The Heart and Stroke Foundation (HSF) is pleased to announce the launch of the Emerging Research Leaders Initiative (ERLI). This multi-partnered initiative led by HSF includes organizational partners from non-profit, government, industry, and emerging / existing networks. Partners include the New Brunswick Health Research Foundation, Pfizer Canada Inc., Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé (FRQS), the Canadian Stroke Prevention Intervention Network (C-SPIN) the Canadian Venous Thromboembolism Clinical Trials and Outcomes Research Network (CanVECTOR), the Cardiac Arrhythmia Network of Canada (CANet), the Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS), and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

The Emerging Research Leaders Initiative (ERLI) is an establishment grant program for researchers at the transition stage from post-doctoral fellow to early professional career stage in the areas of cardiovascular and/or cerebrovascular research.

This initiative aims to support successful early career launch of new investigators. Through this initiative, partners will provide establishment grant funds that will create a set of conditions conducive to the successful career launch of emerging research leaders in the cardiovascular and/or cerebrovascular health research domains.

Establishment grants are intended to assist new investigators in establishing independent health research programs and achieving the research productivity necessary to obtain major funding from national and other external granting agencies.

Defense Health Program
Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program

Funding Opportunities for Fiscal Year 2016 (FY16)

The FY16 Defense Appropriations Act provides $80 million (M) to the Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP) to support innovative, high-impact prostate cancer research. As directed by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, the Defense Health Agency, Research, Development, and Acquisition (DHA RDA) 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). 

FY16 PCRP Program Announcements and General Application Instructions for the following award mechanism is posted on the Grants.gov website. 

IMPORTANT:  The PCRP’s FY16 mission is to find and fund research that will lead to the elimination of death and enhance the well-being of men with prostate cancer.  As such, the PCRP seeks to focus applications and direct funding by providing four Overarching Challenges and seven Focus Areas to address critical needs in prostate cancer research and clinical management.  Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit research that addresses one or more of the Overarching Challenges and Focus Areas.

Overarching Challenges:  (1) Distinguish aggressive from indolent disease in men newly diagnosed with prostate cancer.  (2) Develop strategies to prevent progression to lethal prostate cancer.  (3) Develop effective treatments and address mechanisms of resistance for men with high-risk or metastatic prostate cancer.  (4) Develop strategies to optimize the physical and mental health of men with prostate cancer.

Focus Areas:  (1) Biomarker Development.  (2) Genetics.  (3) Imaging.  (4) Mechanisms of Resistance and Response.  (5) Survivorship and Palliative Care.  (6) Therapy.  (7) Tumor and Microenvironment Biology.

http://cdmrp.army.mil/funding/pcrp.shtml

Clinical Consortium Research Site Award

Independent investigators at or above the level of Assistant Professor (or equivalent)

• ·      Supports the addition of a Clinical Research Site to the Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Consortium.

o  This consortium facilitates the rapid execution of collaborative Phase II or Phase I/II clinical trials that will bring to market high-impact, novel therapeutic interventions that will ultimately and significantly decrease the impact of prostate cancer.

• ·      Funds may not be used for research or development of clinical protocols.
• ·      Sites must provide plans for accruing patients from populations disproportionately affected by prostate cancer.
• ·      Trials that incorporate investigations of biomarkers for risk assessment, early detection, prediction of aggressiveness, and/or progression of prostate cancer are encouraged.
• ·     Maximum funding of $600K for direct costs (plus indirect costs)
• ·     Maximum period of performance is 3 years

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 are also found on Grants.gov.  A listing of all CDMRP funding opportunities can be obtained on the Grants.gov website by performing a basic search using CFDA Number 12.420. 

Applications must be submitted through the federal government’s single-entry portal,Grants.gov.  Requests for email notification of the Program Announcements release may be sent to help@cdmrp.org.  For more information about the PCRP or other CDMRP-administered programs, please visit the CDMRP website(http://cdmrp.army.mil).

Point of Contact:

CDMRP Help Desk 
301-682-5507

help@eBrap.org

WANT TO IMPROVE INTEGRATED CARE?

NEW CALL FOR PROPOSALS-

The Adopting Research to Improve Care (ARTIC) Program announced its 2016/17 Call for Proposals for the next great project to spread integrated care across Ontario, with maximum available funding of $1 million. ARTIC seeks projects that improve integration of care across care settings, and is keenly interested in those that focus on seniors with complex co-morbid conditions or people affected by mental health and/or addictions.

MORE INFORMATION-

The ARTIC Program is inviting proposals that will spread clinical interventions or practice changes that address the theme of Improving Integration of Care across care settings, specifically ensuring primary and community care are engaged. If you are unfamiliar with the ARTIC Program, it is a proven model for accelerating the implementation of research evidence into broader practice. Originally designed for the research hospital sector, the ARTIC Program is now a provincial resource for the full health care system, supporting the province’s quality agenda.

The proposed clinical interventions or practice changes must have already been proven and successfully implemented in at least one site, and are ready to be applied across multiple organizations and/or sectors within Ontario. The ARTIC Program will be funding at least one spread project over a 19–24 month period, with a maximum available funding of $1,000,000.

You can find the 2016 Applicant Information Package on the Health Quality Ontario and CAHO  websites. 

Letters of intent are due by July 4, 2016.

Through the Institute Community Support (ICS) Program, the CIHR Institutes are launching the ICS Travel Awards competition for students, postdoctoral fellows, new investigators and knowledge users to present their own research at national and international meetings and/or conferences.

This ICS Travel Awards competition will not support travel for research skills development or update, exchange programs or lectureships.

Please note that each of the participating Institutes have their own relevant research areas, Eligibility Requirements and Funding Levels, which are outlined in the “Sponsor Description” section of this funding opportunity.

The objectives of each program are:

HFSP Young Investigators' Grants: 

Young Investigators’ Grants are awarded to teams of researchers, all of whom are within the first five years after obtaining an independent laboratory. 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 (e.g. Assistant Professor, Lecturer or equivalent). 

HFSP Program Grants:

Program Grants are awarded to 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. 

HFSP Fellowship:

The objective of the HFSP fellowship program is to fund innovative, ground-breaking projects that have the potential to advance knowledge in the applicants’ field of study or open a new approach to a research problem. High risk research is supported. HFSP postdoctoral fellowships encourage early career scientists to broaden their research skills by moving into new areas of study while working in a new country.

HFSP Career Development Award:

The goal of the CDA program is to encourage former HFSP fellows to initiate an original research program in their own laboratories as independent researchers in their home country or in an HFSP member country.

For more information on all of these opportunities, please consult the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) website.

Current Competiton:

HFSP postdoctoral fellowships encourage early career scientists to broaden their research skills by moving into new areas of study while working in a new country. 

2017 fellowship initiation deadline: 11 August 2016.

2017 fellowship submission deadline: 25 August 2016.

HFSP fellowships are for three years. Fellows may choose to stay for up to three years in the host country or use the last year of their fellowship to return to their home country or to move to another HFSPO member country.

Long-Term Fellowships (LTF) are for applicants with a Ph.D. in a biological discipline, who will broaden their expertise by proposing a project in the life sciences which is significantly different from their previous Ph.D. or postdoctoral work.

Cross-Disciplinary Fellowships (CDF) are for applicants with a Ph.D. from outside the life sciences (e.g. in physics, chemistry, mathematics, engineering or computer sciences), who have had limited exposure to biology during their previous training.

The multi-year iCT grant will support innovative clinical trials design development.

The specific objectives of this funding opportunity are to:

• Enable new and established investigators to undertake innovative clinical trials in using new or existing methods;
• Support the development and testing of innovative methods;
• Build capacity for iCT research through training and mentoring.

Relevant Research Areas

CIHR will provide funding for innovative clinical trials that have a primary focus in the areas of:

• Comparative Effectiveness research of diagnostics and treatment modalities (drugs and interventions) in use in Canada. For the purpose of this funding opportunity, comparative effectiveness research is designed to inform health-care decisions by providing evidence on the effectiveness, benefits, and harms of different diagnostics and treatment options. The evidence is generated from research studies that compare drugs, medical devices, tests, surgeries, or ways to deliver health care; and/or
• Implementation research, particularly in areas where research investment can be expected to directly impact patient experience and care. Implementation research examines what interventions work, for whom, under what contextual circumstances and whether the interventions are affordable, adaptable and scalable in ways that are sustainable, accessible and equitable.

The specific objective of this funding opportunity is to:

• Mobilize research communities to explore methodologies to advance research in innovative clinical trials research.

Examples of activities that might be conducted under this Funding Opportunity (but are not restricted to) are:

• Planning and execution of pilot projects or feasibility studies to demonstrate proof of concept and/or generate preliminary data;
• Development and/or validation of new tools, methodologies and/or protocols;

Relevant Research Areas

CIHR will provide funding for innovative clinical trials that have a primary focus in the areas of:

• Comparative Effectiveness research of diagnostics and treatment modalities (drugs and interventions) in use in Canada. For the purpose of this funding opportunity, comparative effectiveness research is designed to inform health-care decisions by providing evidence on the effectiveness, benefits, and harms of different diagnostics and treatment options. The evidence is generated from research studies that compare drugs, medical devices, tests, surgeries, or ways to deliver health care; and/or
• Implementation research, particularly in areas where research investment can be expected to directly impact patient experience and care. Implementation research examines what interventions work, for whom, under what contextual circumstances and whether the interventions are affordable, adaptable and scalable in ways that are sustainable, accessible and equitable.

A limited number of Travel Awards to PhD or MD/PhD students, and post-doctoral/medical/clinical fellows are available. The purpose of this program is to defray the travel costs associated with making a scientific presentation as a first author or presenter at a conference, symposium or other appropriate professional meeting.