In this edition:

Feature

Did You Know?

Congratulations to Georgia CTSA Clinical Research Centers’ Dr. Rani H. Singh

At the Genetic Metabolic Dietitians International (GMDI) 2021 virtual conference, Dr. Rani H. Singh, PhD, RDN, LD, was presented the “Phyllis B. Acosta Lifetime Achievement Award”. Dr. Singh is the co-director of the bionutrition unit of the Georgia CTSA Clinical Research Center at Emory University and a long-time user of the GCRC. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Singh on this outstanding accomplishment!

Funding (* New Opportunities)

NIH Funding Opportunities Specific to COVID-19

This page contains a listing of active and expired funding opportunities specific to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

* Corporate Funding Opportunities – Due Dates Vary

View the latest Corporate RFPs for Emory faculty, researchers, and staff responsible for seeking funding support for specific research and programs. (You will need an emory.edu email address to access.)

* Mallinckrodt Grants Program – Emory Internal Due June 1

The mission of the Foundation is to support early stage investigators engaged in basic biomedical research that has the potential to significantly advance the understanding, diagnosis or treatment of disease. The funds are designed to provide support for faculty members who hold M.D. and/or Ph.D. degrees and who are in the first to fourth year of a tenure-track position.

The Spencer Foundation Racial Equity Special Research Grants Program – LOI Due June 2

The foundation is interested in funding studies that aim to understand and disrupt the reproduction and deepening of educational inequality in education, and which seek to remake and imagine anew forms of equitable education.

SOM I3 (Imagine, Innovate and Impact) Venture Award – Due June 7

Emory SOM is soliciting innovative research proposals to catalyze promising early-stage concepts with commercial potential that do not yet qualify for funding from external sources. The I3 Venture Research Awards aim to cultivate inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs driven to solve medicine’s challenges and create patient impact.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Systems for Action Systems and Services Research to Build a Culture of Health – Due June 9

Systems for Action is a signature research program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) that builds a Culture of Health by rigorously testing new ways of connecting the nation’s fragmented medical, social, and public health systems. RWJF will fund up to 4 awards of up to $500,000 each.

HEAL Initiative: NOSI: Limited Competition to Support Mentorship of Junior Investigators – Due June 12

This NOSI provides an opportunity for researchers funded by the Helping to End Addiction Long-Term (HEAL) initiative to devote more time to patient-oriented research and mentoring. For the purposes of the K24 award, patient-oriented research is defined as research conducted with human subjects for which an investigator (or colleague) directly interacts with human subjects. This area of research includes therapeutic interventions and clinical trials.

Bridges to the Doctorate Research Training Program (T32) – Emory Internal Due June 15

The goal of the Bridges to the Doctorate Research Training Program is to develop a diverse pool of scientists earning a Ph.D. who have the skills to successfully transition into careers in the biomedical research workforce. This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) provides support to eligible, domestic institutions to develop and implement effective, evidence-informed approaches to biomedical training and mentoring that will keep pace with the rapid evolution of the research enterprise. For any questions, please contact Holly Sommers (hsomme2@emory.edu).

* Center for HIV Structural Biology (U54 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) – Emory Internal Due June 22

The purpose of this FOA is to support dynamic, multidisciplinary consortia of structural biologists, virologists, and computational scientists to resolve complex biological structures relevant to HIV prevention, treatment, and cure. The consortia are expected to leverage common resources, facilitate new collaborations, and engage and support the next generation of HIV structural biology researchers.

Regenerative Engineering and Medicine Center Call for Therapeutic Delivery Innovation Initiative Collaborative Grant Program – Due June 25

This funding mechanism is intended to stimulate new, collaborative research in therapeutic delivery among Georgia Tech, Emory University, and UGA investigators. The collaborative grant team must have a minimum of two investigators and must have an equal partnership of faculty from two of the participating institutions with budgets split between the universities as equally as possible.

Pfizer Centers for Therapeutic Innovation – Due June 28

Pfizer’s CTI partnering model focuses on accessing cutting-edge science and innovative discoveries aligned with Pfizer’s current core research areas of Oncology, Inflammation & Immunology, Rare Diseases, and Internal Medicine. Please reach out to Kevin Lei for any questions and to apply.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Leadership and Management of the RWJF Culture of Health Prize – Due June 30

RWJF seeks an organization to lead and manage the national RWJF Culture of Health Prize program. This request for qualifications (RFQ) provides background on the program and outlines qualifications and responsibilities for the next lead organization. As part of this RFQ, RWJF asks the applicant to provide an estimated $4 million to $6 million budget over 27 months.

* Pediatric Feeding Disorder/Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder– LOI Due July 1

The purpose of this funding opportunity is to stimulate new research projects, build new collaborations, and increase extramural funding for pediatric research. Proposals should be aimed towards generating preliminary data for subsequent extramural grant applications.

Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Rachleff Innovation Award – Due July 1

This award funds extraordinary early career researchers who have an innovative new idea but lack sufficient preliminary data to obtain traditional funding. It is not designed to fund incremental advances. The research supported by the award must be novel, exceptionally creative and, if successful, have the strong potential for high impact in the cancer field.

Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative – Due July 6

Grants awarded are intended to advance our understanding of the genetic basis of ASD and the molecular and cellular consequences of genetic risk, and to provide a foundation for the development of treatments for select genetically defined forms of the condition.

Emergency Award: RADx-UP - Social, Ethical, and Behavioral Implications Research on Disparities in COVID-19 Testing among Underserved and Vulnerable Populations (U01 Clinical Trials Optional) – Due July 7

This Phase II RADx-UP FOA is designed to expand research to understand and address the social, ethical, and behavioral implications of COVID-19 testing interventions among underserved and vulnerable populations.

Emergency Awards: Community-engaged COVID-19 Testing Interventions among Underserved and Vulnerable Populations RADx-UP Phase II (U01 Clinical Trial Optional) – Due July 8

This FOA uses an emergency U01 mechanism to support Phase II of RADx-UP initiative. These two-year Testing Research Projects will (1) expand the scope and reach of RADx-UP testing interventions to reduce COVID-19 disparities among underserved and vulnerable populations and (2) address scientific questions on interventions to increase access and uptake of COVID-19 testing given the increasing availability of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.

The Harry Frank Guggenheim Distinguished Scholar Awards – Due August 1

The Foundation welcomes proposals from any of the natural and social sciences and aligned disciplines that promise to increase understanding of the causes, manifestations, and control of violence and aggression.

Nutrition Obesity Research Centers (P30 Clinical Trial Optional) – Internal Due August 2

This FOA invites applications from institutions/organizations that propose to establish core centers that are part of an integrated and existing program of nutrition and/or obesity research. The Nutrition Obesity Research Centers program is designed to support and enhance the national research effort in nutrition and obesity.

Education

Free Online Trainings for Clinical Research Professionals

Georgia CTSA and the University of Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute (SC CTSI) have created a new Online Course Catalog with free course and program offerings available to clinical research professionals. Participants earn a certificate or badge with contact hours (continuing education – CE) from an accredited provider upon completion of a course or a program (series of courses). Contact hours can be used to meet requirements for CRP certification renewal. The newest program, “Clinical Research Career Pathways”, is now available online. Select a course/program that interests you and click on the blue “Enroll” button.

Research Resources

N3C - COVID-19 Analytics Platform

Researchers studying COVID-19 are able to access an innovative analytics platform that contains clinical data from the electronic health records of people who were tested for the novel coronavirus or who have had related symptoms. Part of the NCATS National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) Data Enclave, the centralized and secure data platform features powerful analytics capabilities for online discovery, visualization and collaboration.

Call for Mentors

Are you a mid- to senior-level faculty member with a strong research track record and looking to enhance your mentoring and communications skills? The Georgia CTSA TEAMS (Translational Education and Mentoring for Science) Program is seeking learning community mentors, one-on-one mentors and content experts to participate in the 2021-2022 academic year program

Call for Mentees

Are you a junior level faculty member, post-doc or clinical fellow? Fellows participating in the TEAMS (Translational Education and Mentoring in Science) Program will have the opportunity to meet colleagues from other Georgia CTSA institutions, improve communication skills, understand strengths and areas for development through self-assessment, hone grant writing skills, obtain 1:1 and group mentoring, and develop an individual development plan.

Georgia CTSA Ethical Dilemma of the Week

NEW Dilemma - Participant Recruitment: Should We Interview Bereaved Parents? (PDF)

Innovation & Translation

Southeast Regional Mask Challenge Showcase – May 25

Join us for a virtual event at 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM. Event will showcase 10 of the top 40 teams selected from a nationwide challenge to develop innovative and effective mask designs.

I-Corps@NCATS – May 28 – July 2

The I-Corps@ NCATS program is a 5-week short course, based upon the successful National Science Foundation I-Corps and I-Corps at NIH Entrepreneurial Training Program, which combines business model training with a customer discovery process.

Bench2Market Talks: Financing and Dilution in Start-Up Companies – June 2

Join us via Zoom at 11:30 AM to learn business strategies around equity negations, fundraising, and dilution for life science start-ups with Professor James Stubbs, PhD. He has over 20 years of commercialization experience and has held senior executive roles in five medical device startups including founder, CEO, CTO, CSO and VP Scientific Affairs.

PTC Pediatric Endowment Seed Grants - App Development – Due July 16

The purpose is to support the development of smartphone apps and related software for implementation in the clinic or at home with the patient with preference given to those that use a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach to achieving health equity with underserved populations - racial, ethnic, and rural equity across the state of Georgia. Grant awardees will work with the Georgia CTSA Innovation Catalyst’s AppHatchery program to tackle a clinical problem using a patient centered design and development process.

Community

Participants Needed for COVID-19 Vaccine and Treatment Studies

All races and ethnicities are needed to participate in COVID-19 trials. Please spread the word to help recruit minorities, especially for vaccine trials.

Events

Nanotechnology in Vaccine Delivery – May 19 & 26

Spring 2021 NanoFANS program will offer a weekly webinar from 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM via Zoom. The focus of this event will be “Nanotechnology in Vaccine Delivery.”

Team Science Skill Series: Evaluating and Improving Team Performance – May 21

What does “team effectiveness” mean to you? Join Dorothy Carter, PhD, via Zoom from 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM for an interactive workshop. This discussion-based workshop will focus on the ways in which team leaders can set up the facilitating conditions that teams need in order to thrive and how to systematically evaluate team functioning and performance over time.

COVID Force Seminar – May 21

Join us via Zoom at 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM to learn more about “Antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 and emerging viral variants” with Associate Professor Jens Wrammert, PhD.

Southeastern Pediatric Research Conference – June 11

Please join us for the 10th anniversary of our annual event to highlight the scope of pediatric research being conducted across the southeast and specifically at Emory, Children’s, Georgia Tech, and MSM. Get ready for an exciting day of presentations, poster sessions, networking and knowledge-sharing, plus a special 10th anniversary reception! Learn more and register .