The following funding news and opportunities were collected recently by Pre-Award Services and published in Update, a weekly e-newsletter for members and staff.

Visit the Research Funding Resources page for links to resources you can use to search for funding as well as University resources essential to application processes.

April 29

Minnesota Futures Grant Program
Office of the Vice President for Research (Internal)
Application Receipt Date: May 23, 2008
Funding: $25,000 (Phase 1), $250,000 over 2 years (Phase 2)
The OVPR announces an internal grant program, the Minnesota Futures, to help convert the ideas of researchers into new pathways of discovery. In order to help propel research and scholarship beyond the ordinary, the OVPR is pleased to announce the Minnesota Futures Grant Program. Modeled on the successful National Academies "Keck Futures Initiative," the Minnesota Futures Grant Program will consist of two phases: Phase 1 is a call for proposals to develop and convene interdisciplinary symposia around research questions of current significance which are engaging teo multipl disciplines. Phasewill be a call for interdisciplinary research proposals that originate from symposia.

Biomarkers of Infection-Associated Cancers
PA-08-156-R01
PA-08-157-R21
National Cancer Institute
Application Receipt Date: NIH Mechanism Deadlines
Funding: Standard R01 and R21 limits apply
This funding opportunity announcement encourages applications from institutions and organizations that propose to identify biomarkers for cancers where the etiology of the disease is attributed to infectious agents. Using the NIH Exploratory Grant (R21) funding mechanism, this FOA focuses on early and conceptual stages of research projects.

April 22

The V Foundation Scholar Award
The V Foundation for Cancer Research
Application Receipt Date: June 30, 2008
Funding: $100,000 over 2 years.
Funding is available to pursue cancer research for applicants who have not yet secured their own R01 funding. The University may submit one application. The candidate must have completed at least two years of fellowship training, with no more than five years passing since joining the faculty as instructor or assistant professor.

Minnesota Future Grants Program
The Minnesota Future Grants Program is sponsored by the Office of the Vice-President for Research and is designed to foster new pathways of interdisciplinary research. Three awards, providing up to $25,000 each to support a symposium, will be offered during phase one of the program. For details, visit the OVPR Web site.

NIH Announcements:

In Utero Exposure to Bioactive Food Components and Mammary Cancer Risk
(PA-08-140) - R01
(PA-08-141) - R21
National Cancer Institute
Application Receipt Date(s): NIH Mechanism Deadlines
Funding: Standard R01 and R21 limits apply
This Funding Opportunity Announcement encourages innovative preclinical research applications that will enhance the understanding of the relationship between exposure(s) to bioactive food components and/or environmental chemicals in utero, hormonal and growth-factor response, gene expression or epigenetic changes, and subsequent mammary cancer risk in preclinical models.

Mitochondria in Cancer Epidemiology, Detection, Diagnosis and Prognosis
(PA-08-143) - R01
(PA-08-144) - R21
National Cancer Institute
Application Receipt Date(s): NIH Mechanism Deadlines
Funding: Standard R01 and R21 limits apply
This funding opportunity announcement encourages applications that propose to develop and validate new mitochondrial-related biomarkers for cancer early detection, diagnosis, prognosis, risk assessment, and response to preventive and ameliorative treatments.

Quick-Trials for Imaging and Image-Guided Interventions: Exploratory Grants (R21)
(PAR-08-147)
National Cancer Institute
Application Receipt Date(s): Multiple dates, see announcement
Funding: 2 years, $500,000 (no more than $250,000 per year)
This Funding Opportunity Announcement is intended to support clinical trials conducting preliminary evaluation of the safety and efficacy of imaging agents, as well as an assessment of imaging systems, image processing, image-guided therapy, contrast kinetic modeling, and 3-D reconstruction and other quantitative tools. The rapid translation of promising discoveries in the fields of imaging probes, methodologies, technologies and image-guided therapies to clinical practice requires timely support. This FOA will provide investigators with support for either pilot (Phase I and II) cancer clinical trials, or patient monitoring and laboratory studies.

NIH Support for Conferences and Scientific Meetings (Parent R13/U13)
(PA-08-149)
National Cancer Institute
Application Receipt Date(s): NIH Mechanism Deadlines
Funding: Varies by proposal
The purpose of the NIH Research Conference Grant Program (R13 and U13) is to support high quality conferences/scientific meetings that are relevant to the scientific mission of the NIH and to the public health. A conference/scientific meeting is defined as a gathering, symposium, seminar, scientific meeting, workshop or any other organized, formal meeting where persons assemble to coordinate, exchange, and disseminate information or to explore or clarify a defined subject, problem, or area of knowledge.  Each NIH Institute and Center (IC) has a scientific purview and different program goals and initiatives that evolve over time.

Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research (K24)
(PA-08-151)
National Cancer Institute
Application Receipt Date(s): Multiple dates, see announcement.
Funding: Varies by proposal (funds available for salary, fringe, and $50,000 research development costs)
The purpose of the Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research is to provide support to mid-career health-professional doctorates or equivalent who are typically at the Associate Professor level or the equivalent (see Section III. Eligible Individuals) for protected time to devote to patient-oriented research (POR) and to act as research mentors primarily for clinical residents, clinical fellows and/or junior clinical faculty. The intent of this award is two-fold: 1) to enable mid-career clinician scientists to devote more time and to augment their capabilities in patient-oriented research; and 2) to enable mid-career clinical scientists to mentor new clinical investigators in the conduct of patient-oriented research.

April 15

No listings were published.

April 8

2009 HHMI Early Career Scientist Competition
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Application Receipt Date(s): Pre-Application due April 30, 2008. Proposal due June 10, 2008
Funding: Those selected will become full-time HHMI employees, and their full salary and benefits will be paid by HHMI. In addition, HHMI will provide a research budget for salary support of personnel and supplies. See Web site for details. The early career scientists will retain their faculty or other status at their host institution.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is pleased to announce a national competition to select as many as 70 outstanding early career scientists. This competition will enable HHMI to identify the nation's best biomedical scientists at a critical early stage of their faculty careers, and to provide them with flexible funding to develop scientific programs of exceptional merit. HHMI seeks scientists in all areas of basic biological and biomedical research, and in areas of chemistry, physics, computer science, and engineering that are directly related to biology or medicine.

2008 Ovarian Cancer Program Announcement
Department of Defense
Deadline: 6/25/08 - Pre-Application; 7/9/08 - Full Application
Funding: IDEA Award: Up to $450,000 direct costs
The Consortium Development Award is an infrastructure development mechanism which provides support to create a Coordinating Center and establish the necessary collaborations at potential Research Sites to develop a multi-institutional ovarian cancer research team. Participants in this consortium should be scientists and/or clinicians who have made significant contributions to the field of ovarian cancer or who have specific expertise related to the early changes associated with ovarian cancer progression.

NIH Announcements:

Tumor Stem Cells in Cancer Biology, Prevention, and Therapy (P01)
(RFA-CA-08-020)
National Cancer Institute
Application Receipt Date(s): July 10, 2008
Funding: Up to 5 years. Funding levels will vary.
The objective of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to stimulate research on tumor stem cell biology, including the identification and characterization of specific genetic and functional signatures (e.g., biomarkers) of tumor stem cells. The overall goal is the translation of basic research findings into clinical practice in the contexts of both hematological and solid tumor malignancies.

Symptom Interactions in Cancer and Immune Disorders
(PA-08-121) - R01
(PA-08-122) - R21
National Cancer Institute
Application Receipt Date(s): 6/5/08 - R01s, 6/16/08 - R21s
Funding: Typical R01/R21 guidelines: R01 up to 5 years, $250,000/yr. modular; R21 - up to $275,000 for 2 yrs.
This funding opportunity announcement issued by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) solicits grant applications from applicant organizations that propose to (a) identify and assess biological or biobehavioral interactions among two or more related and co-occurring symptoms; (b) characterize mechanisms and pathways underlying the symptom interactions; (c) elucidate the level of interaction necessary for categorization as a symptom cluster; and/or (d) design and test interventions targeted to interacting or clustered symptoms that are hypothesized to lead to beneficial patient outcomes. A rationale for the choice of symptoms is needed, not just co-occurrence of two or more symptoms. The symptoms must be associated with a target disease or syndrome, or the treatment of this disease or syndrome. Studies at any point in the disease trajectory, or during the survivorship period are encouraged.

Cancer Education Grants Program (R25)
(PAR-08-120)
National Cancer Institute
Application Receipt Date(s): May 25, 2008, Sept. 25, 2008
Funding:
This Funding Opportunity Announcement encourages applications for the development of: (i) innovative cancer education programs; and (ii) cancer research dissemination projects that can be completed within 5 years. Specifically, the types of Cancer Education Grant Programs (CEGPs) that may be supported include: (1) innovative educational programs intended to motivate biomedical and other health science students to pursue cancer related careers; (2) short courses to update cancer research scientists in new scientific methods, technologies and findings; (3) training of cancer care clinicians and community health care providers in evidence-based cancer prevention and control approaches; and (4) development of effective innovative education (dissemination) approaches to translate knowledge gained from science (discovery) into public health, and community applications (delivery).

Enhancing Tumoricidal Activity of Natural Killer (NK) Cells by Dietary Components for Cancer Prevention
(PA-08-131) - R01
(PA-08-132) - R21
National Cancer Institute
Application Receipt Date(s): NIH Mechanism Deadlines
Funding: Standard R01 and R21 limits apply
This NCI-sponsored Funding Opportunity Announcement promotes research to characterize the significance of dietary components in regulating the tumoricidal activity of natural killer (NK) cells for cancer prevention. Specifically, this FOA encourages studies that can establish the physiological significance of dietary components in modulating the tumoricidal activity of NK cells. Research projects proposed in response to this FOA should focus on defining the minimum quantity and duration of exposure to specific dietary components to modulate tumoricidal activity of NK cells for cancer prevention and the underlying mechanism(s) accounting for this response. 

Exploratory/Developmental Grant for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Studies of Humans (R21)
(PAR-08-135)
National Cancer Institute
Application Receipt Date(s): June 16, 2008
Funding: Up to $400,000 direct costs over 3 years (no more than $250,000 in any given year)

The NCI invites high quality exploratory/developmental clinical research grant applications that focus on CAM approaches related to cancer symptoms and side-effects of cancer treatment as well as survivorship. Applications related to bioactive food components in the domain of translational nutritional sciences should identify molecular targeting efficiencies of a single or a combination of nutrients and/or bioactive foods component(s) which could protect against the development of cancer. It is anticipated that these pilot R21 studies will generate supporting preliminary clinical data that can be used to support larger clinical studies.

April 1

2008 Ovarian Cancer Program Announcement
Department of Defense, Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs
Consortium Development Award
Deadlines: Pre-application Letter of Intent: June 25, 2008; full proposal: July 9, 2008
Funding: See program announcement
The Fiscal Year 2008 (FY08) Defense Appropriations Act provides $10 million to the Department of Defense Ovarian Cancer Research Program (OCRP) to support innovative research to eradicate ovarian cancer. This program is administered by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command through the Office of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP). Detailed descriptions of each of the funding mechanisms, evaluation criteria, and submission requirements can be found in the FY08 OCRP Program Announcements. Each Program Announcement is available electronically for downloading from the Grants.gov website (http://www.grants.gov), the CDMRP website (http://cdmrp.army.mil/funding/ocrp.htm) and the CDMRP eReceipt Website (https://cdmrp.org).

Defense Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program (PRMRP)
Department of Defense, Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs
Deadlines: Various
Funding: See individual program announcements.
The Fiscal Year 2008 (FY08) Defense Appropriations Act provides $50 million to the Department of Defense Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program (PRMRP) to support research that will make significant contributions in a number of research areas, including blood cancer, kidney cancer, mesothelioma, nutrition and health promotion and an additional $1 million for bone marrow failure disorder research.

2008 AHC Faculty Seed Grant Program
Apply now for one of 15 seed grants to fund faculty research. Up to 15 awards will be given with a maximum of $25,000 per project. These grants are designed to support new areas of research and to help develop innovative projects that will allow faculty to expand their research. Proposals from all areas of research within the AHC are welcome. The deadline for applications is April 4.