Research Funding

NIH Extramural Loan repayment Program (LRP) Application Cycle Closes Next Month

Have you thought about applying for an NIH Extramural LRP award? Do you know someone who should? Help us share this valuable information with your colleagues!

Awardees can receive up to $100,000 of qualified educational debt repayment with a two-year award. The NIH LRPs are unique programs, with tremendous benefit to early career researchers.    

The application period to apply for an FY 2022 LRP award closes on November 18, 2021.  Be sure to visit our website to take advantage of our resources, and to learn more about eligibility requirements, application dates, and benefits of receiving an NIH LRP award!

If interested, visit the LRP Website for more information: https://www.lrp.nih.gov/oas-welcome

Nebraska EPSCoR – Early Career FIRST Award

Deadline for Pre-Proposals:  5 PM, Wednesday, July 7, 2021

Funded by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) infrastructure grant to Nebraska EPSCoR, the competitive FIRST Award grant program provides assistance to Nebraska’s early-career, tenure-track faculty. The grants are designed to help early career faculty initiate their research programs and compete more effectively for NSF CAREER grants. Any project that could be supported by a National Science Foundation competitive research grant is eligible.

Approximately six FIRST Award grants are awarded each year; the awards are limited to $25,000 each and require a one-for-one match. An assistant professor in a tenure-leading position in any of the the colleges or universities in the state is eligible to submit a pre-proposal. The faculty member must be in his or her first four years of initial academic appointment at the time of submittal. Any project that potentially could be supported by a NSF competitive research grant is eligible.

Phase one of the application process involves the submission of a short pre-proposal that will be reviewed by a panel comprised of members of Nebraska’s scientific community. Ten or fewer proposals are invited to advance to the final phase: the submission of a full, NSF CAREER-like proposal. Full proposals from these finalists will be evaluated using NSF proposal review criteria by external experts in the field. The Nebraska EPSCoR Committee will select FIRST Award recipients.

Grantees are required to submit a CAREER Award proposal to NSF within the next award period. Check Nebraska EPSCoR’s Requests for Proposals page for submission details, PDF of instructions, and to submit a pre-proposal online.

Foundation for a Smoke-free World Issues RFP for Research at Nexus of COVID-19, Smoking

Deadline: December 15, 2020

The Foundation for a Smoke-free World seeks to conduct research at the nexus of COVID-19, smoking, and nicotine that requires significant collaboration and research involving outside experts and organizations.

Selected organization(s) will be expected to implement a range of projects relevant to the global pandemic, including well-designed and comprehensive pre-clinical, clinical, and epidemiological studies, to better understand the associations between smoking and/or nicotine use, and COVID-19 infection and outcomes.

The spread of COVID-19 has demanded that governments around the world take unprecedented steps to protect their citizens. This has meant restricting the movement of hundreds of millions of people around the world in an effort to limit the transmission of the disease. The situation has created unique challenges for people who are dependent on nicotine, including smokers, nicotine replacement therapy users, and users of alternative nicotine delivery products. There is emerging evidence that both nicotine use and smoking status may have an impact on COVID-19 infection rates and hospitalizations, as well as disease severity and mortality.

The underrepresentation of smokers in the available COVID-19 patient data and potential selection and measurement biases within existing research outputs requires well-designed epidemiological studies in order to obtain clarity about the true nature and impact of the relationship(s) between COVID-19 and smoking and/or nicotine use. To address current knowledge gaps, this RFP seeks to accelerate research in the following areas: the impacts of tobacco and nicotine products on COVID-19 outcomes; opportunities for interventions aimed at preventing or reducing COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and disease progression; and/or interventions aimed at promoting healthier lifestyles (including but not restricted to nicotine use) in the wake of the pandemic.

To maximize the chances of getting results fast, the foundation seeks to undertake work in settings with sufficient COVID-19 cases and where smoking/nicotine use rates are in excess of 25 percent of the population for men or women. (The foundation will consider regions in which there are existing cohorts of smokers under observation for other reasons and where adding the above research plans are possible.)

Grants of up to $150,000 for scoping/pre-clinical studies, up to $250,000 for epidemiological studies, and up to $500,000 for clinical studies will be awarded. Recommended duration of the grant funding is up to three months for scoping/pre-clinical studies, three to six months for epidemiological studies, and up to twelve months for clinical studies.

The foundation encourages participation by groups whose work aligns with the foundation’s mission to eliminate smoking within a generation. These groups include institutions of higher education, nonprofits, commercial enterprises, governmental agencies, or other research-based organizations. Applicants should have a proven track record suitable for the area of research proposed. Previous research of tobacco and/or nicotine is appreciated but is not a requirement for funding. Successful applicants will likely have an interdisciplinary group of key personnel who can approach this project from their individual fields of expertise (e.g. epidemiologists, clinicians, behavioral economists, basic scientists, and public health specialists). The foundation expects successful applicants to conduct research and publish findings according to Open Science principles, including: declaring hypotheses and proposed analyses up front; making raw data available for analysis; publishing all results, whether positive or negative; and publishing in journals that offer open access.

Applicants should be aware that the foundation’s Initial funding came from Phillip Morris International (PMI). The foundation has nonprofit status under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and by law and policy must operate independently from PMI.

All interested parties should submit a detailed proposal for work to the foundation using its online application system. There is no page requirement for submissions, however the application form has links to three templates that must be fully completed for an application to be considered. Applicants will also have the option to upload additional relevant documentation.

The application portal will close at 6:00 p.m. EST on December 15, 2020. In order to capture studies that address various timeframes during the COVID-19 pandemic cycle, the foundation will review and evaluate submitted proposals monthly until closing.

For additional, and FAQ, and a link to the online portal, see the Foundation for a Smoke-free World website.

Link to complete RFP

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