The FY22 Defense Appropriations Act provides funding for the BCRP to support innovative, high-impact research with clinical relevance that will accelerate progress to end breast cancer for Service Members, Veterans, and the general public.  The managing agent for the anticipated funding opportunity is the CDMRP at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC).

The FY22 BCRP funding opportunity announcement for the following award mechanism is posted on the Grants.gov website. 

Applications submitted to the FY22 BCRP must address one or more of the following overarching challenges:

• Prevent breast cancer (primary prevention)
• Identify determinants of breast cancer initiation, risk, or susceptibility
• Distinguish deadly from non-deadly breast cancers
• Conquer the problems of overdiagnosis and overtreatment
• Identify what drives breast cancer growth; determine how to stop it
• Identify why some breast cancers become metastatic
• Determine why/how breast cancer cells lie dormant for years and then re-emerge; determine how to prevent lethal recurrence
• Revolutionize treatment regimens by replacing them with ones that are more effective, less toxic, and impact survival
• Eliminate the mortality associated with metastatic breast cancer

Funding Opportunities - FY22 Breast Cancer Research Program, Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP), US DoD (health.mil)

Clinical Research Extension Award - Letter of Intent due November 29, 2022

Investigators at all academic levels (or equivalent)

• Supports research that extends the data collection, follow-up, and analysis of breast cancer clinical research studies.

• The intent of this mechanism is to increase the clinically relevant impact of breast cancer patient participation in clinical research by addressing the knowledge lost due to limited or early termination of patient follow-up and sample collection and analysis.

• Although not all-inclusive, research proposed under this mechanism may entail a deeper molecular analysis of clinical samples, initiation of new correlative studies, biomarker validation, or continuing clinical follow-up of patients currently/previously enrolled in an open/ongoing or completed clinical trial. • PIs are required to include two or more breast cancer advocates on their research team.

• Partnering PI Option allows two PIs, termed Initiating and Partnering PIs, to partner on a single application.

o Each PI is expected to bring a distinct contribution to the application.

o The application should clearly demonstrate that both PIs have equal intellectual input into the design of the project and will devote similar and appropriate levels of effort to the conduct of the project. • Submission of a Letter of Intent is required prior to full application submission.

• Clinical trials are not allowed.

The maximum allowable funding for the entire period of performance is $5M for direct costs (plus indirect costs).

• Maximum period of performance is 4 years Partnering PI Option:

• The maximum allowable funding for the entire period of performance is $6M for direct costs (plus indirect costs).

• Maximum period of performance is 4 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 funding opportunity announcement available for 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.

For email notification when 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 BCRP or other CDMRP-administered programs, please visit the CDMRP website (https://cdmrp.health.mil).

Point of Contact:

CDMRP Helpdesk
301-682-5507                                                                                                                                     
help@eBRap.org

 For more information, please contact Jill Sherman at intl.research@lakeheadu.ca.

INOVAIT is pleased to announce a Canada-wide call for applications from industry and academic members for its third round of pilot funding for collaborative research and development projects in the image-guided therapy (IGT) and artificial intelligence (AI) space. The pilot fund provides up to $125,000 in contributions for pilot projects lasting 9 to 15 months. Applications open October 24, 2022, with the deadline of December 20, 2022. For more information on applying to the pilot fund, go to Funding

Join our webinar on November 2, 2022 to learn more about INOVAIT's Pilot Fund call for applications. This webinar will be in English only, but a video with closed captioning and French subtitles will be available on the INOVAIT website after the webinar.

Register for the webinar.

The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Staff Exchanges (MSCA-SE) support up to four-year joint research and innovation projects implemented by seconding and/or hosting eligible staff members. The next call is due to open on Thursday, October 6th, 2022. The call is open to international consortia of universities, research institutions, businesses, SMEs, and other non-academic organizations to exchange their staff for up to 12 months.  More information can be found here. Join an upcoming webinar on October 26, 2022 here.  Please contact Jill Sherman for assistance, intl.research@lakeheadu.ca.

Brain Canada is pleased to be partnering with Alzheimer Society of Canada on the Alzheimer’s Society Research Program (ASRP) to support Canadian studies that promise new insights into causes, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. The two grants with available funding from Brain Canada are:

• The ASRP New Investigator Operating Grants: designed to help launch the careers of outstanding researchers who are within the first six (6) years of their initial academic appointment. Grants of up to $200,000 each will be awarded for a period of up to four (4) years. Brain Canada will co-fund up to two (2) successful applicants.
• The Proof of Concept Grants: designed to fund innovative, potentially high-risk, and high-reward research that pushes beyond the status quo in dementia research and focuses on challenging new directions within the field. Grants of up to $100,000 each will be awarded for a period of up to three (3) years. Brain Canada will co-fund up to twelve (12) successful applicants.

Evidence clearly shows that increasing equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in research environments enhances excellence, innovation, and creativity. Alzheimer Society of Canada and Brain Canada are committed to excellence through equity, and we encourage applicants of diverse backgrounds to apply to our funding opportunities, which will promote the expression of diverse perspectives, approaches, and experiences, including those of underrepresented groups.

Click here to view the Application Guidelines

Deadline for receipt of Applications: November 4, 2022 at 5 p.m. EST

Brain Canada is pleased to be partnering with Alzheimer Society of Canada on the Alzheimer’s Society Research Program (ASRP) to support Canadian studies that promise new insights into causes, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. The two grants with available funding from Brain Canada are:

• The ASRP New Investigator Operating Grants: designed to help launch the careers of outstanding researchers who are within the first six (6) years of their initial academic appointment. Grants of up to $200,000 each will be awarded for a period of up to four (4) years. Brain Canada will co-fund up to two (2) successful applicants.
• The Proof of Concept Grants: designed to fund innovative, potentially high-risk, and high-reward research that pushes beyond the status quo in dementia research and focuses on challenging new directions within the field. Grants of up to $100,000 each will be awarded for a period of up to three (3) years. Brain Canada will co-fund up to twelve (12) successful applicants.

Evidence clearly shows that increasing equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in research environments enhances excellence, innovation, and creativity. Alzheimer Society of Canada and Brain Canada are committed to excellence through equity, and we encourage applicants of diverse backgrounds to apply to our funding opportunities, which will promote the expression of diverse perspectives, approaches, and experiences, including those of underrepresented groups.

Click here to view the Application Guidelines

Deadline for receipt of Applications: November 4, 2022 at 5 p.m. EST

The specific objectives of this funding opportunity are to:

• Support the creation and/or further development of inclusive, formal networks to address selected priority issues related to Skin Health, Bone Health, and Muscular Dystrophy;
• Encourage national (and if feasible, international) collaboration, methods development, and resource sharing (people and platforms) among multidisciplinary experts;
• Engage researchers and other network members who have historically faced barriers in the research ecosystem, including but not limited to those marginalized by gender, Indigenous Peoples, racialized minorities, persons with disabilities, and members of LGBTQ2S+ communities;
• Develop and strengthen research capacity by connecting and engaging current researchers and training the next generation of researchers;
• Facilitate the mobilization and uptake of existing knowledge and the new knowledge generated by research evidence; and
• Ensure meaningful patient engagement with a goal of influencing impact beyond the time of this network.

The Pan-Canadian Women's Health Coalition will be composed of virtual hubs across Canada linked through an overarching coordinating centre. Applications for the hubs and the coordinating centre will occur over two separate funding opportunities. The current funding opportunity is accepting applications for the hubs. A future funding opportunity, which is anticipated to be launched in Fall 2023, will be accepting applications for the coordinating centre. Applying for hubs funding does not preclude applying for the coordinating centre funding.

Hubs (current funding opportunity)

Each hub must identify one or more areas of women's health to address, within the scope of this funding opportunity, based on community, regional and/or national needs, ensuring that women's and gender-diverse people's voices are at the heart of the hub's activities. It is important to acknowledge that traditional knowledge, such as those of Indigenous and African diasporic communities, has been undervalued and underutilized in Western medicine. Therefore, the hubs are expected to amplify traditional ways of knowing to provide insights on how to improve women's health and wellness through an intersectional lens.

The roles and responsibilities of each hub are to maximize the impact and visibility of women's health research and practice through the following activities:

• Mobilize and scale-up newly generated and existing knowledge and models of practice to advance more equitable, evidence-based, gender-sensitive, culturally safe, holistic healthcare and access to care for diverse groups of women.
• Convene regional knowledge mobilization activities, including engaging the public and knowledge users, and policymakers through culturally appropriate methods, to maximize research impact and help create system-level change.
• Create and share inventories of existing evidence-based services for diverse groups of women, girls and gender-diverse people, including those who live in remote, rural or difficult to access areas.
• Enhance opportunities for trainees in women's health research through the creation and delivery of training and mentorship activities and resources.
• Engage in community-based priority-setting activities for future research in women's health through early, extensive and ongoing engagement efforts with relevant stakeholders and rights holders, including community organizations, diverse groups of women and researchers.
• Plan for the sustainability of the proposed hub's activities beyond the granting period of the current funding opportunity.

Each hub requires tripartite leadership, including a non-governmental community organization, an independent researcher, and a healthcare provider, all in the area of women's health. Additionally, the leadership team of each hub is required to build a diverse community, regional or national team that brings together the expertise and experiences of other non-governmental community organizations, healthcare providers, researchers, and trainees as well as Indigenous People, and patients and people with lived experience in women's health. Given the importance of ensuring women drive and inform the research supported through the NWHRI, it is encouraged that women and gender-diverse people will be leading and/or meaningfully engaged in both project leadership and the research itself. 

The specific objectives of this funding opportunity are to:

1. Mobilize and scale-up newly generated and existing knowledge and models of care into effective, gender-sensitive and culturally appropriate women's health and wellness services across Canada.
2. Maximize research impact within and beyond the Coalition (hubs and the coordinating centre) to help ensure evidence is integrated into health policies, decision making, and planning to support community, regional, provincial, territorial, and/or federal efforts regarding women's health.
3. Build capacity for the next generation of health researchers through training and mentorship opportunities embedded within the hub to support the development of a sustainable women's health research ecosystem.
4. Engage in community-based priority-setting activities that include diverse voices to identify future critical areas of women's health research based on community, regional and/or national needs.