HFSP Young Investigators' Grants:

General aims: It is to be expected that outstanding young scientists, in the initial period of their independent careers, are in a particularly good position to formulate innovative and fertile research projects. Typically, Young Investigators will have completed one or two periods of postdoctoral training and be appointed to staff positions that allow them to initiate and direct their own independent lines of research.

Recognizing the challenge of establishing an independent research group at an early stage of a career, a special consideration will take into account the overall level of interdisciplinarity in Young Investigator applications. Newly appointed investigators will be expected to propose projects with team members having distinct expertise and coming from different areas of the life sciences (if not from outside the life sciences). Projects from more established investigators will preferably involve collaboration with scientists from outside the life sciences, as in the Program Grants. The Review Committee will be instructed to assess this when reviewing applications.

HFSP Program Grants:

General aims: Program Grants are meant to allow teams of independent researchers to develop new lines of research through the collaboration. Priority will be given to new, innovative research projects for which preliminary results might not necessarily be available. Applications including independent investigators early in their careers are encouraged.

For more information, please consult the Research Grants page on HFSP website.

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD) is launching a Skills for Employment in La Francophonie call for proposals. This call will be worth up to $30 million for a period of five years (2015–2020). Canadian organizations may submit only one application under this call, either on their own or as the lead organization in a consortium.

The deadline for proposal submissions is May 14, 2015, at 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4).

The purpose of this call is to increase the economic prosperity of target populations in La Francophonie through employment skills programs. This call seeks to help developing member countries of La Francophonie to strengthen their educational institutions’ organizational management and ties with the private sector so they can help students acquire the skills needed on the labour market and make it easier for them to enter the job market or become entrepreneurs. In addition, proposals must strengthen the ongoing cooperation of institutions within La Francophonie.

Initiatives must align with DFATD’s thematic priority of fostering sustainable economic growth by increasing equitable access by youth, women, men and vulnerable groups to skills training that is based on the needs of the developing countries targeted by this call. Initiatives funded under this call must contribute to the achievement of the following intermediate outcomes:

• Stronger organizational management of training institutions that teach employment skills in developing countries that are members of La Francophonie;
• Improved delivery of skills for employment programs that incorporate the environment and satisfy various labour market or entrepreneurship needs for youth, women, men and vulnerable groups; and
• Enhanced and sustainable collaboration between institutions that teach skills for employment and private sector businesses in countries of La Francophonie.

Proposals must also incorporate DFATD’s three crosscutting themes: environmental sustainability, gender equality, and governance.

Only Canadian organizations that meet all of the requirements and eligibility criteria listed on the application form will be considered under this call for proposals. Canadian organizations that meet all of the eligibility criteria can be the lead partner of a consortium, including with other Canadian or international partners from civil society, academia or the private sector.

As only one application per organization can be submitted under this call, contact the Office of Research Services (ahacquo1@lakeheadu.ca) By April 1 if you are interested in applying to this funding opportunity.

Competition: open for research projects between June 2015 and August 2017

• This same competition is also expected to be launched in Brazil in the upcoming weeks.  
• Interested Canadian institutions are encouraged to contact potential Brazilian partners before the end of December to establish communication before the Brazilian summer.

Deadline: April 30, 2015.

Who Applies: the Canadian professor who will take on the role of Project Lead

Description: The objective of this scholarship program is to support team-oriented research projects between Canadian and Brazilian universities in key areas of mutual cooperation.

The Canada-Brazil Awards - Joint Research Projects provide scholarships for exchanges of researchers and graduate students in support of reciprocal, team-based research projects. The projects are an initiative under the Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Canada and The Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education of Brazil concerning Academic Mobility and Scientific Cooperation.

NOTE: Additional features and funding are currently being considered to better align with the reciprocal offer by Brazil to Brazilian teams. Confirmation of additional features will be available and announced to successful Project Leads.

- As part of the Technology to Support Education in Crisis and Conflict Settings Ideation Challenge, it is seeking technology-supported approaches to provide basic education in one or more of the following situations: health crisis, natural disaster, and conflict zone. Proposed solutions should be usable within the first six months after the onset of the crisis or conflict and be usable within the context of a developing country.

The application deadline is March 30, 2015.  Details on how to apply can be found at http://response.notifications.gatesfoundation.org/t?ctl=4C60473:C917D3F7CC1420210810A7FC633C74D75B81EAEAF7CACE1D&

- The Tracking & Tracing Books Prize Competition is seeking innovations to track books destined for early-grade classrooms and learning centers in low-income countries and allow stakeholders, ranging from parents to Ministries of Education and donor agencies, to quickly and easily access tracking information.

The application deadline is April 1, 2015. Details on how to apply for a grant can be found at http://response.notifications.gatesfoundation.org/t?ctl=4C60474:C917D3F7CC1420210810A7FC633C74D75B81EAEAF7CACE1D&

Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development has launched its fifth round for innovative prevention and treatment approaches for pregnant women and newborns in poor, hard-to-reach communities around the world. Saving Lives at Birth partners will fund transformative approaches that cut across three main domains: (i) science & technology, (ii) service delivery, and (iii) demand-side innovation.

The application deadline is March 27, 2015. Details on how to apply for a grant can be found at http://response.notifications.gatesfoundation.org/t?ctl=4C60472:C917D3F7CC1420210810A7FC633C74D75B81EAEAF7CACE1D&

Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative to encourage innovative and unconventional global health and development solutions, is now accepting grant proposals for its latest application round.  Applicants can be at any experience level; in any discipline; and from any organization, including colleges and universities, government laboratories, research institutions, non-profit organizations and for profit companies.

Proposals are being accepted online until May 13, 2015 on the following topics:

•       Addressing Newborn and Infant Gut Health Through Bacteriophage-Mediated Microbiome Engineering
•       Explore New Ways to Measure Delivery and Use of Digital Financial Services Data
•       Surveillance Tools, Diagnostics and an Artificial Diet to Support New Approaches to Vector Control
•       New Approaches for Addressing Outdoor/Residual Malaria Transmission
•       Reducing Pneumonia Fatalities Through Innovations that Improve Pneumonia Diagnosis & Referral of Malnourished Children
•       Enable Merchant Acceptance of Mobile Money Payments

Initial grants will be US $100,000 each, and projects showing promise will have the opportunity to receive additional funding of up to US $1 million. Full descriptions of the new topics and application instructions are available at www.grandchallenges.org

Biomarkers Across Neurodegenerative Diseases 2 (BAND2):

A funding collaboration of the Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer’s Research UK, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and the Weston Brain Institute

We are proud to announce the new phase of an international collaborative funding opportunity with additional funding and expanded partnership.  Biomarkers Across Neurodegenerative Diseases 2 (BAND2), is a joint initiative of the Alzheimer’s Association and The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research in the U.S., the Weston Brain Institute in Canada, and Alzheimer’s Research UK, which joins the collaboration as the program makes available a second round of research grant awards.

Goal:               The main objective of BAND is to stimulate analyses across Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD) and other neurodegenerative diseases to increase understanding of pathogenesis similarities and differences. Analyses from this program may support, for example, biomarker discovery, assay standardization, genetic profiling, harmonization of existing data set phenotypes, cross-disease analysis of existing genetic data, inclusion of other neurodegenerative diseases related to PD and AD, and imaging development.

Funding:         Applicants may request up to two years and $150,000 in total costs

Eligibility:       Applications are encouraged from research laboratories and teams around the world. Researchers with full-time staff or faculty appointments are encouraged to apply. Post-doctoral fellows are eligible to apply as a principal investigator (PI), but must collaborate with an administrative PI who serves as the director of the laboratory in which the research will be conducted.            

Dates:                          Online System Open for Submission:            March 5, 2015

                                    Letter of Intent Deadline:                              April 9, 2015

                                    Information Conference Call:                         March 12, 2015         

If invited, Proposal Deadline:                        June 26, 2015

Mitacs Accelerate PhD Fellowship

·         Three-year fellowship valued at $30,000 per year

·         Fellows and faculty apply their expertise to new challenges

·         Long-term research project with a non-academic partner

·         Application deadline: May 6, 2015, at 1 p.m. PDT

·         Results announced: July 2015

Mitacs is pleased to announce significant research funding for postdoctoral fellows and PhD students.  Please share this information with your community.

Mitacs Elevate Postdoctoral Fellowship

·         Two-year fellowship valued at $57,500 per year (plus $7,500 per year non-cash value in training)

·         Customized training in professional and research management skills

·         Long-term research project with a non-academic partner

·         Letter of intent deadline: April 23, 2015, at 5 p.m. PDT

·         Application deadline: May 13, 2015, at 1 p.m. PDT

·         Results announced: August 2015