The USC Office for Research has announced the following institutionally-limited funding opportunities:

• NIH Director’s Early Independence Awards (DP5) – The NIH Common Fund is establishing the new NIH Director’s Early Independence Award  to provide a mechanism for exceptional, early career scientists to omit traditional post-doctoral training, and move into temporary, independent academic positions at U.S. institutions directly upon completion of their graduate degrees (Ph.D, M.D. or equivalent).  USC has two slots for this program; the NIH deadline for LoIs is December 21.  Please provide CVs and research summary by November 23.  

Please Note: Institutionally-limited funding opportunities are competitions for awards by outside agencies for which USC can nominate a limited number of candidates. Please contact Gigi Petrovich if you wish to be considered for an application. Please click here to learn about the internal selection process.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is now accepting Grand Challenges Explorations Round 6 proposals. The grant program is open to anyone from any discipline.  Initial grants of $100,000 are awarded two times a year, and successful projects have the opportunity to receive a follow-on grant of up to $1 million.  Please click here for more information and for a list of Round 6 topics.  A short two-page application is due by November 2, 2010 at 11:30 AM PST.

The A. P. Giannini Foundation invites promising young postdoctoral investigators in the early stages of their careers to apply to their Medical Research Fellowship Program. This prestigious and highly competitive program supports innovative medical research in the basic sciences and applied fields, with an emphasis on translation. The fellowship comes with a substantial stipend for up to three years to support work with mentors based at California medical schools.  Postdocs (MD or PhD) with no more than 3 years of postdoctoral experience are eligible to apply. Applicants must be US citizens or permanent residents. Please submit your complete application and CV to gpetrov@usc.edu  in the Office of Research Advancement by October 28, 2010.  All interested applicants will be forwarded to the Foundation through the Office of Research Advancement.  Click here for additional information.

The FY 2011 NSF STTR solicitation seeks to support university-small business partnerships in the area of "Digital Gaming in Education."  STTR awards fund university-small business partnerships, with the university receiving 30 to 60 percent of the funding.  The principal investigator must be employed by the small business.  NSF expects to make approximately 35 awards, each for $150,000 over one year.  Proposals are due Nov 17.  Click here for more information.

The LCRP Early Detection Clinical Consortium Award mechanism is being offered for the first time in FY10. The intent of the award is to fund clinical studies focused on characterizing, developing, and/or improving early detection modalities for lung cancer. All projects shall be limited to clinical research and clinical trials. Animal studies are excluded from consideration. Click here for more information.

The Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center (SCEHSC)  is accepting pilot project proposals. The SCEHSC will award one-year pilot projects to support investigators with the opportunity of collecting preliminary data to establish the feasibility of a research project and/or to validate the utility of specific procedures or techniques. The goal of this program is to advance environmental health research and to enable investigators to seek external (especially NIEHS) funding to pursue larger scale projects.  Budgets of up to $35,000 are appropriate, but under exceptional circumstances projects with larger budgets will be considered. A Letter of Intent is due on November, 29, and the full application is due on December 17. Click here for additional information

The International Clinical Research Fellows (ICRF) Program is a post-doctoral program for medical residents and fellows, as well as scientists with PhDs engaged in health-related post-doctoral programs. The Program is based on mentored clinical research and orientation towards global health and supports one-year of mentored clinical research only in a developing country setting. Both US and non-US candidates are eligible to apply, provided the non-US candidates propose to work with an pre approved site. The ICRF program is sponsored by the Fogarty International Center at the NIH and several collaborating NIH institutes and centers. For the first time, the application is now online, with a deadline of December 1, 2010 for fellowships to be conducted from July 2011 to June 2012. Please click here for more information.

The Center for Mental Health Services Research (CMHSR) at Washington University in St. Louis invites applications to the Implementation Research Institute (IRI). This week-long training institute is specially designed for MD/PHD graduate researchers who want to understand and pursue clinical translational research. Funded by a five-year R25 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health and the Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI) through the Department of Veterans Affairs, this unique interdisciplinary training program will help launch a research career in implementation science. Click here for more information.

NIH on Friday announced that proposal preparation costs will now be allowable as a direct charge for Mentored Career Development Awards. Read the new policy.

NIH on Friday also announced the publication of the revised NIH Grants Policy Statement (NIHGPS, rev. 10/1/2010). This revision is applicable to all NIH grants and cooperative agreements with budget periods beginning on or after October 1, 2010. This revision supersedes, in its entirety, the NIH Grants Policy Statement (12/03) as a standard term and condition of award. However, the December 2003 NIHGPS continues to be the standard term and condition for all NIH grants and cooperative agreements with budget periods that began between December 1, 2003 and September 30, 2010. This revision incorporates NIH policy changes since the December 2003 version, policy clarifications, public policy changes, terminology changes, new chapters, chapter revisions, reorganization of the document, as well as other document enhancements such as a new chapter numbering schema. A document summarizing significant changes is also being made available. Read the new statement.

Starting January 25, 2011, NIH, AHRQ and NIOSH will be eliminating the correction window from the application process.  This means that any application submitted after 5pm local time of the applicant organization will be subject to late policies.  View NOT-OD-10-123.

Starting January 25, 2011, NIH will implement a new time limit between the submission of a New, Renewal, or Revision¹ application and a Resubmission (A1 version) of that application.  The NIH will not accept a Resubmission that is submitted later than thirty-seven months after the receipt date of the initial New, Renewal, or Revision application. Applications must be submitted for the dates listed in the appropriate Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). For more information, please click here.

The Diabetes Research Center at USC Keck School of Medicine will be having a Mini-Symposium on Thursday, November 4, 2010, from 8:15 until 12:45 p.m.  Lunch will be provided.  The event will be hosted by Dr. Richard Bergman, Director of the Diabetes Research Center and will include plenary lectures by Dr. Ronald Krauss and Dr. Eve Van Cauter.  Dr. Krauss is Senior Scientist and Director of Atherosclerosis Research at Childrens Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) in Oakland Calfornia.  Dr. Van Cauter is Director of the Human Sleep and Chronobiology Research Unit at the University of Chicago.  There is no registration fee but please rsvp to ecamaren@usc.edu.

The November issue of Academic Medicine is now available on-line.  The issue contains a study on the tightening of NIH's intramural conflict-of-interest policies and a related commentary. Other articles focus on team-based training and learning, factors that create a humanistic doctor, performance on OSCEs, and the economic impact of primary care career decisions. Several articles from each issue are available free to non-subscribers. Read Current Issue

• Extramural Nexus (NIH Office of Extramural Research)
• National Postdoctoral Association POSTDOCket
• Academic Medicine Online
• Science Translational Medicine
• Science Magazine
  
  

• Weekly NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices
• Weekly Foundation RFP Bulletin
  

To download an event to your Outlook calendar, please click the relevant hyperlink and at the bottom of the new page choose 'export entry to V-calendar'.

For a comprehensive calendar displaying all research activities currently scheduled, please visit the online Calendar of Events.

Mon Nov 01
11:40 am-1:00 pm – Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center – Dr. Timothy V. Larson, Professor, College of Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of Washington, will present “Mobile Monitoring of Air Pollution: A Pacific Northwest Perspective”.  CHP 102, HSC. Info: (323) 442-1096 or dessie@usc.edu

12:00-1:00 pm – KSOM Research Seminar – Dr. Baruch Frenkel, Associate Professor, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Orthopedic Surgery, Institute for Genetic Medicine, will present “Roles of Runx2 in Bone, Cancer, and Sex Steroid Action”. Pizza will be served at 11:40am in the Atrium.  Aresty Auditorium, NRT-LG. HSC. Info: ResAdv@keck.usc.edu

Tue Nov 02
12:00-1:00 pm – Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center-Grand Rounds – Dr. Craig Nichols, Visiting Professor, Division of Medical Oncology, British Columbia Cancer Agency, "Old School" Personalized Therapy:  Evolution of Management of
Testicular Cancer”.   Refreshment will be served.  Aresty Auditorium, NRT-LG, HSC.  Info:  mowatt@usc.edu

Wed Nov 03
4:00-6:00 pm – Center for Excellence in Research Advancement Workshops for Faculty - Thomas Habinek, Professor, Classics, USC College, leads a Center for Excellence in Research workshop. D ue to limited space, RSVP is required at usccer@usc.edu. Credit Union Building, Room 329, UPC. 

Thur Nov 04
8:10 am-1:10 pm –The Diabetes Research Center Mini-Symposium – The event will be hosted by Dr. Richard Bergman, Director of the Diabetes Research Center and will include plenary lectures by Dr. Ronald Krauss and Dr. Eve Van Cauter. Dr. Krauss is Senior Scientist and Director of Atherosclerosis Research at Childrens Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) in Oakland Calfornia. Dr. Van Cauter is Director of the Human Sleep and Chronobiology Research Unit at the University of Chicago. No registration fee. Please rsvp to ecamaren@usc.edu. Lunch will be served. Herklotz Auditorium, ZNI, HSC.  View link for full details.

12:00-2:00 pm – Center for Excellence in Research Advancement Workshops –In this Center for Excellence workshop, Merril Silverstein explains what graduate students need to know about publishing. Due to limited space, RSVP is required at usccer@usc.edu. Lunch will be served. Credit Union Building, Room 329, UPC.

12:00-1:00 pm – Research Seminar Series – Dr.  Curtis Klaassen, University Distinguished Professor and Chair, Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics, Univ. of Kansas Medical Center, will present  “Regulation of Phase I and II Drug Metabolism and Transporters”.  Pizza will be served.  Hastings’ Auditorium-HMR Building, HSC.  Info:  (323) 442-1283

Fri Nov 05
11:40 am-1:00 pm – Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center – Dr. Lilian Calderón-Garcidueñas, Associate Professor, Dept. of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Montana, will present “An innocent bystander of air pollution: your child’s brain”.  NTT 4444-Topping Tower, HSC. Info: (323) 442-1096 or dessie@usc.edu

12:00-1:00 pm – KSOM Research Seminar – Dr. Michael I. Goran, Professor, Preventive Medicine (Division of Health Behavior Research) ; Physiology & Biophysics, KSOM, USC.  Pizza will be served at 11:40am in the Atrium.  Aresty Auditorium, NRT-LG. HSC. Info: ResAdv@keck.usc.edu

To keep up-to-date on available research funding opportunities, visit these institutions and organizations:

• The National Institutes of Health
• The National Science Foundation
• The Foundation Center
• California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
• Office of Research, University of Southern California
• Keck Office of Research Advancement
• Los Angeles Basin Clinical & Translational Science Institute
• Programs in Biomedical & Biological Sciences (PIBBS)
• Links to Professional Societies Promoting Biomedical Research