are not available until the Program Announcements are released.  For email notification when Program Announcements are released, subscribe to program-specific news and updates under “Email Subscriptions” on the eBRAP homepage at https://eBRAP.org.  For more information about the KCRP or other CDMRP-administered programs, please visit the CDMRP website (https://cdmrp.army.mil).

Point of Contact:

CDMRP Public Affairs
301-619-9783
usarmy.detrick.medcom-cdmrp.mbx.cdmrp-public-affairs@mail.mil

Throughout the Canadian forest sector, Lignin has traditionally been treated as low-quality, low-value side streams of product processing. However, lignin is an abundant raw material. When extracted and processed, lignin has a wide variety of uses and applications, including opportunities to displace traditional fossil- based chemicals and products. Lignin-derived products will play a crucial role in the Canadian bio-economy value chain.

Nextfor, a program of the Centre for Research and Innovation in the Bio-Economy (CRIBE) is launching a new accelerated Request for Proposals (RFP) from standing or newly established consortiums which have commercial or pre-commercial ready technologies and solutions to establish or increase the commercial readiness of one of the lignin based platforms as identified by Nextfor’s High Performance Lignin Forums:

• Polymer Fine Chemicals;
• Resins/Adhesives;
• Thermoplastics and Composites

To be eligible for this challenge, the proposed products and/or applications must utilize wood-based lignin.

CIFAR invites the global research community to submit proposals for new programs that address complex, fundamental questions of importance to the world. Ideas must be novel, bold, and potentially transformative to warrant the creation of a sustained, interdisciplinary, and collaborative research program.

For CIFAR’s third Global Call for Ideas, we invite proposals related to The Future of Being Human, exploring the intersection of humans, science and technology, social and cultural systems, and our environment. Our understanding of the world around us, and new insights into individual and societal behaviour, have the potential to provide enormous benefits to humanity and the planet. We invite bold proposals that address over the long term novel questions about our complex emerging world, where the issues under study are entangled and dynamic. 

We are confronting challenging problems that necessitate a diverse team incorporating multiple disciplines (potentially spanning the humanities, social sciences, arts, physical and life sciences) to engage in sustained dialogue to develop new insights, and change the conversation on important questions facing science and humanity.

To learn more about the Global Call for Ideas, please visit cifar.ca/global-call.  Deadline for Registrations: August 17, 2021.

The Cancer Therapeutics Innovation Pipeline (CTIP) Program was established to capitalize on Ontario’s expertise in cancer biology and drug discovery to create a pipeline of validated cancer targets and first-in-class or best-in-class, novel, selective lead molecules (small molecules or biologics) that would attract partnerships and/or investment for further preclinical and clinical development. To generate a sustainable pipeline, CTIP will support projects that aim to provide increasing evidence of target validation and disease association using functional assays and drug screening in relevant in vitro and in vivo models of the cancer type of interest.

CTIP funds projects in three stages of preclinical drug discovery and is currently inviting applications for the following two funding streams:

Early Accelerator projects: Delivers a validated primary assay to enable initial screening of molecules against a defined target. Entry into the EA stage requires evidence of target validation and association to the cancer of interest.

Funding available: Up to $150,000 for up to one year.

Late Accelerator projects: Delivers confirmed Hit molecules against a defined target, supported by evidence of disease association, using validated primary, secondary and orthogonal assays for screening. To achieve this goal, the project must describe an integrated testing cascade of experiments focused on achieving target validation in cell-based models coupled with medium-to-high-throughput screening for Hits.

Funding available: Up to $250,000 per year for up to two years.

ArcticNet and the Marine Environmental Observation Prediction and Response (MEOPAR) Network invite Postdoctoral Fellows (PDF) to apply to the jointly funded ArcticNet-MEOPAR Arctic-Marine and Coastal Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. This award is open to PDFs pursuing natural, social and health science research in Arctic marine and coastal regions as well as Canadian geographic areas that have relevance to Arctic systems.

Under this call, your proposed project must contribute to the achievement of the objectives of Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy, which seeks to reduce poverty and vulnerability and build a more peaceful, inclusive and prosperous world. The policy recognizes that promoting gender equality and empowering women and girls is the most effective approach to achieving this goal.

Proposed projects must align with at least one of the action areas outlined in Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy:

• Action area 1 (core action area): Gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls
• Action area 2: Human dignity
• Action area 3: Growth that works for everyone
• Action area 4: Environment and climate action
• Action area 5: Inclusive governance
• Action area 6: Peace and security

As organizations can only submit one application to this competition, interested applicants are asked to contact the Office of Research to indicate their interest in applying no later than June 30.

The specific objective of this funding opportunity is to:

• Improve our understanding of, response to, and recovery from co-occurring stressful and traumatic events that stem from the current COVID-19 pandemic, and/or the impacts of restrictions related to associated public health mitigation measures, with respect to children, youth and families in Canada, by addressing one (1) or more of the following four (4) items through research that takes an integrated knowledge mobilization approach to:
  1. Enhance understanding of the nature and breadth of the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions on children, youth and families, including factors that are protective or exacerbate these impacts;
  2. Accelerate the availability and use of high-quality and real-time evidence regarding the identification and mobilization of practices that have supported the adaptation of existing programs and the development of new programs that support the health and well-being of children, youth and families in Canada; and,
  3. Generate evidence related to diverse population(s), including for instance: equity considerations, health and well-being status (e.g., historically excluded or underserved populations, individuals with complex health needs and/or a disability), sex and gender, and/or racialized or First Nations, Inuit, Métis and Urban Indigenous populations.
  4. Identify populations at the highest and high risk for negative outcomes, factors that are associated with this increased greater risk, as well as any factors that have been found to be protective and/or enhance resilience.

In addition, researchers are encouraged to:

• Leverage existing cohorts/samples/health administrative, educational, surveillance and other data sets, by using existing data and/or collecting additional measures as necessary.
• Consider the variety of data sources (including single or multi-jurisdictional) that may be accessed to inform study designs, and how these data sources can be enhanced and/or combined in their analyses.
• Consider how to disentangle the contributions of different sources of stress, including stressful and traumatic events, changes in family or community economic and/or social impacts (including any food or housing insecurity/instability, violence in the home), and disruptions resulting from restrictions in service and care delivery.

Applications must clearly communicate how Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and, where applicable, Indigenous Rights will be incorporated into the research proposed. Refer to the Best practices in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Research, the Tri-Agency EDI Action Plan and the Tri-Agency Strengthening Indigenous Research Capacity Strategic Plan for additional guidance. This includes incorporation of biological variables (e.g. sex, age, etc.) and/or sociocultural identity factors (e.g., gender, race, ethnicity, language, etc.) into the research proposed, where applicable.