Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) - workshop to help prepare applications for their grants

The European Commission’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) support research training and career development focused on innovation skills. The programme funds worldwide and cross-sector mobility that implements excellent research in any field. There are MSCA grants for all stages of a researcher's career, from PhD candidates to highly experienced researchers.

This one-day workshop on November 24 2016 will provide detailed information on the eligibility and application criteria for the MSCA Individual Fellowships and the MSCA Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE). 

This workshop is open to researchers planning to apply to the 2017 Marie-Curie Individual Fellowship (IF) Call and the 2017 Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) Call.

MSCA Individual Fellowships

The Marie-Skłodowska Curie Actions (MSCA) International Individual Fellowship programme is a mobility research grant scheme that is open to post-doctoral researchers from all over the world. Any Experienced Researcher, from a recent PhD graduate to an emeritus professor, can apply for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship to be hosted at a research-performing organisation in Europe. Europe-based researchers can be hosted by research-performing organisation in ASEAN. This is one of Europe’s most competitive and prestigious awards. The generous annual budget includes funding for salary, mobility costs, research costs, and a contribution to the overhead costs of their host organisation. The next call for applications will open on 11 April 2017 with a deadline of 14 September 2017.  

Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE)

RISE aims at international and inter-sector collaboration through promoting research and innovation exchanges of staff.  RISE will support short-term mobility of research and innovation staff at all career levels, from the most junior (post-graduate) to the most senior (management), including administrative and technical staff. RISE offers an opportunity to expand and strengthen research networks, to share knowledge and skills, and to strengthen institutional links with Europe. The next call for application will open on 1 December 2016 with a deadline of 5 April 2017. 

Participation in the workshop is free of charge but registration is required. Participation is limited to 60 people only.

Register for the workshop here - https://europeanresearchdayasean2016.splashthat.com/ 

Date, time and location - Thursday,  November  24 2016, 8.30am – 6.00pm

Sofitel Hotel Sukumvit, Bangkok

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - Grand Challenges

Accelerate Development of New Therapies for Childhood Cryptosporidium Infection (Round 18)

Diarrhea caused by infection with Cryptosporidium species (primarily Cryptosporidium hominis or C. parvum) is becoming increasingly appreciated as a major contributor to diarrhea morbidity and mortality in children in the developing world.

This call is soliciting new tools and technologies that have potential i) to overcome the technical barriers in working with Cryptosporidium that have historically hampered progress, and ii) to improve our ability to develop and translate active compounds into effective therapies for treatment of pediatric cryptosporidiosis. 

The goal of this call is to develop broadly applicable approaches that can be used to accelerate development of therapeutic interventions, rather than to support the development of specific interventions themselves.

Examples of projects - 

• New methods for the identification and validation of drug targets in Cryptosporidium,as well as methods for interrogating validated targets within the context of whole cell phenotypic assays (e.g. target-based reporter assays);
• Novel methods for genetic manipulation of the Cryptosporidium genome, particularly those that allow regulated gene expression;
• Systematic approaches to explore opportunities for host-directed therapies, based on a rational understanding of parasite metabolism and parasite/host interactions;
• Validation of small animal disease models that are more tractable than the calf or gnotobiotic piglet, but which model human infection and disease (particularly valuable if immunocompetent and/or supportive of C. hominis infection);

Deadline - 9 November 2016 

Budget - Phase I grants will be for $100,000 USD for a grant period of 18 months. Phase I projects that show promise will be eligible to apply for follow-on funding, called "Phase II".

Eligibility - There is no geographical restriction for applicants. The foundation encourages scientists worldwide to submit their ideas. 

Full details - http://gcgh.grandchallenges.org/challenge/accelerate-development-new-therapies-childhood-cryptosporidium-infection-round-18

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - Grand Challenges

Design New Solutions to Data Integration for Malaria Elimination (Round 18) 

Despite the acknowledgement of the role of surveillance in malaria elimination, the full potential of available information communication technology (ICT), data systems, harmonization, analytics and visualization has not yet been effectively applied to the challenge of malaria elimination. 

The foundation is looking for proposals of innovative solutions for improving data availability and use in decision-making for malaria elimination that focus on innovation in interoperability: solutions that will reduce the time for data harmonization by automation or skill set simplification. 

The Foundation is especially interested in applicants and solutions that come from sectors beyond malaria, or even outside health. Solutions do not have to be brand new; they can be an existing method or tool used in another context repurposed and applied. 

Winning proposals should:

• Focus on simplicity of methods using routinely available data
• Explain the rationale for targeting specific countries or regions
• Describe approach for interoperability with country data systems including DHIS2
• Provide evidence that the activity is aligned to relevant national strategies on eHealth
• State the expected improvements over existing solutions, and how this will be evaluated
• Address cost of the solution and a description of how it can be brought to scale and be sustainable in the malaria-endemic developing world context
• Explain how the solution will strengthen existing health systems instead of building a parallel system
• If the solution involves building on or integrating a reporting system for additional disease areas, explain how it will strengthen malaria elimination decision-making

Deadline - 9 November 2016 

Budget - Phase I grants will be for $100,000 USD for a grant period of 18 months. Phase I projects that show promise will be eligible to apply for follow-on funding, called "Phase II".

Eligibility - There is no geographical restriction for applicants. The foundation encourages scientists worldwide to submit their ideas. 

Full details - http://gcgh.grandchallenges.org/challenge/design-new-solutions-data-integration-malaria-elimination-round-18

NLM Express Research Grants in Biomedical Informatics (R01)

Purpose and areas of focus 

• support for innovative research in biomedical informatics
• informatics problem areas in the application domains of health care, public health, basic biomedical research, bioinformatics, biological modeling, translational research and health information management in disasters
• informatics projects of interest to NLM involve the application of computer and information sciences concepts to information problems in a biomedical domain
• also supports research projects focused on biomedical (rather than informatics) research questions, but approached exclusively by novel or advanced informatics techniques applied to information and data produced by others.
• high priority on innovation in the research

Scope of NLM's research interests

• Information & knowledge processing
• Advanced information retrieval, knowledge discovery in databases, discovery mining, and other techniques for in silico discovery
• Incorporation of machine intelligence into decision tools and resources
• Modeling and presentation approaches to enhance decisions, learning or understanding
• Innovative approaches for ensuring accuracy, privacy and security of clinical and biomedical research data

Budget - $250,000 per year in direct costs.

Period - maximum project period is 4 years

Eligibility - Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Institutions) are eligible to apply.


Deadline - October 5th 2016 

Full details - http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-13-300.html 

Master's Scholarships at BRAC University, Bangladesh funded by TDR

TDR supports 7 universities from low- and middle-income countries to provide PhD and Masters degrees focused on implementation research in malaria, TB and neglected tropical diseases to improve health in those regions. 

The supported university for Asia is James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, Bangladesh. 

The scheme provides a full academic scholarship. Items covered by the scholarship include full time tuition and board, cost of dissertation research / field work, return air travel from home country to institution and contribution towards the purchase of essential textbooks / learning materials. 

How to apply

• Interested candidates must apply for admission into the postgraduate programme via the university website  -http://admissions.bracu.ac.bd/academia/admissionRequirement/getAdmissionRequirement/631736

• Applications and admission enquiries should be sent directly to the institution, TDR will not receive or process applications or enquiries about admissions

Full details 
http://www.who.int/tdr/capacity/strengthening/postgraduate/en/ 

The Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences

The Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences awards $100,000 to a promising  biomedical research researcher.  

• To apply you must be nominated by a colleague from an accredited institution.
• You need to have shown outstanding achievement in the field of biomedical research. 
• You must be under 52 years old as of January 1st 2017.

Application/nomination details

• No self-nominations will be accepted.
• Nomination materials must be in English
• Full details - http://fnih.org/what-we-do/current-lectures-awards-and-events/lurie-prize

What is needed

1. The candidate’s name, title, institution, birthdate, earned degrees, and contact information (mailing address, telephone number, e-mail address).
2. The nominator’s name, title, institution, earned degree(s), and contact information (mailing address, telephone number, e-mail address).
3. A 50 word citation of the basis for nomination.
4. A 250 word description of the candidate’s contributions
5. The candidate's curriculum vitae (CV) including no more than 10 citations of publications on which the nomination is based

How to apply

The nomination is online -https://www.grantrequest.com/SID_373/?SA=SNA&FID=35047  

Deadline - Wednesday, September 14, 2016,

Understanding Infectious Disease Dynamics With Mathematical Models, Statistical Methods, and Computational Tools

Public health administrators need new and improved methods and computational tools to better understand and respond to emerging and reemerging infectious diseases.

To help, NIAID has joined a long-running funding opportunity announcement (FOA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences that supports research to develop mathematical models, statistical methods, and computational tools to study interactions between infectious agents and their hosts, disease spread, prediction systems, and response strategies.

The strongest applications will approach this challenge from both sides—infectious disease research and mathematical/statistical model research.

Infectious disease research can focus on public health preparedness, surveillance and detection, disease dynamics, response strategies, antimicrobial resistance and vaccine escape, human social behavior, animals as vectors, and even virtual reality.

Your research should also focus on conceptual development of models, model verification and validation, and software dissemination to relevant public health communities. The software products you develop need to be fully documented and easy to access, modify, and extend. Additionally, the software packages should be interoperable, portable to a variety of common platforms, and consistent with existing ontologies and controlled vocabularies. You’ll need to test, verify, and maintain the products as well.

NIAID is especially interested in funding research to:

• Develop, validate, and implement mathematical and statistical models for transmitting naturally occurring infectious diseases and bioterrorism agents.
• Develop mathematical and statistical models to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions involving surveillance and containment, vaccination, antimicrobials, social distancing, and other control strategies for infectious diseases.
• Develop publicly accessible software and computational tools for the developed models and methods for studying infectious diseases that will assist public health decision makers.
• This FOA uses the R01 activity code, which means the maximum project period you can propose is five years. There is no budget cap, but make sure your application budget matches the needs of your proposed project.

Standard application due dates (including standard AIDS dates) apply. The next deadline for non-AIDS applications is October 5, 2016, and for AIDS applications it is September 7, 2016.

For complete details, read the February 22, 2016 Guide announcement. Also, check out the Models of Infectious Disease Agent StudyExternal Web Site Policy website to learn more about the program’s past outcomes and ongoing research.

NIAID’s scientific/research contact for this program is Dr. Misrak Gezmu. Contact her if you have questions about our participation in the program.

Preferred Name:	Dr Misrak Gezmu
E-mail:	misrak.gezmu@nih.gov
Location:	BG 5601FL RM 4B62 5601 FISHERS LN ROCKVILLE MD 20852
Mail Stop:	9820
Phone:	240-669-5232
Fax:	301-480-0912
IC:	NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)
Organization:	BIOSTATISTICS RESEARCH BRANCH (HNM93)