COVID-19 Funding Opportunities

The Office of the Vice Provost for Research (VPR) has compiled a list of funding opportunities specific to COVID-19. This list will be updated as new opportunities arise.

Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards

Internal Application Deadline: December 16, 2021

The Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards Program supports the research and teaching careers of talented young faculty in the chemical sciences. Based on institutional nomination, the program provides discretionary funding to faculty at an early stage in their careers. For more detailed information, visit the Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation website.

Eligibility & Requirements:

• Nominees must hold a full-time tenure-track academic appointment, and are normally expected to have been appointed no earlier than mid-year 2016.
  
• Awardees are from PhD granting departments in which scholarly research is a principle activity.
  
• The Foundation seeks Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholars who demonstrate leadership in research and education. Nominations must provide compelling evidence of the advance of important knowledge in the chemical sciences by the nominee. Further, the nomination should describe dedication and contributions to education in the chemical sciences, particularly with respect to undergraduates.
  

Internal Nomination Process:
Interested applicants should complete their application at the following link: https://jhu.infoready4.com/#competitionDetail/1855757.

Requirements are listed below.

1. A statement of the nominee's dedication to education in the chemical sciences (limited to two pages)
2. Summary description of the nominee's research accomplishments as an independent faculty member, and a description of research plans (limited to six pages; including references)
   
3. Curriculum Vitae of investigator, including current external research support and publications
   
4. Budget describing how award funds are to be used (one page maximum). Please note: defrayal of academic-year salary is not permitted. Funds are normally expended over a period of five years.
   

To apply: https://jhu.infoready4.com/#competitionDetail/1797876
Questions? Email the Office of Foundation Relations at FoundationRelations@jhu.edu

BOOST and PROPEL Awards

Application deadline: Monday, December 20, 2021 at 11:59 PM
Eligible: All Johns Hopkins University faculty
Grant Period: One year, with possible renewal

Program Overview:
BOOST and PROPEL awards are clinical research grants that will be accepted on a quarterly basis, that award Clinical Research Unit (CRU) resources such as research space including overnight beds, phlebotomy, specialized research nursing, and CRU-based imaging (i.e. DXA, CV core) to investigators, based on scientific merit. Research studies will be monitored by the Translational Research Evaluation Committee (TREC) for study-specific milestones.

The goal of the BOOST and PROPEL award is designed to accelerate meritorious protocols to produce efficient, high quality, safe and disseminatable research. PROPEL and BOOST awards are unique within the ICTR in that: 1) awards are for CRU resources, and 2) applicants undergo a rigorous, NIH-style, multidisciplinary review process via the TREC review committee. BOOST and PROPEL projects are monitored on a quarterly basis for attainment of milestones.

BOOST- For junior investigators, first-time R01 awardees, K awardees, and KL2 scholars to generate pilot data for a larger grant submission or to supplement research funds for the K project.

PROPEL- For established investigators who are performing early stage clinical trials, deep phenotyping studies, or studies that address Maryland health priorities. Propel can augment resources of a funded project or provide resources for small pilot and feasibility studies.

All investigators must submit an application to a Johns Hopkins Institutional Review Board (IRB) before beginning their BOOST/PROPEL application. The CRU must be selected as a study site by completing Section 9, questions and 10 on the eIRB application.

For complete details including application requirements, frequently asked questions, and application instructions, visit https://ictr.johnshopkins.edu/funding_opps/funding-opportunities/boost-and-propel-awards/.

Mary Kay Foundation Translational Research Grant

Internal Application Deadline: December 16, 2021

Opportunity Summary:
The Mary Kay Foundation, a funding source for cancer research, is currently accepting applications for innovative grants for translational research in ovarian, uterine, breast, or cervical cancer. Translational research is broadly defined as research that will provide a scientific link between laboratory research and the clinic. Ultimately, such research would lead to improvement in diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, or treatment of the cancer. The program will offer between ten to fifteen grants. Johns Hopkins may put forth one nominee. Please review more detailed information at the Mary Kay Foundation website.

Eligibility & Requirements:

• Principal Investigator must be a full-time Assistant, Associate or Full-time Professor
  
• Principal Investigator must have a faculty appointment in the School of Medicine
  

Internal Nomination Process:
Interested applicants should complete their application at the following link: https://jhu.infoready4.com/#competitionDetail/1855751.

Requirements are listed below.

1. Proposal (maximum of two pages of text only, single spaced: 12-pt font and one-inch margins) Note: figures, tables, and other reference material may be included in addition to the 2 pg. text limit
   
2. Biosketch of investigator, including current external research support and publications
   

To apply: https://jhu.infoready4.com/#competitionDetail/1855751
Questions? Email the Office of Foundation Relations at FoundationRelations@jhu.edu

Environmental Infectious Diseases and/or COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2 Grants

Application deadline: January 5, 2022

We are pleased to release the Request for Application for the 2022 Fisher Center Discovery Program (FCDP) grants, round 2. We are seeking proposals focusing on environmental infectious diseases and/or COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2. Visit the FCDP Website for the complete application instructions and form. Questions? Contact fishercenter@jhmi.edu

David and Lucile Packard Foundation: The Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering

Internal Application Deadline: January 27, 2022

The Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering program invests in future leaders who have the freedom to take risks, explore new frontiers in their fields of study, and follow uncharted paths that may lead to groundbreaking discoveries. Visit the Packard Foundation website for detailed information.

Eligibility & Requirements:

• Candidates must be faculty members who are eligible to serve as principal investigators engaged in research in the natural and physical sciences or engineering.
  • Disciplines that will be considered include physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, astronomy, computer science, earth science, ocean science, and all branches of engineering. Candidates engaged in research in the social sciences will not be considered.
    
  • Recognizing that certain areas have access to relatively generous funding (e.g. clinical research, research associated with large national facilities such as accelerators and space stations, and applied research of direct relevance to national security), the Packard Fellowships are directed to other, less generously supported fields.
    
• Candidates must be within the first three years of their faculty careers (initial faculty appointments began no earlier than May 31, 2019 and no later than May 31, 2022).
  

Internal Nomination Process:
The JHU internal selection requires:

1. A research statement describing why the proposed research is important, the five-year goals and how funds will generally be used (maximum of two pages of text, single-spaced, 12-pt font and 1-inch margins. Note: figures, tables, and other reference material may be included in addition to the two page text limit)
   
2. CV of nominee, including current external research support, educational background, publications, professional positions, honors and awards
   
3. A letter of recommendation from department chair
   
4. Four letters of recommendation from people outside of JHU (at least one recommendation must be from a person who has had no supervisory role with the nominee). Letters must be requested through the link below.
   

NOTE: The final selection at the national level is highly competitive. If possible, letters should be from well-established, well-regarded academics, or individuals well known within academia. They should focus on the nominee as a researcher and individual, rather than a specific project. They should comment on the creativity, originality, potential and unique skills of the candidate and be as effusive as possible. The Packard fellowship program targets people who can take risks, explore new frontiers in their fields of study, and follow uncharted paths that may lead to groundbreaking discoveries.

Applications must be submitted here.

We strongly encourage candidates to contact the Office of Foundations Relations to get some feedback on an application prior to submission: FoundationRelations@jhu.edu.

Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) Challenge

No application deadline

The Michael J. Fox Foundation is sponsoring a $2 million prize to the first team to develop a viable selective alpha-synuclein PET tracer and agree to make that tracer available broadly.

The ability to image alpha-synuclein deposition in the brain would be a game-changing achievement for the Parkinson's disease (PD) field. The accumulation of aggregated alpha-synuclein is a pathological hallmark of PD and a priority target for drug development given its hypothesized contribution to neurodegeneration. In vivo imaging of alpha-synuclein pathology could be useful as a biomarker of the presence of disease and disease progression and as a pharmacodynamic tool for drug development. With this prize, the Foundation seeks to attract research teams and accelerate momentum to speed the development of such a tracer.

Contestants: Anyone is eligible for the prize who agrees to all contest rules. Contestants may be MJFF funded or not and can be from either academia or industry.

Contest rules:

1. Contestants must apply for the prize with pre-clinical and clinical data supporting the broad use of their alpha-synuclein radiotracer. Judges may ask for additional data, including but not limited to raw imaging data.
   
2. NOTE: All contestants must agree to make the winning radiotracer available for use by The Michael J. Fox Foundation and MJFF awardees through a nonexclusive license or other MJFF-approved mechanism.
   

Criteria for winning: The winning contestant must demonstrate that the radiotracer binds with relatively high selectivity to alpha-synuclein according to pre-specified criteria and must demonstrate proof-of-concept in human subjects, including people with Parkinson's disease and/or another synucleinopathy. See below for more details on submission requirements.

Timeline: There is no deadline for submissions. The $2 million award will be issued to the first contestant who submits compelling evidence of a viable selective tracer and agrees to its widespread use.

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