Neglected Tropical Diseases Data Innovation Incubator (BMGF)

The Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supports global efforts to control, eliminate, and eradicate NTDs. The team focuses on seven of the ten London Declaration diseases, as well as on cross-cutting efforts to improve the quality and impact of NTD programs through a variety of levers, including data systems. Strengthening NTD data systems and ensuring use of quality data for programmatic decision-making at the country, regional, and global levels are priority components of these cross-cutting efforts.

National NTD programs rely on timely and quality data to make decisions throughout the duration of the program. The quality of these data ultimately depends on the systems, tools, and processes at the points-of-collection, collation, and analysis at sub-national and national levels. Many of the current data-related tools and approaches used by NTD programs are sub-optimal and hinder the ability of the national program to deliver. Specifically, a limited NTD data system can lead to an inaccurate understanding of program performance and reduced likelihood of achieving control and elimination goals. Moreover, poor quality country data and data systems introduces delay and inaccuracies in regional and global reporting, drug forecasting, and inefficient allocation of resources.

This Grand Challenge seeks innovative ideas for how to improve the quality, completeness, and timeliness of routine NTD data and ensure programmatic decision-making is based on the best available data. Such outcomes will help target interventions to all at-risk populations and achieve high intervention coverage and maximal impact on infection and morbidity.

Eligibility
Grand Challenges is open to both foreign and domestic organizations, including non-profit organizations, for- profit companies, international organizations, government agencies and academic institutions.

Award Budget
For Round 1, we are suggesting a maximum budget of $200,000 USD for up to 6 months of work. For Round 2, we have decided not to specify funding limits or expectations. The number of awards and quantity of each award amount will depend upon the quality of the proposals received.
Proposers are expected to develop a budget commensurate with the scope and scale of the work
necessary to achieve their detailed objectives; however, the objectives should be achievable within 12-18 months from onset of Round 2 funding.

Award Project Period
The Incubator funding will be structured in two rounds. Round 1 funding will support proof-of-concept testing of the proposed solution over 3 to 6 months. After this initial stage, we then expect to invite a subset of the most successful Round 1 grantees to apply for Round 2 funding to test their solutions more broadly over 12-18 months. As results from Round 2 would ultimately inform country scale-up, your proposal should identify the necessary conditions for its success

Deadline
Application Due Date: The application deadline for this RFP is March 25, 2019, at 11:30 a.m. U.S. Pacific Daylight Time, after which time applications will no longer be accepted.

Inquiries
Please direct all questions about this initiative, selection criteria or application instructions by e-mail to the following address: grandchallenges@gatesfoundation.org.

Full Details and Supporting Materials:

https://gcgh.grandchallenges.org/challenge/neglected-tropical-diseases-data-innovation-incubator

MMV 17th Call for proposals Drug Discovery Projects

17th Call for Proposals

Drug Discovery Projects

All applications for any of the below must use the specified templates and should be sent electronically to proposals@mmv.org by 10.00 AM (Bangkok time) Friday, 29 March 2019.

Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) welcomes proposals in the following three areas:


1. Compounds addressing the key priorities of the malaria eradication agenda

Novel families of molecules in the hit-to-lead or lead optimization stages are sought without G6PD deficiency liabilities that either:

kill or reactivate hypnozoites for use as part of a P. vivax radical cure; or  
have activity against sexual stage V gametocytes and evidence of transmission blocking in SMFA.

2. Compounds having activity against asexual liver and/or blood stages

Novel chemical series with EC50<500nM and which have one or more of the following key features:

A known, novel mechanism of action;
An inability to select resistant mutants in vitro;
Activity at more than one life-cycle stage;
A long half-life (ideally >4h in rodents) and confirmed in vivo efficacy.
For advanced series, we are seeking novel compounds with, ideally, a predicted human half-life >100h and a predicted oral single human dose <500mg or an i.m. dose that can be administered in <1mL and sufficient for up to 3 months’ protection in humans.

3. Novel approaches for screening

To help identify new phenotypic and/ or target based hits, as well as confirm activity of MMV compounds on all human malaria asexual blood stages, new screening proposals are sought amongst the three categories below:

Validated Plasmodium target-based assays, ideally with evidence of target essentiality beyond asexual blood stages.  Biological validation should be supported by a biological target based screening assay suited for identification of novel chemical series. 
Novel whole cell phenotypic screening paradigms to potentially identify new relevant chemistry.
Asexual blood stage assays for vivax and ovale malaria.
Please complete the 3-page Letter of Interest template.. Proposals involving a biological target should also include the target information template. See further instructions  on how to complete the LOI.


Compounds for Target Identification
MMV also welcomes requests for support to investigate the mechanism of action of compounds:

MMV is a founder member of the Malaria Drug Accelerator (MalDA).  MalDA, a consortium funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and led by Prof. Elizabeth Winzeler (UCSD), is working on a project to identify mechanisms of action of antimalarial compounds having phenotypic activity.  Compounds can be considered for such target identification activities provided that the following criteria are met:

• The Plasmodium whole cell EC50 <1uM and the chemical structure can be shared
• A minimum of 10mgs of compound can be provided to the consortium

A one page Excel template needs to be completed to submit a compound for target ID.

Full announcement- https://www.mmv.org/research-development/information-scientists/call-proposals/17th-call-proposals 

Novel approaches to understand, prevent, treat, and diagnose coccidioidomycosis & other select endemic fungal infections (NIH)

Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Numbers: PA-19-082

(R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Numbers: PA-19-083

(R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

Funding Opportunity Purpose

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement is to support research activities that will contribute to the overall understanding of coccidioidomycosis, commonly known as Valley Fever, and other select endemic fungal diseases including histoplasmosis and blastomycosis.  This research opportunity encourages studies that address diverse scientific areas such as: 1) pathogenesis; 2) host response; 3) disease transmission; 4) natural history and environmental factors contributing to disease; 5) vaccines; 6) diagnostics; and 7) therapeutics; with the ultimate goal of advancing the field towards solutions for the improved detection, prevention and treatment of select endemic mycoses.

Specific areas of research interest

Specific areas of research interest are focused on coccidioidomycosis, histoplasmosis and blastomycosis and include, but are not limited to: 

Improve understanding of biology, transmission and pathogenesis of infection:

• Improve understanding of pathogenesis
• Expand understanding of the pathogen life cycle, including the role of climate and geography, host factors, physical and environmental factors that contribute to disease
• Improve genotypic and phenotypic characterization associated with adverse clinical outcomes, and host immunity
• Expand understanding of speciation and impact on clinical outcome

Identify/characterize host responses required for protection:

• Determine the interaction of innate and adaptive immunity in response to infection
• Identify immune markers associated with reduced disease severity
• Elucidate mechanisms of protective immunity vs. those that ameliorate symptomatic disease

Support rational design of Coccidioides and other select endemic fungal pathogen vaccines:

• Identify immunogens that elicit broad protection
• Advance new vaccine approaches into preclinical models that exploit emerging antigen design strategies, novel technologies, and/or platforms
• Define mechanisms and correlates of vaccine-induced protection
• Test adjuvants and alternative delivery methods to enhance breadth and durability of immunity   
• Develop novel therapeutics to clear infection
• Identify biomarkers that could inform disease progression and contribute to rapid diagnostics

*This FOA will not support projects focused on HIV/AIDS.

Eligibility

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

Foreign (non-U.S.) institutions must follow policies described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, and procedures for foreign institutions.

Award Budget

PA-19-082

Application budgets are not limited but need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project.

PA-19-083

Direct costs are limited to $275,000 over a two-year project period, with no more than $200,000 in direct costs allowed in any single year.

Award Project Period

PA-19-082

The maximum project period is 5 years.

PA-19-083

The maximum project period is two years.   

Key Dates

PA-19-082

Open Date (Earliest Submission Date): January 05, 2019

PA-19-083

Open Date (Earliest Submission Date): January 16, 2019

Letter of Intent Due Date(s): N/A

*Applicants are encouraged to apply early to allow adequate time to make any corrections to errors found in the application during the submission process by the due date.

Expiration Date: January 8, 2022

Deadline

Application Due Date(s)

PA-19-082

The first standard application due date for this FOA is February 05, 2019.

Standard dates apply, by 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization. All types of non-AIDS applications allowed for this funding opportunity announcement are due on these dates.

PA-19-083

The first standard application due date for this FOA is February 16, 2019.

Standard dates apply, by 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization. All types of non-AIDS applications allowed for this funding opportunity announcement are due on these dates.

Full details: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-19-082.html

                     https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-19-083.html

Molecular and Genetic Characterization of Inborn Errors of Immunity (NIH)

Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Numbers: PAR-19-078

(R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Numbers: PAR-19-079

(R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

Funding Opportunity Purpose

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to advance the experimental validation and functional characterization of genetic variants in coding or non-coding genomic regions that result in inborn errors of immunity/primary immunodeficiency diseases and to elucidate the molecular, cellular, and immunological mechanisms of these disorders. Understanding the genetic basis of primary immunodeficiency disorders is essential for their diagnosis, prognosis, and the development of precision therapeutics.         

Research Objectives and Scope

Research areas supported by this FOA include, but are not limited to, the experimental validation and immunological characterization of:

• Single nucleotide variants (inherited or de novo) in coding or non-coding regions of the genome that cause inborn errors of immunity;
• Insertions or deletions (indels) in coding or non-coding regions of the genome that cause inborn errors of immunity;
• Digenic/polygenic mutations that cause inborn errors of immunity;
• Structural variations (large insertions or deletions, translocations, inversions, or copy-number variations) that cause inborn errors of immunity.

State-of-the-art technologies and approaches (e.g., iPSC technology, CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing, multi-omics such as transcriptomics, proteomics, epigenetics etc) used to accomplish the objectives of this FOA are strongly encouraged.

The prioritization of putative disease-causing variant(s) is expected to be finalized by the time applications are submitted. For the genetic variant(s) that are chosen to be investigated further according to the objectives of this FOA, preliminary data should be presented to support causality between the variant(s) and disease phenotype.

The clinical and laboratory phenotype of the patients should be well defined and relevant medical history should be available. Information about the patient cohort(s) or family pedigree(s) should be provided. For single patient studies, adherence to the guidelines established for genetic studies in single patients is strongly encouraged.

Utilization of relevant cell types isolated from the patient(s) and appropriate controls (e.g., unaffected family members, healthy subjects of the same ethnic origin etc.) are strongly encouraged for the delineation of the functional consequences of the mutations under investigation. If animal models are used to elucidate the mechanism of disease, a clear correlation between human and animal disease phenotypes should be established. In all cases, preliminary data should demonstrate that the genotype/phenotype correlation recapitulates the patient’s clinical disease.

Eligibility

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

Foreign (non-U.S.) institutions must follow policies described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, and procedures for foreign institutions.

Award Budget

PAR-19-078

Application budgets are not limited but need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project.

PAR-19-079

The combined budget for direct costs for the two-year project period may not exceed $275,000. No more than $200,000 may be requested in any single year.

Award Project Period

PAR-19-078

The total project period for an application submitted in response to this FOA may not exceed 5 years.       

PAR-19-079

The total project period for an application submitted in response to this FOA may not exceed 2 years.      

Key Dates

PAR-19-078

Open Date (Earliest Submission Date): January 04, 2019

PAR-19-079

Open Date (Earliest Submission Date): January 16, 2019

Letter of Intent Due Date(s): N/A

*Applicants are encouraged to apply early to allow adequate time to make any corrections to errors found in the application during the submission process by the due date.

Expiration Date: January 8, 2022

Deadline

Application Due Date(s)

PAR-19-078

The first standard application due date for this FOA is February 05, 2019.

Standard dates apply, by 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization. All types of non-AIDS applications allowed for this funding opportunity announcement are due on these dates.

PAR-19-079

The first standard application due date for this FOA is February 16, 2019.

Standard dates apply, by 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization. All types of non-AIDS applications allowed for this funding opportunity announcement are due on these dates.

Full details: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-19-078.html

                     https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-19-079.html

Advancing Development of Rapid Fungal Diagnostics (NIH)

Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Numbers: PA-19-080

(R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Numbers: 

PA-19-081

(R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

Funding Opportunity Purpose

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement is to support the development of rapid, sensitive, specific, simple, and cost-effective diagnostics for primary health-care settings (hospitals and point-of-care).

Specific areas of research interest

This FOA will support diagnostics research activities, including efforts to: 1) identify biomarkers of invasive fungal disease and/or determine antifungal susceptibility, 2) develop an assay to reliably demonstrate the presence or absence of novel biomarkers or determine drug sensitivities, 3) explore and assess strategies for optimizing sample type and/or sample volume, and develop or improve concentration or enrichment methods to support overall assay development in any novel diagnostic schema, 4) apply technological/methodological advancement strategies in both target identification and assay development, which may include approaches designed to substantially improve existing methods. Diagnostic approaches that detect one or more fungal pathogens and provide results more rapidly than current culture-dependent methods are strongly encouraged.

It is possible that a single target either from the pathogen or induced via the host’s response will be insufficient to provide the required sensitivity and specific early diagnostic capabilities.  Identification of multiple targets and development of a multiplex assay(s) may be required to distinguish between a fungal pathogen only colonizing a host verses causing active disease, as well as identifying the infectious agent.

Eligibility

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

Foreign (non-U.S.) institutions must follow policies described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, and procedures for foreign institutions.

Award Budget

PA-19-080

Application budgets are not limited but need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project.

PA-19-081

Direct costs are limited to $275,000 over a two-year project period, with no more than $200,000 in direct costs allowed in any single year

Award Project Period

PA-19-080

The maximum project period is 5 years.

PA-19-081

The maximum project period is two years.

Key Dates

PA-19-080

Open Date (Earliest Submission Date): January 05, 2019

PA-19-081

Open Date (Earliest Submission Date):January 16, 2019

Letter of Intent Due Date(s): N/A

*Applicants are encouraged to apply early to allow adequate time to make any corrections to errors found in the application during the submission process by the due date.

Expiration Date: January 8, 2022

Deadline

Application Due Date(s)

PA-19-080

The first standard application due date for this FOA is February 05, 2019.

Standard dates apply, by 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization. All types of non-AIDS applications allowed for this funding opportunity announcement are due on these dates.

PA-19-081

The first standard application due date for this FOA is February 16, 2019.

Standard dates apply, by 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization. All types of non-AIDS applications allowed for this funding opportunity announcement are due on these dates.

Full details: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-19-080.html

                     https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-19-081.html

Accelerating Malaria Vaccine Discovery (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) NIH

R01 Research Project Grant

Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Numbers: PA-19-077

Funding Opportunity Purpose

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to support early phase translational research that will generate new malaria vaccine candidates suitable for further downstream development and clinical evaluation.  This research opportunity encourages studies that will lead to discovery of new vaccine candidates that prevent infection, ameliorate disease, and/or interrupt transmission caused by human malaria parasites, especially P. falciparum and P. vivax.

Research Objectives

This FOA invites the research community to submit applications focused on early discovery of malaria vaccine candidates, including those targeting one or more of the different life cycle stages (i.e., pre-erythrocytic stage, blood stage, and/or sexual stage) of the parasites that cause human malaria, especially Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax. Research targeting vaccines that are broadly protective against multiple strains or species of the parasites and/or that provide long lasting efficacy, is also highly desirable. The goal is to identify and credential more protective antigens, and to generate new or improved immunogens and novel vaccine candidates for the global malaria vaccine development community to take further into development.

This FOA will support the identification, characterization, credentialing and validation of new protective antigens or vaccine candidates with appropriate assay systems or animal models. For purposes of this FOA, protective antigens or vaccine candidates should demonstrate appropriate functional characteristics, such as prevention of infection, amelioration of disease, interruption of transmission, or prevention of relapse, or other functional features when applicable.

Examples of research topics include, but are not limited to:

• Identification, characterization, credentialing and/or validation of novel protective antigens/peptides/epitopes;
• Discovery of new effective vaccines utilizing novel technology platforms, adjuvants, or vaccine strategies with either new or already known malaria antigens;
• Structure-based vaccine design and testing;
• Construction of novel attenuated whole organism-based antimalaria vaccines, especially late liver stage-arresting whole sporozoite vaccines, using genetic manipulation of Plasmodium parasites;
• Screening, testing, credentialing and/or validation of new vaccine candidates with novel assays or animal models.

Eligibility

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

Foreign (non-U.S.) institutions must follow policies described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, and procedures for foreign institutions.

Award Budget

Application budgets are not limited but need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project.

Award Project Period

The maximum project period is 5 years.

Key Dates

Open Date (Earliest Submission Date): January 05, 2019

Letter of Intent Due Date(s): N/A

*Applicants are encouraged to apply early to allow adequate time to make any corrections to errors found in the application during the submission process by the due date.

Expiration Date: January 8, 2022

Deadline

Application Due Date(s)

The first standard application due date for this FOA is February 05, 2019.

Standard dates apply, by 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization. All types of non-AIDS applications allowed for this funding opportunity announcement are due on these dates.

Full details: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-19-077.html

Secondary Analysis of Existing Datasets for Advancing Infectious Disease Research (NIH)

(R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

R21 Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant

Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Numbers: PA-19-068

Funding Opportunity Purpose

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to support projects that utilize open-access data, alone or in combination with other datasets, to address knowledge gaps in basic and/or clinical research in infectious diseases.  

Research Objectives

This primary objective of this FOA is to invite applications that seek to answer novel scientific questions by using data in the BRCs. Research projects may propose combining data from other data repositories, including private user-generated data but must use data in the BRC. Projects focused on influenza, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB), antimicrobial resistance and malaria are encouraged although projects based on other pathogens relevant to NIAID will be supported. Data, tools and other resources generated are expected to meet the FAIR principles and credit all contributors including data generators. Applicants are encouraged to contact the Scientific/Research staff listed below to ensure proposed projects are within the scope of this funding opportunity.

Eligibility

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

Foreign (non-U.S.) institutions must follow policies described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, and procedures for foreign institutions.

Award Budget

Direct costs are limited to $275,000 over a two-year project period, with no more than $200,000 in direct costs allowed in any single year.

Award Project Period

The maximum project period is 2 years.  

Key Dates

Open Date (Earliest Submission Date): January 16, 2019

Letter of Intent Due Date(s): N/A

*Applicants are encouraged to apply early to allow adequate time to make any corrections to errors found in the application during the submission process by the due date.

Expiration Date: January 8, 2022

Deadline
Application Due Date(s)

The first standard application due date for this FOA is February 16, 2019.

Standard dates apply, by 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization. All types of non-AIDS applications allowed for this funding opportunity announcement are due on these dates.

Full details: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-19-068.html