Cancer-Focused Funding Opportunities

Below are recently announced or upcoming FOAs pertinent to JAX research and researchers. Also note the Funding Opportunities list is updated regularly and has a variety of curated standing opportunities; it can be found on the “Funding Opportunities” tab on RPD’s MyJax site. For those of you planning grant applications to the NIH, please check out JAX’s DMSP site — which was recently updated with additional resources, templates, and information to help everyone write their Data Management and Sharing Plans. As always, please reach out to me (sara.cassidy@jax.org) or Anna Lisa Lucido (annalisa.lucido@jax.org) if you would like assistance with these or other grant applications.

The Mark Foundation – Emerging Leader Award

These awards support innovative cancer research from the next generation of leaders. They are awarded to outstanding early career investigators to support high-impact, high-risk projects that are distinct from their current research portfolio. Some specific eligibility requirements are listed below; more can be found on the website above.

• Applicants must be three to eight years from the start of an independent faculty research appointment as of December 31, 2023 (i.e., the official start date of the appointment must fall within the calendar years 2015-2020). Exceptions due to prolonged medical or family leave will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
• Applicants must demonstrate multi-year independent funding that sustains the central activities of the laboratory (e.g., at least one or two grants such as NIH/R01, NSF/CAREER, or equivalently substantial multi-year awards).
• Projects for this award must be centered on evidence-based laboratory, data, and/or medical science.
• Proposed projects must not be supported by other sources of funding.
• If selected, finalists must be available for virtual interviews in October 2023 (Week to be announced).

LOI due: May 1^st, 2023. Award amount and period: 250K/year for 3 years (inclusive of no more than 10% for indirects)

Pew Charitable Trusts - Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences 

This is another early career award for outstanding scientists running independent research projects. Candidates must not have been appointed as an assistant professor at any institution prior to June 12, 2019. Time spent in clinical internships, residencies, in work toward board certification, or on parental leave does not count as part of this four-year limit. Candidates who need an eligibility extension due to leave or other reasons should contact Pew's program office. Strong proposals will incorporate particularly creative and pioneering approaches to basic, translational, and applied biomedical research. Ideas with the potential to produce an unusually high impact are encouraged. There is a parallel but distinct program for cancer researchers at NCI-designated cancer centers; the Pew-Stewart Scholars in Cancer Research. Candidates can only be nominated for one of these awards.

Deadlines: Let me or Anna Lisa know you are interested in being nominated for either award by May 1^st, 2023. JAX can only nominate one candidate per award. If selected, application information will be emailed directly to the applicant on June 12, 2023. The submission deadline is September 7^th, 2023 for Pew Scholars and August 31^st, 2023 for Pew-Stewart Scholars.

Award amount and period: 75K/year for 4 years (inclusive of no more than 8% for indirects)

DoD Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program (PRCRP)

• Advancing Clinical Care Through Clinical Trials Award
• Career Development Award – Fellow Option
• Career Development Award – Resident Option
• Idea Award
• Impact Award
• Patient Well-Being and Survivorship Award
• Translational Team Science Award

Please see this link for a reference table that describes each award and submission requirements.

The Office of the Directors High-Risk, High-Reward Research (HRHR) Program recently reissued RFAs.

NIH Directors New Innovator Award Program (DP2)

This program supports early-stage investigators of exceptional creativity who propose highly innovative research projects with the potential to produce a major impact on broad, important areas relevant to the mission of NIH. The NIH Director's New Innovator Award is different from traditional NIH grants in several aspects. It is designed specifically to support unusually creative investigators with highly innovative research ideas at an early stage of their career when they may lack the preliminary data required for a conventional R01 grant application. The emphasis is on innovation and creativity; preliminary data are not required but may be included. The review process emphasizes the individual’s creativity, the innovativeness of the research approaches, and the potential of the project, if successful, to have a significant impact on an important biomedical or behavioral research problem. Given the highly innovative nature of the research, New Innovator Awardees are given unusual flexibility to pivot research direction as they see fit to maximize research impact.

Receipt date: August 18^th, 2023

Award amount and period: Awards will be in two multi-year segments. The first, three-year segment will have an award budget up to $900K in direct costs. The second, two-year segment will have an award budget up to $600K in direct costs. 5 years total.

NIH Director’s Transformative Research Awards (R01)

These awards support individual scientists or groups of scientists proposing groundbreaking, exceptionally innovative, original, and/or unconventional research with the potential to create new scientific paradigms, establish entirely new and improved clinical approaches, or develop transformative technologies. To be considered transformative, projects must have the potential to create or overturn fundamental scientific paradigms through novel concepts or perspectives, transform the way research is conducted through the development of novel tools or technologies, or lead to major improvements in health through the development of highly innovative diagnostic, therapeutic, or preventive strategies. Towards the objective of funding the best possible science, the Office of Strategic Coordination and the Center for Scientific Review are piloting a process for initial peer review of applications received in response to this FOA in which the identity of the investigators and institutions are withheld until the last phase of review. See FOA for details on anonymizing your application and the details of anonymous review. There is a pre-application webinar on June 23^rd, 2023; use this link to register. 

Receipt date: September 1^st, 2023

Award amount and period: Awards are not limited but must be commensurate with the scope of the proposed research, up to 5 years.

NIH Director’s Pioneer Award Program (DP1)

For the Pioneer Award program, emphases are on the qualities of the investigator, the innovativeness, and potential impact of the proposed research. Preliminary data and detailed experimental plans are not requested. To be considered pioneering and as an aspect of innovativeness, the proposed research must reflect substantially different ideas from those being pursued in the investigator’s current research program or elsewhere. The proposed project must reflect a fundamental new insight which may involve exceptionally innovative approaches and/or radically unconventional hypotheses. Applications for projects that are straightforward extensions of ongoing research should not be submitted. Pioneer awardees are required to commit the major portion (more than 6 person-months or at least 51%) to activities supported by the Pioneer Award research project in the first three years of the project period. Awardees may reduce effort to a minimum of 4 person-months (33%) and a minimum of 3 person-months (25%) in the fourth and fifth years, respectively, to help them transition to other sources of support since Pioneer Awards cannot be renewed. Prospective applicants are invited to attend a pre-application webinar on June 20^th, 2023; register using this link.

Receipt date: September 8^th, 2023

Award amount and period: $700K direct/up to 5 years.

Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Synthetic Biology for Biomedical Applications.

The purpose of this NOSI is to announce that the NCCIH, NCI, NHLBI, NIA, NIAID, NIBIB, NICHD, and NIGMS are encouraging new applications to advance research activities relevant to synthetic biology.

The overarching goal(s) of this Notice of Special Interest are to:

1. Develop tools and technologies to control and reprogram biological systems,
2. Apply synthetic biology approaches for the development of biomedical technologies,
3. Increase the fundamental understanding of synthetic biology concepts as they relate to human health, and
4. Gain fundamental biological knowledge through the application of synthetic biology approaches.

Each institute has a specific statement of interest and a list of RFAs to which the applicant can apply this NOSI. See the notice for details.

NIH housekeeping notices relevant to JAX

Revision to the NIH/AHRQ/NIOSH Post-Submission Material Policy

In response to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, NIH implemented a special exception for post-submission material, allowing a one-page update of preliminary data as post-submission material to specified notices of funding opportunity (NOFOs). The COVID-19 Public Health Emergency is set to expire on May 11^th, 2023, but NIH will continue to accept post-submission material for some applications. For applications submitted for the May 25, 2023 receipt date and beyond, NIH, AHRQ, and NIOSH will accept a one-page update with preliminary data as post-submission material for Type 1 R01, R21, or R03 applications, including resubmissions, if the NOFO used for submission allows preliminary data in the application.

Several parent R01s and R21s are set to expire in early May 2023. However, this notice extends the expiration date for these mechanisms to May 2024. See the notice for the relevant PA numbers.

2023 JAXCC Internal Funding Calendar Accessibility Link