Research Funding

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.

UNMC Nebraska Neuroscience Alliance COVID-19 Rapid Response Grants

Deadline: Monday, May 18th (5 P.M. CST)
Funding Decisions: To be announced by Thursday, May 21st

Submission: Submit completed application to Doug Meigs (doug.meigs@unmc.edu). Direct questions to Dr. Howard Gendelman (hegendel@unmc.edu), Chairman, UNMC Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience.

Purpose: To immediately support groundbreaking, impactful research on the relationship between severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the central nervous system (CNS). Funding is available for UNMC interdisciplinary research teams working in basic science, epidemiology, natural history, and translational research to study neurological disease complications for individuals with the COVID-19 respiratory disease. CNS complications linked to laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection is often life threatening. Understanding neurological considerations for COVID-19 patients will improve differential diagnosis and best optimal clinical outcomes while facilitating prompt testing, isolation, and prevention of viral transmission.

Award Amounts/Budget: $80,000 is available from the Nebraska Neuroscience Alliance (NNA), endowed by the University of Nebraska Foundation. Funding must be commensurate with the work proposed. Leveraging other available funds, if possible, is encouraged; start-up, department, center and other such funds may be added/used. In order to share the available funds across multiple pilot studies, we ask investigators to request the smallest amount a study requires. We anticipate funding two pilot studies from the available $80,000 funding.

Eligibility: The Principal Investigator must be a full-time faculty member with primary academic appointment at UNMC. Team building is encouraged to assure necessary expertise.

Grant Duration: Up to 12 months (no extensions).

Eligible Expenses:

Requirements for Applications:

Funds are available for technical support, not Principal Investigator salary. Funds may support salary for research staff including trainees (but not faculty), University-based core and other support services, and supplies. Biostatistical analysis can be obtained through the College of Medicine’s Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with CCORDA (https://www.unmc.edu/publichealth/centers/ccorda/) and does not need to be budgeted.

Requirements for Applications:

This is an expedited application process. Please prepare a document (PDF or Word) as follows: minimum of 11-point font such as Arial, Helvetica, Times, or similar, with minimum 0.75” margins on all sides:

Pages 1 and 2: A two-page document including one or two Specific Aims (no more than two), Significance to COVID-19, any relevant Preliminary Data, and Research Plan. Any relevant figures

with legends can be placed on the optional Pages 4-5 below, in large enough format to enable viewing and reading (see below).

Page 3: A budget with justification, and statement on the qualifications of research team, emphasizing ability to carry out the proposed work. Indicate the source of other funds to be used if applicable.

Pages 4-5 (optional): Compliance, References, and Tables/Figures: The work must follow all institutional policies concerning human and/or animal subjects and safety. State if IRB, IACUC, or IBC is required with an explanation of prior approval or communication with the regulatory body on the timeline for approval. Indicate whether the work requires special facilities or equipment (e.g. BSL-2 or BSL-3 labs, Class II Biological Safety Cabinets) and if you have access to those facilities. Guidance can be found on the CDC website (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/lab/lab-biosafety-guidelines.html) and/or by contacting UNMC IBC (https://www.unmc.edu/ibc/). Proper compliance and time to initiate project is a criterion for review in this rapid response mechanism. Pages 4-5 may also include optional References and any relevant figures/tables. Please do not shrink display items or text to a small size, two items maximum.

Review Process: All complete applications will be submitted to three independent reviewers with two days to determine award recipients. Nebraska Neuroscience Alliance funds will be dispersed through the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience.

Selection Criteria will include:

  • High impact outcome – scientifically, clinically, and/or locally
  • Clear links to neurological disease and syndromes
  • Likelihood of leading to long-term research program with extramural support
  • Uniqueness – lack of others known to be applying this approach, or if so, unique skills so project can be done better/quicker
  • Feasibility and ability of the Principal Investigator and team to carry out the work

FPBCC and ACS Institutional Research Grant Seed Grant Program

The Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center is pleased to announce the availability of seed grant funds from its American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant. The ACS IRG is a block grant that allows the Buffett Cancer Center to make smaller awards to beginning independent investigators in all areas of cancer research.

One-year seed grants of up to $50,000 are available. This seed grant program is intended to support junior faculty in initiating cancer research projects, so they can generate preliminary results that will allow them to compete successfully for national funding. Eligible investigators include those within six years of their first independent faculty appointment, who do not currently hold research grant support from national funding agencies.

Proposals must be prepared using the application template provided, and emailed as a single, complete PDF to buffettcancercenter@unmc.edu. The deadline to submit applications is 11:59 pm CT on Friday, April 17, 2020. Complete proposal eligibility requirements, guidelines, and instructions are included in the RFA available at: https://unmc.edu/cancercenter/research/research-funding-opp.html